Loni Love Urges Tyler Perry To Hire Black Writers, Directors To Improve Movies After 'Divorce In The Black' Poor Ratings
Loni Love, a comedian and TV host, shared her thoughts after Tyler Perry's film "Divorce in the Black" got poor ratings.
Perry's thriller-drama was released last week. The film received a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a 72% audience score as of writing. Several praised Meagan Good and Cory Hardrict's acting, but they were not satisfied with the plot. This prompted Love to share unsolicited advice with Perry, who wrote, directed and produced the movie.
"I love that Tyler is paying Black actors [but] now I wish he would hire Black writers and directors that have experience to help him with his movies... He could improve the movies & make them award-worthy if he would stop trying to save money by doing the writing and directing himself," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
A number of netizens agreed with Love. For them, there are better writers whose work deserves to see the light of day and get featured in a movie or TV show.
"He definitely needs help. These movies belong [to] Tubi. With all the studios he built, there is no reason Black Fantasy movies...Black Thrillers...Espionage, etc., aren't a part of his catalog. Tyler deserves all the praise, but he needs to be stopped and arrested in the name of Jesus. Respectfully," one commented. "There are Black Authors out there with stories with some depth that should be brought to life."
"Black folks spare no expense when it comes to audacity [crying face emoji] that man don't [sic] have to do a damn thing! It's the entitlement for me," a second person opined.
Some also defended Perry. One said he is "successful doing it his way," and those complaining were "like asking Oreo to change the flavor cause you don't like the taste."
"We are all entitled to our opinions. However, has it been considered Tyler is doing just fine at #1 with the current movie, others' definition of 'award-worthy' is not his goal or angle, & the respectful manner in which he pays actors/actresses is," another wrote.
Social media users shared mixed opinions about the film on Instagram after it was reported that it received a 0% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. A number said it was "horrible," but many said they liked it and found the film "good."
Perry admitted in 2020 in a video uploaded on Instagram that he had no writers' room. According to him, he writes all of his TV shows without any assistance.
"I don't know if you know this, but all shows on television have a writers' room, and most of the time, there are 10 people, 12, whatever that write on these television shows," Perry explained. "I have no writers' room. Nobody writes any of my work. I write it all."
"I wrote all of these scripts by myself in 2019," he added as the camera panned across the stack of scripts, including "The Haves and the Haves Not," "The Oval," "Sistas" and more. "What's my point? Work ethic!"
