Tyler Perry: Hollywood Outsider

So with all this success, Hollywood must be nipping at Perry's mandal-clad heels, right? Wrong. He says he has yet to be offered anything substantial. ''Nobody is offering me The Departed, which I absolutely feel like I could do. I look at Anthony Anderson in the movie — I could have done that. I look at Ving Rhames in Mission: Impossible. I could do that,'' Perry pauses, ''if they offered it!'' The fact is that Perry is ignored and underestimated by Hollywood, a town historically run by white men — not exactly his core audience. Perry recalls a recent visit to L.A. in which his agent pleaded with him to take meetings: ''The guy who runs the studio goes, 'So who are you now and what do you do?' I just looked at my agent.''

All the more discouraging is that Perry has a clear vision for mainstream box office success. ''I have this enormous following of African-American people, and you put me with an Adam Sandler in something hilarious...I've thought about it.'' While Sandler's camp had no comment, Jackson feels that a pairing of this kind is all but imminent. ''I think this movie is going to change a lot of minds for those who have an eyebrow raised,'' says Jackson. ''It's just a matter of [Hollywood] coming around. He's already there.''

But even if Married doesn't get Hollywood's attention, Perry will have another chance with the comedy Meet the Browns (starring Angela Bassett), due in February. And if that doesn't work, there's the dream project waiting in the wings or, more specifically, on his wall. Perry points to a framed script hanging in the corner of his office. ''This movie is called Bethesda House, and at the bottom it says 'The Oprah Project.' I wrote it six years ago. It's about a woman who turns her home into a place for women in trouble. That's the only movie I refuse to do until we do it together. She knows it's there. One day she's going to come and I'm going to break that glass.''

Perry by the Numbers
$145 MIL Combined box office take for his three theatrical releases
15 MIL DVDs sold, including movies and filmed plays
400K Copies sold of his novel Don't Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings within its first year of being released
100 Episodes ordered by TBS of House of Payne after an original test run of 10 (financed by Perry)
$200 MIL Perry's Payne payday
6'5'' The actor's height
30K Size in square feet of his Atlanta mansion under construction
150K+ Size in square feet of Perry's planned studio — double his current facility