Tyler Perry on 2020 presidential election, backing Joe Biden: 'We need to make a change'
Tyler Perry is making his stance on the 2020 presidential election clear in his latest interview, explaining why he believes it's important to vote and endorsing candidate Joe Biden.
While speaking to Variety in an interview published Wednesday, the actor, filmmaker and recent billionaire, 51, said why he's backing the former vice president.
“If you want more of the same, then you vote the way that you did in 2016,” he said. “If you want something different, then we need to have a landslide out voting for Joe Biden.”
Perry explained that his son, 5-year-old Aman, is part of what influenced his outlook.
“If it were just me, I could step back and maybe have a different opinion,” he said. “But I want him to be able to go to the national parks and they’re not drilling inside of them, to be able to turn on a debate and see two men stand professionally, giving each other the respect to finish their two minutes that they’re allotted and not talking over and screaming at each other.”
And while he avoided party affiliation, he strongly encouraged voting.
“I really, truly don’t want to get political. What I want people to do is vote because everybody has very strong opinions about this. As do I,” he explained. “I have very, very strong feelings about the current administration. I have very strong feelings about a lot that’s going on. But I’m neither Democrat (nor) Republican — I’m an independent thinker. I vote for who I think is best to run the country.”
He continued, "The great thing about a democracy is every four years, you have an opportunity to make a change, and I’m hoping that there are enough decent people who are seeing that we need to make a change.”
The wide-ranging interview went beyond politics as well, including Perry's relationship with Spike Lee. Lee seemed to take aim at Perry in a 2009 interview, saying his films "harken back to Amos n' Andy." Perry struck back later, saying in an interview that he was "so sick of hearing about damn Spike Lee. Spike can go straight to hell! You can print that. I am sick of him talking about me, I am sick of him saying, 'this is a coon, this is a buffoon,' " he added.
“If any criticisms stung, it would have been his, because I had so much respect and admiration for him,” Perry said. “People’s opinions are their opinions, but that doesn’t negate the fact of the work that he’s done."
He also said that Lee went to Atlanta to meet with Perry and smooth things over.
“I opened the door. I said, ‘Come in here, so I can beat your (expletive),’” Perry laughed. “And (Lee) said, ‘Fair enough.’ And we sat and we had a conversation. … He laid out his views and his opinions, which I respected. And he heard mine, and he respected them. So we can both exist in the same world with very different views and opinions and still respect each other.”
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tyler Perry endorses Joe Biden, talks 2020 presidential election
