Q: What was your reaction?
A: I was shocked and flabbergasted. I couldn't believe it. Only a week and a-half before, we had a table reading in Atlanta where we got a standing ovation for a script. Tyler said he loved the new scripts we wrote, he said they were "Golden". The show is the highest rated show on TBS and I have my doubts about why they said we were fired.
Q: Why do you think you were fired?
A: I felt like we were fired because Tyler Perry found out that we were in talks with the Writers Guild of America about getting fair wages and health benefits, which we were working without.
Q: How did you feel when you were fired?
A: First, I got fired on my son's birthday so that was bad. But, it was like getting hit in the head by a bat. For one thing we are in a recession in this country. It was difficult to maintain our lifestyle anyway. I have bills, mortgages, my son is in private school, my wife only works part time. I knew right away without finding some other employment it would be impossible to survive. It was unfair, he fired four writers all of whom were in the guild. That's why I think he fired us because we wanted to unionize the show.
Q: After you were fired what did the WGA do?
A: They informed us that Tyler had broken anti-union laws by firing workers who were trying to unionize. They contacted Tyler Perry and informed him that he was in violation of the law but if he reinstated all four writers under a union contract or gave us a fair severance package, then they wouldn't take action against him. Because taxes were never taken out of our checks, we weren't even eligible for unemployment payments. Tyler's response was he wasn't giving us "shit" and that he doesn't respond to threats. He said if we wanted a fight, to bring it on.
Q: What exactly had the writers done with the guild?
A: Nothing really we had a few phone conversations and one meeting with the guild to discuss why we should go union. They also told us how much money we were losing not being covered by a guild contract. We had lost between two hundred and fifty and five hundred thousand dollars a-piece. Tyler Perry pocketed all that money.
Q: What have the writers and WGA done since the firings?
A: Tyler said to bring it on and that's what we did. He had a grand opening party for his new state of the art, thirty five acre, two hundred thousand square foot studio and we decided that we would fly to Atlanta and picket to let him know that even though he does a lot of good and even though he's admired for going from homelessness to creating a half billion empire, we weren't going to take our firing laying down. He told us that firing us was just business, well we showed him that us picketing his party was just business to.
Q: You then picketed something else didn't you?
A: The next day Tyler had a gospel brunch at his house for the people who went to the party. We stood near his house on public property and picketed while all the vans, shuttle buses, and limos went through the gate and up the long private road to his house. The crazy thing is, he spent probably one to two million dollars on the weekend and that could have paid our benefits ten times over.
Q: Since the firings, who are some of the people you have received support from?
A: We received a lot of support from the public at first. People came by where we were picketing and gave us cash and water. Some private citizens even joined the picket line. We have received the total support of the Writer's Guild, show runners such as Tina Fey (30 Rock), Greg Garcia (My Name is Earl) have chimed in and said that they are behind us. Spike Lee sent an open letter to Tyler through the media asking him to do the right thing.
Q: So what's next for the LA Four?
A: We are going to continue bringing the fight to Tyler Perry and continue to let the public know through radio, television, and the Internet that he exploits writers. The national news is on the story, I've heard from BET, The New York Times, and Black Enterprise. Tyler Perry is an icon in the Black community, he's a media mogul but he's built part of his empire on our writing. Out of the one hundred twenty episodes of The House of Payne, he's written exactly none. We want what's fair for us, Tyler will realize the Writer's Guild won't give up and neither will we.