Explore Tyler Perry signs expansion deal with Netflix to include TV series for the first time in early 2024
In a letter to the AJC, Perry said he wrote of Kimmy as “incredibly strong yet vulnerable.” Taylor is great at developing characters with such arcs. ”
In fact, Kimmy begins the series in dire straits. At the age of 17, she was kicked out of her home by her mother and became involved in a failed drug deal. To escape prison, pimp Jules (Charles Malik Whitfield) forces her and her best friend Rayne (Amber Rayne Smith) into long-term forced labor, including stripping and prostitution. Kimmy naturally wants to enjoy her life more.
Luckily, one of her customers is Roy (Julian Houghton), the unfaithful husband of Mallory (Crystal Stewart), the passionate CEO of Beauty in Black, a major beauty products company. He will do anything to protect his family’s reputation. Kimmy ends up helping a strip club customer, Horace Bellary (Ricco Ross), who happens to be the co-founder of Beauty in Black.
Credit: Calvin Ashford/NETFLIX
Credit: Calvin Ashford/NETFLIX
Williams, who has previously appeared on FX’s “Snowfall” and the CW’s “All American: Homecoming,” said she felt “absolutely scared” to play opposite Kimmy during the audition process.
Perry told her that if she wanted to be Angela Bassett, she had to trust him.
“You get to see Kimmy grow in power and strength,” Williams said over the course of 16 episodes. “It’s gritty. It’s raw. As an actor, it’s your playground to have your character do a 180-degree performance from bottom to top.”
Williams said Kimmy is “seeking revenge. Or is she just restoring justice? She’s someone you want to see win.”
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho
The series was shot in just 16 days and was created in classic Perry fashion. Half of the scenes were shot outside of Tyler Perry Studios, including a local Walmart, the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta, and the actual strip club Peaches.
“There’s a lot of running around and a lot of action,” she said. “There are multiple car explosions!”
And the pace of the production is very similar to a play, Williams said. “You have to be ready at all times,” she said. “There were 34 scenes the first day, and I was in 31 of them.” By comparison, a standard TV show might shoot four to five scenes in a day.
Perry said that because they shot the scenes out of order, they used a master script from all 16 episodes and had to pivot quickly to get a sense of how the characters were thinking at the time. “I was able to prepare for each day’s scenes by playing jazz music and filling out the entire Bible script in front of me.”
At the same time, Williams said she didn’t feel rushed. “It’s a great environment and a well-oiled machine,” she said. “He’s very efficient and fast. You have to trust him.”
Before the media screening of the first two episodes of Beauty in Black on October 21st at the IPIC Cinema in Midtown Atlanta’s Colony Square, Perry described the show as “the one that drives me crazy.” That’s how it happened,” he explained. This is a show that I’m writing, and I just wanted to let go and let these crazy people live in my head and tell the story. ”
Credit: Johnny Marlowe
Credit: Johnny Marlowe
He also said it’s a responsibility and a privilege to give young actors like Williams a chance to shine. “You can’t take advantage of that,” he said. “You can’t sleep thinking about it. They come to you with dreams in your hands.”
For Williams, a Houston native, this is a dream come true. Just a few years ago, she was a student at Clark Atlanta University, just a few miles from Tyler Perry Studios.
At the time, she thought she might be able to work with Perry someday, but had no idea how to get there. “My first starring role in a TV series with a major studio like Netflix is beyond what I thought at the time,” she said.
When I was watching
‘Beauty in Black’ is available to all Netflix subscribers
