‘Maxine’s Baby’ Sheds Light on Tyler Perry’s Turbulent Upbringing, Paternal Revelation, and Triumph Over Trauma

Tyler Perry, the actor and businessman we know and love, has finally premiered his long-awaited documentary ‘Maxine’s Baby’ on Amazon Prime.

Directed by Armani Oritz and Gelila Bekele, the latter being Perry’s son’s mother, the documentary serves as a heartfelt tribute to Perry’s late mother, Willie Maxine Perry, who departed in December 2009. A poignant revelation unfolds within the documentary as Tyler Perry discloses that the man he considered his father during his formative years is not his biological parent.

Throughout the Prime visual, viewers get an inside look at Tyler’s journey from the very beginning, his childhood. Perry opens up about his upbringing, recounting it as a challenging mix of emotional and physical abuse, primarily inflicted by his father, Emmitt Perry Sr. The narrative unfolds as Emmitt crossed paths with Tyler’s mother at the young age of 16, expressing promises of stability and a more refined lifestyle. Smooth with his words, this led Maxine and Emmitt to tie the knot and move to Louisiana. Once the pair married, it was later revealed that the smooth talk Emmitt professed was just that. None of what he said came to pass, which led to living a married-while-poor lifestyle and raising three kids.

Tyler, born Emmitt Perry Jr., had not only experienced the abuse from his father but also witnessed his mom being both physically and verbally abused. In the documentary, the filmmaker reveals that he eventually changed his name to Tyler, distancing himself from the painful past. He also questioned why his mother stayed married to his dad for as long as she did.

Now streaming on @PrimeVideo ! 
I hope it inspires you. pic.twitter.com/2Jc0EOG8VN

— Tyler Perry (@tylerperry) November 17, 2023

“Her mother died when she was thirteen,” Tyler shared regarding his mom. “This man [Emmitt] married her when she was 17. She knew nothing about the world, she knew nothing about life, and all that she was taught was that if he paid the bills, you had a good man. She stayed in what she knew. Having my sister at 18, my other sister at 19 and me at 24 [and] here we are, she’s a black woman in Louisiana with three kids, what does she do?” Tyler asked rhetorically. “For work, to support us, what does she do? She stayed. I have absolutely no judgment for her because of the pain and hell she went through herself, just to survive and keep the peace. On top of all that, she loved him. Don’t know how and I don’t know why, but I knew she did. She loved him until the day she died.”

In the documentary, we experience one of Tyler’s cousins, Lucky Johnson, who expressed how his uncle Emmitt would give Tyler excessive beatings than the others. Lucky had described one situation when his mother pulled a gun and almost shot Emmitt when Tyler, at the age of 8, ran to their house with blood and welts all over his back. There was another incident, which Tyler illustrated to Oprah in a former interview, of when his dad was beating him that he held onto a chained fence so tightly that his hands became bloody. In spite of the abuse and harsh reality Tyler faced growing up with a broken family, he expressed that it was these situations that allowed him to create a new, bright and beautiful world in his mind.

“I would go in my mind into a different place,” Tyler expressed. “One of my places of escape was this yard. You could see birds, trees, fields, and hear people having conversations. I could see their houses and their cars in the tiniest details to the outlet on the wall, [and] what was plugged into it. Steam from the coffee. I could see all these things in my head. The world was so vivid, so beautiful and so clear. That place that I thought was safe and peaceful really existed and I got there.”

Toward the end of the documentary, Lucky can be seen trying to talk to his Uncle Emmitt and get his side of the story, but responding aggressively, Emmitt drives off. In Tyler’s success, despite the trauma he faced while younger with Emmitt Sr., he still sends him money to support himself. Tyler admits even though Emmitt wasn’t a good man or a good father to him, he has an amazing work ethic and expresses it is he from whom he gets his drive.

Maxine’s Baby is now streaming on Prime.