tonight. we thank you for being with us. please join us here tomorrow evening. evening. good night from sussex. harvey levin: the objects people choose to keep in their home define who they are. this is... this is fantastic. harvey: i'm harvey levin. this is a story about a poor, abused child who became one of the richest, most influential people in entertainment. at one point things got so bad you attempted suicide. - mm-hmm. - did you give up on god at that point? but the abuse tyler perry suffered at the hands of his father never shook his faith in god. what did you pray for? mm. his death. harvey: persistence, talent, and luck propelled tyler to success on stage, but studio heads thought he'd never make it in movies. "black people go to church, don't go to movies,"

as one executive told me. harvey: tyler proved everyone wrong. he now runs an empire so big it even impresses oprah. the own deal is about to expire. was it difficult to break from oprah? tyler perry, the man who beat impossible odds with faith, perseverance, and a little luck. - hey, man. - tyler. - how you doing? - it is so good seeing you. thank you so much for doing this. are you kidding me? absolutely, man. for you? - by the way... - yeah. - this house is amazing. amazing. - thank you, thank you. - harvey: can we get started? let's do it. - tyler: yeah, let's do it. i want to learn about your life through objects you've chosen to keep. what's that? this is my original birth certificate. i still to this day don't know my actual birthdate. i thought it-- wait a minute. you crossed it out. tyler: my mother says it's the 14th, but the birth certificate says it's the 13th, so i just celebrate both days. i notice something else. can we sit?

yeah, yeah. - it says your name is emmitt. - yeah, yeah. - harvey: did you change your name? - tyler: i did. emmitt is emmitt perry, sr., my mother's husband, and the man i thought was my father for 40 years-- was a man who was, at the time, quite abusive. and every time i'd hear his name in the house, it was synonymous with pain. my mother screaming, "emmitt, stop! emmitt, don't! emmitt, emmitt, emmitt." so i didn't want to carry that name. harvey: when did you change it? tyler: i was about 16 years old and somebody asked me what my name was, and i said tyler. i don't know where it came from. - harvey: just the air. - tyler: just the air, yeah. so i said tyler, and it stuck. everything i've read was just a hellish childhood. - mm-hmm. - he made your life hell. - beat you badly. - mm-hmm. he had this distinct disdain for me. and i think he knows i'm not his child. i think he's always known that. and that was the disdain. i think so, i think so. so what he blamed on her, he took out on you.

absolutely. and once i got more information about who he was, what he had been through, i couldn't excuse it, but i could forgive it because it was too painful for me to hold on to anymore. and to this day, i still take care of him. he lives very well, and gets a check every month, and he's taken care of. did he ever say, "i'm sorry"? i don't think so. i don't think so. if he has, it may have been in the heat of something and i don't remember it. but that's okay. but that's okay. what is important to me is that he's given to me-- now, we don't have much of a relationship, but i'm giving to him more than he was able to give to me. you also suffered sexual abuse from four people. how do you cope with beating, sexual abuse, bullying? i mean, it's too much for a kid. that's the thing that my mother gave me. she didn't have millions of dollars. she didn't have some great legacy. she wasn't a highly educated woman,

but she taught me about faith. every sunday she would take me to church to-- the ability to go and pray and believe that things would get better. i wouldn't have been able to make it, number one, without my faith, but secondly, i was given a gift in all of this that i still have today that i didn't know was a gift. and some people, when this happens to them, they can't come back from it. but i'm able to disassociate. when things were happening, i could leave myself, in my head, literally leave myself and be somewhere in a perfect place running in the grass. which is really interesting because it gave you - an imagination by necessity... - right. which may have helped you later in life in your career. absolutely. that's what i mean, all things working together for the good. and i wanted to use my childhood to let each and everybody know that no matter-- you can be born into a whole lot of a nightmare, but you can-- god can usher you into a dream. and so, god bless you, and thank you so much for this. i really appreciate it. so you said you prayed a lot.

what did you pray for? hmm. his death, which is horrible to say, but i prayed for that as a kid, just being so angry about it. i prayed for my mother to leave him, to be stronger, to be okay. those are the things that i prayed for then, not knowing, but, you know, those are the prayers of an angry child. god didn't answer your prayers. thank god, yeah. thank god. what were your dreams in the middle of all of this? what were you dreaming for yourself? i always had flashes of a light saying, "you're going to be okay. you're going to be okay." when i'd hear all the horrible things in this ear, there was always in this ear what i believed to be the voice of god saying, "you're gonna be okay. everything's gonna be okay." harvey: your mom was kind of a hero with you, wasn't she? - tyler: oh, yeah. oh, yeah. - harvey: in the throes of being beaten herself. - tyler: yeah. yeah. - harvey: watching you get beaten. tyler: and trying to protect me, throwing herself in front of me trying to protect me, just the amount of love she gave. she is my hero and always will be.

this is the very first ticket - to my first play in 1993. - '92? tyler: this actually is 1993. so this is at the 14th street playhouse in atlanta. first ticket from the play, $12. this is when i thought all those people would show up. 30 people came. i knew everybody. - aww. and you put a lot of money in it. - yeah. lost-- well, yeah, for me, who didn't have any money, yeah. yeah. so, you dropped out of high school. - mm-hmm. - and then you decide that you are going to write plays. that's an audacious thing for a poor, abused dropout. how did you kind of muster the confidence to do something like that? you know what? it didn't happen that way for me. it was-- it was-- when i left school, i started writing letters to myself, you know, about things that i had been through. i was writing all these letters. and if somebody had found it, 'cause they were all written longhand, i didn't want them to know i had been through those things,

so i was using a different character's name. and a friend of mine found 'em, he goes, "man, this is a really good play." i thought, "hmm, maybe that's what it is." so i started trying to go see plays, but i had no money, so i would sneak into the saenger theater at all of these shows that were coming to town. but i would wait until intermission when everybody would come out to smoke, so i was only seeing the second half of the shows. and people tell me today that's why my writing is the way that it is 'cause i only know how to write the second-- - the back end. - the back end of it, yeah. but, um, but i moved to atlanta. went to work as a used car salesman and bill collector. you know, doing whatever i had to do to be able to get the money to do-- to put the play up. - and that was your goal? - that was my goal, yeah. so you're writing about these personal experiences, these horrible experiences, and it's dark. why did you think that would connect with audiences? well, there was-- it was dark, but it was also a lot of humor in it. i know you're going to be coming to work 'cause you're looking so handsome today.

don't be-- uh, un-uh, don't be flirting with me, young thing. i jump over there and knock something off of ya. i ain't lying. your body would be going one way and your wig would be going the other. you better ask somebody. the success did not come quickly. for five years, you were a failure. yeah, yeah, yeah. well, when i look back now, being older, i realized it was all learning and proving and-- and getting me into the right place to be able to handle what i'm dealing with now. so over five years you were on the ropes. you didn't give up. - no. no. - why? there was something in me that i knew for sure this was what i was supposed to do. and nothing could deter me. not even my mother. she said to me one day, she said, "stop doing it. just go get a job with the phone company making about 3 or $400 a week, get some benefits. you'll be fine for the rest of your life." this is, you know, that was her idea of success. but there was something in me that knew that there was something further. and that's what-- that's what i had to follow. oprah helped you persevere, didn't she?

tyler: mm-hmm. watching her show, absolutely. yeah. well, she's the reason i started writing, which is so insane that we would end up being friends and working together because there i am, this kid, watching her say it's cathartic to write things down. - harvey: personal experiences. - tyler: personal experiences. that's how it all started, because of her advice. harvey: all of a sudden, your plays became a cash register. i mean, you were making millions and millions of dollars. so you go from this 6'6" guy sleeping in a geo metro to making millions of dollars. geo metro convertible two-seater. - pretty tight. yeah. - harvey: yeah. and so for five years, you were on the ropes. you were sleeping in your car. how do you handle that? 'cause that's a big life change. big life change, and i'm, you know, in my 30s, early 30s. so just trying to understand that was extremely difficult. trying to navigate through it, trying to understand taxes and businessand things to do. i had no reference for all of it. i made a lot of mistakes in the beginning.

girl, i'd be in jail for attempted murder, aggravated assault, gunshot wound to the chest, conspiracy to commit murder-- all right, madea, that's enough. harvey: "i can do bad all by myself," that was the-- - second show. - the second show, and wasn't that when you unveiled madea? yeah, yeah. i got this gun at the bowling alley. it ain't got no serial number on it or nothing. all you gotta do is pimp up on 'em and do like this... harvey: so, why that character? why did you do a dirty, 70-year-old, pistol-packing, secular woman. eddie murphy had done "the klumps." - harvey: right. - tyler: and i was blown away by it. i was like, "i want to try my hand at a female character." so i'm like, "okay, let's see what i got here." and who are the funniest people i know? my mother and my aunt. the first night i did it, man, i was scared to death. i go out on stage and she had a cane. she didn't move. she stayed in one place and just... and i got up to walk across to the kitchen and the audience lost it.

they were laughing. i'm like, "what the hell is going on?" i look back and this big ass is behind me and they're laughing at that. i was like, "okay, there's something here." so i started to relax into it a little more, and they endeared to it. it is thinkable to do a play without madea? i would think there would be a riot. i don't know, i'm getting to an age where it's like, "okay--" well, here's the thing. you're getting to an age where it's going to be madea-appropriate. right. that's exactly what it is. i am determined to not be her age playing her. yeah, yeah. spike lee, so he called some of your movies "coonery and buffoonery." how'd you receive that? in the beginning, i was really hurt by it and frustrated by it because i didn't understand, you know, where it was coming from or what it meant. because i didn't understand, you know, where it was coming from when you think of a bank, you think of people in a place. but when you have the chase mobile app, your bank can be virtually any place. so, when you get a check... you can deposit it from here. and you can see your transactions and check your balance from here.

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- harvey: i love this room. - tyler: thank you. harvey: i love this room. it's all about movies. what's your favorite poster? it's gotta be this one. sidney poitier, "raisin in the sun. and i have a photo of him sitting in that chair beneath that picture. and he didn't realize it. he didn't realize it was there. i asked him to turn around and look at it and just the joy on his face. this room also is a tribute to all of these people, you know. cicely tyson, and you see sidney up there

with bill cosby and eartha kitt, and dorothy dandridge, paul robeson. just people that suffered greatly in this industry just to pave the way. so how can i know have a place where i take a moment to say, you know, thank you? why did you go into the movies? you were an incredibly successful playwright. - tyler: yeah. - harvey: why? tyler: too many-- not enough seats in the theaters. i was selling them out. i was exhausted. i was doing 350 or 60 shows a year. it was crazy. it was just like, i don't know how long i can keep this up, so what's another way for me to tell stories where i don't have to be there? and so i thought film was the next thing to do, the next evolution. so you go to hollywood, you talk to film executives who say it ain't gonna work. mm, yeah. "black people go to church, don't go to movies," as one executive told me. it's been really fun to prove him wrong. harvey: so if you could choose the megachurch that you were-- that you went to or you could choose usc film school

as your training, which one do you go for if you had one or the other? it would totally be the church. it would totally be all of new orleans. new orleans is the perfect-- to grow up there was amazing. perfect, even in all the hell, it was the perfect backdrop for all kinds of storytelling. everything was represented from one end of bourbon street to the other. and you used the voice of the church in your movies, - especially at the beginning, right? - mm-hmm. and that, you knew, was going to connect with who? with people in the church or beyond the church or what? i just thought it would connect with everybody 'cause i thought i was telling universal stories. i thought i was making everybody laugh. peace be still. that's what they said. peace be still. well, you know what? peace is always still around me 'cause i keeps me what they call a piece of steel. as long as you got a piece of steel, you're gonna have peace along with your steel. thank you, jesus. my greatest motivation was if i could help you walk through some things that i've been through, and i can do it in this way, then i'm all in. huh? you think i'm crazy?

where's your medication? - ( slap ) - ( grunts ) ( muffled grunting ) you have taken a lot of risks in your life. you put down $3 million of your own money. you say, "it's my way or the highway in terms of my movie." you try and sell a play when you've never done anything like this before. and you live in a car and you struggle for five years. you are a major risk-taker. do you think of yourself that way? - 'cause i sure do? - i hadn't thought about it until you said it. 'cause for me, it just feels like-- i just always believed in betting on myself. that's what it-- i just-- i'm gonna put my money on me because i know me. i'm gonna do all i can to make it work. i'm gonna go all out and i'm gonna just be in it 150%, so if that makes me a risk-taker, then i guess so. spike lee, so he called some of your movies "coonery and buffoonery." - how'd you receive that? - in the beginning, i was really hurt by it and frustrated by it

because i didn't understand, you know, what it-- where it was coming from or what it meant. i think he was talking about the television shows at the time, though. here's what i do about criticism. it's like, you know, when you're eating a steak, you eat the meat and leave the bone, so i try to find truth. if there's truth, i'm okay with it. - was there any? - no, i don't think so. because he's-- you know, if you look at spike, growing up in new york and his parents, you know, being well-educated and though his world, it was very different from my southern upbringing and the people i was around. i tell stories about the people i was around. if you look at the people that i know, that i grew up with, you'll see them represented in everything that i do. so what's more important? artistic or commercial success to you? i think they're both important because one allows for the other, so i think-- sometimes you can have commercial without artistic. - yeah, but-- - and vice-versa. but i wouldn't want to have tremendous artistic success and not have commercial success because of the limitations in that.

if you are able to have both, then you're in a really good seat. - damn. - girl, that breath smell like it's been in the civil war. harvey: so madea returns in "boo2!" this month. mm-hmm, yeah. "boo2!" yeah. yeah. the first one was something i never would have done. i'm not a big halloween person, but lionsgate was like, "yeah, let's do it. let's do it." i'm like, "okay." "you want to do another one, tyler?" i was like, "all right. let's see what happens." so, yeah, i'm just having fun. do you worry that, you know, what brought you to where you are today, which is connecting to the megachurch, connecting to the pain you had, suddenly that's gone and you have this luxurious life. do you worry about losing touch? no, no. that's why i still go out on the road. i still go out on the road to be with the audience. - harvey: and come back here. - tyler: yeah, but also i have a trunk full of experiences. - trunks and trunks. - harvey: and you don't forget it. tyler: cannot forget it. cannot forget it. - so people do. - which i find tremendously sad.

'cause some people just want to get away from it. i get that, but if i'm not connected to it, then i'm losing touch with all that i am. so you have to keep pain in your life or in your memory in order to stay who you are. not necessarily the pain, but the experiences. all of the experiences, every bit of it. to keep all of the experiences there so that you stay connected and stay grounded. this could all be gone tomorrow. as you said, i'm a risk-taker. - yeah, could all be gone tomorrow. - you're buying that now? yeah, i'm buying it. i'll take it, i'll take it. growing up in the bible belt, faith and god were so very, very important. yet there was one point things got so bad, that you attempted suicide. you cut your wrists. did you give up on god at that point? i justthat liberty mutualuicide. customizes your insurance, open road and telling people so you only pay for what you need! [squawks]

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and i live in san francisco, california. i have been a sales and sales management professional my whole career. typical day during a work week is i'm working but first always going for a run or going to the gym. i love reading. i love cooking healthy. it's super important to me. i was noticing that i was just having some memory loss. it was really bothering me. so i tried prevagen and it started to work for me. i wish i had taken prevagen five or ten years ago. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. this was my mother's bible. - is this particularly special? - absolutely.

- how come? - because it was always in the house. she always had it open. whatever mood she was in, whatever was going on, this was always close. do you read from it? i have not read from this because this is really, really painful for me. painful? why? well, because she's not here anymore. before she passed, there were a couple of things that i wanted, and this was one. - did you always believe in god? - always, all my life. when you suffered horrible abuse as a kid, how important was god in getting you through that? oh, tremendously. i mean, you have to understand coming from our culture, being brought to the country as slaves, being taught about christianity and this bible, and me growing up in the bible belt, faith and god were so very, very important. yet there was one point things got so bad, that you attempted suicide. you cut your wrists. did you give up on god at that point?

i was-- i-- i vaguely remember not wanting to go to hell because i was told-- there's so many things that are taught in the church. some-- most are right. a lot of them are wrong or misconstrued. but i remember just not-- if i could just die here, god. if he would just let me die, and be out of this, and i can come to heaven and be with you-- this, again, the thoughts of a child. yeah, it was-- there were really, really dark times. did you ever wonder at a point when the beatings went on week after week, month after month, year after year, that god may not help you, god may not save you? no. i never doubted. i never doubted because there was always a flash of light somewhere. what i mean by that, there was always something that said, "you're gonna be okay." i had to do a lot of work myself. i just wasn't sitting around saying, "god, get me out of this. god, let me not hate. god, let me--" i had to do the work myself. does god communicate with you?

- mm-hmm. - how? you gonna make me sound like a medium? is that what-- - no-- ( stammers ) - no, no, no, no, it's what-- - i'm really interested to know. - this is what it mean. in my prayers, in my-- if i'm praying for something or if i'm trying to-- to get clarity on something, i sit and i pray and i meditate and i clear out all of the noise. and i just sit and i hear, and usually what i hear will line up with what i feel if it's the right decision. do you think you would be successful without your faith? no. i think i would be strung out on some sort of drug. this is the thing. i look at-- i feel sorry for people who don't give their kids-- that's why i'm so grateful for my mother to give me faith-- if they don't give them something to help them cope with life, because life is going to happen. and if you don't have a coping mechanism for your struggles or your pains, you will turn to something. i thank god for me, that it's faith.

i come praying for each and every person in this circle, each and every heart, god, from the youngest to the oldest, that you will protect us all and put us on one accord to go out here and do something special for you. for a lot of other people, it is not that, and it ends up pretty tragically. hold your peace and let the lord fight your battle. hold your peace and let the lord fight-- hold your piece... ( laughter ) and let the lord fight your battle. - madea. - ( laughing ) you go from god to the devil. harvey: oh, no, i don't. no, i'm staying on track. - tyler: okay, go ahead. let's talk about madea. - harvey: madea, in my view, is a very secular woman. mm-hmm, yes. - and in some ways, anti-religious. - yes. you know, as i think about the goodness of jesus, and all that he has done for me, my soul cries out, "hallelujah. thank god for saving me."

- you finished? - ( chuckles ) what tyler perry does is uses madea to be that conduit with the laughter and the jokes to open the dialogue about abuse-- sexual abuse, forgiveness, moving on, and all those kinda things. madea, hold the baby for me, please. - ( laughter ) - hold the baby head! girl, this a crack baby head. can't nothing hurt. now get in the house. she don't even cry. it's a crack baby. oh! madea! she all right. she ain't even cry. i think this character is the counterpoint to religion. and madea wins a lot of arguments with religious people. she-- her view prevails, and she's secular. i tell you, i learned a long time ago that god could take care of folks far better than you can. god take too long sometimes. i need them to get got right then. it just feels to me like there's, you know, a side to you that, you know, has some doubt--

i have no doubt about my faith and what i believe, no doubt at all. yes, i wanted her to be as irreverent as she wants to be. i don't think it's a side of me, but i, you know, i have no doubt about my faith. but, you know, i'm not an angel. harvey: talk to me about your new book. you really do have faith as a cornerstone of your life, and kind of have a blueprint on how people get through adversity. wow, uh, wow, blueprint, wow. i don't-- i don't if it's necessarily blueprint. what i did and what i try to do in the book is use my own situations, my own life, my own stories, my own pains, and talk about how i was able to get past it or talk about how i view life. you feel the need to spread that? if somebody reads it, and it gets them motivated or lifted or higher, then i've brought some good to the world. that makes me feel great. so why'd you have a kid at 45 years old? you tell me, man. i was just as surprised as everybody else. oh, it was not-- yeah, completely surprised.

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- i'm gonna play brad pitt. - okay. "what's in the box?" - that's your brad pitt? - yeah, sorry. "what's in the box?" what movie is that? - "benjamin button"? - "se7en." that's your brad pitt, huh? okay, what's in the box? okay, brad. this is, uh, my son's books. this is a gift from oprah when he was, uh-- when he was born. - which book did oprah give him? - all of them. all of them. they all say aman's book club. - oh, my god. - and the great thing about this is because he-- actually, he's almost three. he absolutely loves to read. but, you know, he wants me to read all of them. right now, it's "paw patrol," so i have to read "paw patrol."

i make him choose. i say, "okay, we get three books tonight." he says, "okay." so after i've read all three books, then he says, "okay, read it again." "no, it doesn't mean you get three for me to read over and over and over again. well, he knows how to play people. good. he's a smart kid, yeah, smart kid. you, um, are adamant on not putting this kid on social media. - no. - not putting pictures out, which a lot of people do. why? i see some of the horrible things that they do to people, man. they do some horrible ( bleep ) to these kids. those trolls on social media and how they judge them and how they talk about them and say horrible things about them, and as parents, gelila and i are very protective of trying to give him a moment to know his self, understand who he is, and grow up. so why did you have a kid at 45 years old? you tell me, man. i was just as surprised and everybody else was. - oh, it was not-- - yeah, completely surprised. completely surprised it was like, "uh, okay, what do i do with this?" because i didn't think i would have any kids, but it's incredible, man.

i didn't even know that-- what i was missing. it's been life-changing seeing myself, you know? seeing myself in him. and the timing was so perfect because after the loss of my mother, there was an emptiness, and then here comes, you know, this beautiful circle of life. here comes this incredible child that is... yeah, he's-- he's incredible. so how has aman changed your life? he's my healer because he's-- he's healing so many wounds in me that when i see him, i think, you know-- i'm every day reminded of how innocent and how precious and how amazing and beautiful he is. and it makes me look at the little boy that i was differently. because now i know that the little boy i was, there wasn't anything wrong with him. he was just as special, just as beautiful, just as perfect as my child is. do you overcompensate just because

of the experiences that you had? i try not to because-- very important to me that he not be a spoiled, snot-nosed kid, man. it's very important to me that he has some sense of balance and that he's grounded. how do you do that when you live opulently? here's the great thing about this is gelila and i are people who are very similar, but very opposite. i have to force her to fly first-class, i kid you not, which will help him greatly to understand the balance. well, what, help him that he's flying economy plus? help hi-- ( chuckles ) as opposed to being on his father's jet. it'll help him greatly to understand that the life we have is a privilege. it's not something that he necessarily is going to access just because. in some ways, you became successful because of the adversity that you went through. - because it taught you things. - yeah. - he's not gonna experience any of that. - yeah. you worried that might affect his success? i do in one sense, but on the other sense,

i think that if we try our best to raise a responsible human being, that-- that has just enough disappointment in his life that he can-- he can overcome and understand and really get it, or just be able to learn from my lessons and experiences, then-- then i think we've done a good job. - this kid has pretty incredible godparents. - yeah, yeah. he has cicely tyson and oprah. yeah. - harvey: cicely tyson and oprah. - tyler: yeah. harvey: so, aside from books, are they involved in his life? tyler: yeah, yeah, cicely comes by and she sees him-- she sees him all the time, and oprah and i, when she gets time, she'll see him. but we go back and forth with pictures all the time and video and everything. do you want him to follow in your footsteps? would it please you if he did? tyler: it would be great if all of this work that i've done in the catalogue, in the studio, i could one day say, "here are the keys. you take it and run." that would be great, but i have no-- there'll be no pressure or no push for him to do that. but this can all be done is subtle ways, where you expose the kid early. i mean, you know that.

"what do you think of this? what do you think of that?" - that's right. - yeah, yeah, yeah. - get him invested. - but i wouldn't be-- honestly, if he wanted to be, you know, janitor, if-- as long-- and i seriously mean this, as long as he is a good, wonderful, decent, upright man who respects people and does right, then i'm okay with it. well, you came out here, to los angeles, but ultimately your roots are in atlanta. there's a blessing in being hidden. there's a gift in it. greatest gift that i was given is coming out here and them not knowing that i was so popular, because i was able to make tremendous deals because i was underestimated. because i was able to make tremendous deals i came across sofi and it was the best decision of my life. i feel cared about as a member. we're getting a super competitive interest rate on our money. we're able to invest through the same exact platform. i really liked that they didn't have any hidden or extra fees.

sofi has brought me peace of mind. truly thank you for helping me prepare for whatever the future has in store.

( chuckles ) what are these? - okay, so-- - i mean, they're pajamas. i'm not an idiot. tyler: they're pajamas, they're pajamas. but let me tell you why they're special to me. my mother, when i started to become successful, she would say to me every christmas, she's like, "you're so hard to shop for. i don't know what i'm gonna get you." i said, "listen, just get flannel pajamas for me, okay?" "okay, that's what i'll do." so she goes to walmart every year-- - oh, these are from walmart? i love this. - they're from walmart. - the sleeves are up to here. - oh. and the-- and the pants are up to here. - wait, she doesn't know you're 6'5"? - well, she clearly knows, but she said, "well, this is the biggest they can get, and i got the biggest--"

she sounds like madea. "this is the biggest one that they can get." and i was going through some things, and this day, i was missing her a lot because she died in 2009. and i opened the drawer and i see these. and i sit there on the floor and just looking at them and going, "wow. wow." and i actually put them on that night. when you finally decided you were going into business opening a studio, you were insanely wealthy. you were making millions and millions off of films and plays and books and all of this stuff. so you had a lot of money, was it just-- "now i got the taste for it. i'm gonna get more." wow, that's a really good question. no. what-- for me, looking at, you know, people who were mentors to me, like-- who i didn't know at the time, like oprah and even cosby back then, it was clear that these people were doing something different. they weren't like other actors or people in the business who had to wait for the next gig. i didn't want to be the guy that was dependent on somebody else for the next thing i do. and owning the copyright, owning my material

and image and branding, owning all of that was very important to me because i knew that if i owned that, then my future and my destiny would be different for me and my children. where do you get that template? because you didn't have a role model to teach you that. oprah winfrey. watching her. watching her on her show. and somebody said she owns her show. i'm like, "okay, what does that mean?" there i am 18, 19 years old trying to figure out what does "own your show" mean? oh, wait. what does owning intellectual property-- that's what that means. okay. and the greatest gift i was given, this is-- there's a blessing in being hidden. there's a gift in it. greatest gift that i was given is coming out here and them not knowing... that i was so popular. because i was able to make tremendous deals because i was underestimated. harvey: well, you came out here to los angeles, but ultimately your roots are in atlanta. - tyler: yeah. - harvey: the movie business is here in l.a. the television business is in l.a. why atlanta? i just didn't feel like i wanted to come

and be in a place where there was so much rejection, there's so much politics, and there's a game that has to be played specifically. and if you don't play the game specifically and follow the rules specifically, it doesn't reward you. i wanted to be in a place where i can create my own world, play my own-- put up my own set of rules, and make that happen that's why i wanted to do a studio in atlanta. so it's to take the noise away? take it-- absolutely. take the noise away. quieten it all down, and again, that gut feeling that that's what i was supposed to do. there was $7 billion in filming that went on in atlanta last year. so i'm in the right place. harvey: you now have a 300 acre-- - 330 acre studio complex there. - tyler: yeah. it rivals any studio in los angeles and hollywood. are you competing with paramount and warner bros.? no, not my intention. i'm not trying to compete with anybody.

i'm just doing what feels right for me. you gotta fill this 330 acre facility with as much as you can because that's how you get the money you talked about in starting the studio in the first place. so, by definition, isn't there competition to get them out of hollywood and into atlanta? well, here's the thing. i have just done a deal with viacom that is 90 episodes of television a year. that alone is just me writing, producing, directing, doing all of that myself, just as i've been doing for own for all these years. the own deal is about to expire, and viacom is firing up, and it's enormous. was it difficult to break from oprah? tyler: oh, absolutely. because we're friends, and it's important that-- the friendship was the utmost importance going in, and we both knew that. so, at this point, to be leaving, yes. it's not over. it's just not exclusive anymore. so the exclusivity is done. - is she understanding about all of this? - absolutely. yeah, she's very, very clear on what has happened,

what has been brought, and just awfully gracious and kind and thankful. she's amazing, man. she is what people believe she is. there is messaging in your work. yeah, that's what i want people to walk away with. to see something in themselves that becomes a bit of a mirror in the movie that makes them go, "hmm. maybe that's me." it ain't gonna be in "boo!," but-- - ( laughing ) - but in the other movies and stories that i'm telling, absolutely. won't be a new thing. and it won't be their first experience with social distancing.

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i know what these are, and i'm gonna get emotional. tell me. tyler: these are two-- i have four of the chairs that belonged to abraham lincoln. and i got 'em at an auction house, and they were very special to me, number one, because they were owned by lincoln who, you know, did the emancipation proclamation. and-- which led to the 13th amendment and the freeing of the slaves. so to have this in my possession just means the world to me. - he's my hero. - yeah. i would love to sit in these. can we sit? - go right ahead. let's do it. - wow. the only other person that has sat in these since we owned them are me and president obama. wow. okay, compose myself. i want to talk about

what you're gonna leave behind. tell me about what you think your contribution is in the movie industry. tyler: i feel very strongly that i was a person that came along in the industry and changed it in a sense for independent thinkers and independent filmmakers, and to understand that you don't necessarily have to operate inside of a system that has already been designed. you can work outside of it and have your own life and your own-- - voice. - voice. and for me, to have people to be able to point to me as they do now and say, "that guy did it his way. maybe i can, too." that's good. that's really good. what about specifically to black filmmakers? mm, yeah. and the same. it's the same. it's just you're not limited by the color of your skin. if i had thought that in any way-- in any way at any time, that i was limited because i was black, then i wouldn't have been able to have the success that i have--

- but there were obstacles. - certainly. certainly, there are obstacles, and certainly there are people who want to stand against success of people because of the color of their skin, which is absolutely wrong. but-- but you cannot let any of that be the determining factor in how high you go in your life. everybody has detractors, and you have some that say your movies and your shows are not important enough. i mean, there somehow has to be more gravitas. in 30 years, how do you think your body of work is going to be looked at? well, my hope is that it's looked at for what it is. just good, fun entertainment. some people take a message from it that helps-- - there is message in your work. - yeah, yeah, yeah. but my hope is that it's just good, fun entertainment that people want to see. i have never taken myself too seriously with the work. i've never-- i've never tried to do "schindler's list." you know, it's not my-- it's not my-- but you have messaging. i mean, your faith gets-- your faith comes out in so many different ways. - and that's important. - yeah, absolutely. to me, yeah. so as long as that continues to live and continues to be

a seed of hope for people, then, okay. you know, there are a lot of people who just are desperate, and there are a lot of people who feel like they cannot get out of a situation-- a bad situation in life, and they lose hope. - yeah. - you are living proof it can change. do you feel that-- that, you know, it rubs off on people because they look at you and they say, "in my deepest despair, look at what he did." mm-hmm, yeah. of course. - and i think, again-- - do they tell you that? yeah. oh, gosh, i've heard that lots of times. you know, me-- the greatest review i ever got was from a woman who-- whose sister was in an abusive relationship. and she sent me a note online that said... so that's the legacy. that's what i want to leave. that's what i want people to walk away with. to see something in themselves that becomes a bit of a mirror in the movie that makes them go, "hmm. maybe that's me." it ain't gonna be in "boo!," but-- but in the other movies

and stories i'm telling, absolutely. why they got that boy dressed like a cow? you oughta be ashamed of yourself. got that child dressed like chocolate milk in a box. - mabel. - in my other line of work, tmz... - mm-hmm. - there is a woman who works for me, raquel. raquel, yeah, yeah, yeah. and i know that you contacted raquel and said, "i'd love to be on 'raq rants.'" and she sat down with you, and i don't know if you know this, but afterwards, she cried. - really? - she cried and she said, "i never thought a person like me would have an opportunity like that." really? that makes me feel really good. really good. wow. wow. there are probably a lot of raquels who interact with you. and each situation is very special. they're all very special, and they all move me the same way. because, man, so many people are dealing with so much stuff that that one little bit of hope, that one little touch, that one little bit of encouragement

can be rocket fuel to the next level, you know? so that makes me feel really good. tyler, i cannot thank you enough. this was really moving. - thank you. thank you. - thank you so much. thank you for asking me to do this. - thank you. - i appreciate it. appreciate it. >> the heyday of hollywood. >> it was exciting. bette davis, marilyn monroe, joan crawford. >> a star-struck teen bit by the bug. >> before there were paparazzi, there was jack kuster. >> this autograph hound takes names like no other... >> elvis and, oh my gosh, robert redford. >> you name it, all of them. >> it's probably the best collection in the world. >> ...and leaves his stunned heir a lot to sort out. >> what, in your wildest dreams, is this collection worth? [ theme music plays ] ♪