I know I’m a bit late on this, but did anyone else have a “WTF?” moment when they saw Tyler Perry in Star Trek?  That was one of the most bizarre castings I can think of in recent memory.

The role was basically a throw-away role, but I’m amused by the idea that most white people were blissfully unaware of how odd the casting was.  I’ll bet the vast majority of the Star Trek audience had NO CLUE that the Commander of Star Fleet moonlights in drag. Were I not an unrepentant hometown booster, I’d have no clue who Tyler Perry is.

I mean, things came off fine.  Perry said his lines and the movie kept on goin’.  I was the only person looking around the theater like a mad-man, trying to figure out if anyone else’s brain was about to explode by the incongruity of it all.  It reminds me of when I saw Domino and Tom Waits came driving on screen.  I was freaking out like, “woah, that’s Tom Waits!  He’s so WEIRD!  But awesome, too!” and my friends were like, “huh? STFU”.

Incidentally, I used to work for a company that leased some property to Tyler Perry for a weekend so they could stage production for The Family That Preys.  I got paid to sit around and watch supervise the property.  Making movies is a lot more boring that I expected.  Most folks sat around for a while, chatting and eating stuff, while a few people worked to set up the scene. I fit right in!

Then everyone would be quite and SOMETHING WOULD HAPPEN for 45 seconds.  The scene was done, and then have to reset for another take ten minutes later.  Perry would come out of his trailer (he’s really tall), take a look at the video playback, and go back into his trailer.

SNOOZE.

Still, I got paid, yo, and all the folks on the crew were really nice.