Jill Scott Exposes Drastic Conditions Tyler Perry Put Her Through While Filming to Get Her ‘Raw Emotion’
In his earlier movies, filmmaker Tyler Perry has created some of the most memorable and iconic scenes like the heated dinner in 2007’s “Why Did I Get Married?,” where every character’s secrets and betrayals are shared amongst a group of married friends.
Singer and actress Jill Scott played a plus-size married woman named Sheila. In the film, she is married to a verbally and physically abusive man named Mike, played by Richard T. Jones, who often jokes about her weight and cheats on her with a thinner woman, who happens to be Sheila’s best friend.
Ahead of the third film, Scott boldly told the truth about her experience working on set with Perry the first time.
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On Jan. 8, Scott spoke candidly on “Angie Martinez IRL Podcast” about her discomfort with the level of humiliation her character endured while filming.
“I didn’t like how much people will make fun of her. I didn’t. I didn’t like that,” Scott told host Angie Martinez.
She then opened up about one of the most unforgettable scenes, where Sheila and Mike board a plane headed to meet their other married friends in Colorado for a couples retreat at a cabin.
I’ll never forgive Tyler Perry for the treatment of Jill Scott 💀💀💀 pic.twitter.com/IE98emBVR2
— Laura- destiny (@dxstinyy00) July 8, 2020
Despite being thrilled, a flight attendant tells Scott’s character Sheila that she must buy a second seat because of her size, after a man sitting next to her complained he had no room.
Sheila’s husband Mike then not only belittles her further, he also encourages her to drive alone to Colorado — after offering money for gas — while he stayed on the flight with Sheila’s thinnier friend.
“I remember the scene on the plane and man,” Scott told Martinez. “The scene on the plane, Tyler had extras make fun of me when I got on the plane.”
Martinez responded in shock, “What?”
“They were just going back and forth making jokes about Sheila’s weight, and obviously you know, I had on a whole fat suit and it was cumbersome,” Scott continued. “So the walk was genuine and the sitting down was genuine and all the things and then I practiced in it quite a bit so that it felt genuine to the character. But the folks on the flight really went in on fat jokes and it sucked. It really hurt.”
Martinez asked if she was aware that the extras were going to make her the butt of jokes, to which Scott responded, “No, I did not.”
“That’s like abuse a little bit,” said Martinez.
“I felt like it was,” Scott said before looking into the camera to address Perry, saying, “Sorry, Tyler. I hated that sh-t. Um, but I sincerely hated it. Um, they were just going at me.”
After Martinez asked if she spoke to Perry about it, Scott confirmed that she recalls bringing it up to him maybe “once or twice.” Then she decided to change her mindset.
She said, “Um, and that’s when I decided too, that I was a woman who comes from a family of Amazons – my mother is 6-1. I’m the runt of my family, OK? Everybody is tall. I decided that, I am not fat, but I have some.”
After a brief pause, Scott continued, “And it made me feel better. And that’s how I move through my life. You’re not going to define me as a thing. I’m multicolored. I’m multi-dimensional. Like I said, I’m soft and I’m strong. I’m a whole human being out here, who comes from some pretty dark places like in North Philadelphia. And some pretty beautiful places like North Philadelphia.”
She further explained there’s a lot that goes into a person or characters just like Sheila, adding, “There’s other parts of Sheila that luckily Sheriff Troy saw and they began their life together.”
In the latter half of “Why Did I Get Married,” Sheila dropped some serious weight and got remarried to Troy, the local Sheriff who helped in her healing after Mike. He came to her assistance when she got stuck in the snow after driving to the cabin retreat, offering food and shelter courtesy of a jail cell.
Fans on The Neighborhood Talk reacted with mixed feelings about Perry’s methods to make the scene as realistic as possible.
One person understood Perry’s point but didn’t necessarily agree with his approach said, “He wanted real raw emotion, that was a cruel way of doing that tho.”
Another fan who did not feel as badly for Scott wrote, “Cry me a river, you should’ve not taken the part. They made fun of Sheila, not you.”
Someone else who seemed team Tyler in that scenario wrote, “He wanted authentic emotions from her. If she doesn’t feel fat ‘as she said’ she’s not going to give a raw reaction to the criticism. He forced her into character.”
On the brighter side, it seems Scott didn’t take it that personally, as she reprised her role for the “Why Did I Get Married Too” sequel film in 2010. She and Perry have been working together more recently for the third installment of the franchise, titled, “Why Did I Get Married Again,” with Taraji P. Henson joining the cast. Janet Jackson’s role however appears to still be hanging in the balance.
Perry has yet to respond to Scott’s recent claims about what happened on set.
