Not less than one billionaire is finding it hard to disregard the SNAP advantages crisis impacting nearly 42 million Americans, almost 40 percent of them children.
During his intro to his latest film from Amazon MGM Studios, Tyler Perry’s Finding Joy, the self-made mogul, who himself experienced a lean childhood, broke out of salesman mode at an early screening at Regal Atlantic Station in Atlanta on Sunday night.
The film Perry was promoting follows an aspiring Latest York-based clothier named Joy who’s toiling away within the shadow of an unscrupulous boss whose creative well has dried up. Her love life, like her work life, in accordance with her most outspoken friend, Littia (singer Inayah), is in shambles, and an invite to spend the vacations with love interest Colton (Aaron O’Connell) challenges her perspectives on romance.
Perry officially kicked off the screening by praising his star Shannon Thornton, best known for her role as Miss Mississippi on Katori Hall’s hit Starz show P-Valley. “After I was writing this movie, I believed, ‘Who do I need to get to play this role?,’ and I immediately thought of her,” he recalled. “She’s incredible,” he said on to Thornton, who expressed her appreciation of that life-changing call from “Mr. Perry”: “To offer me a likelihood, to present me a shot — that is my first time starring in a movie,” she said, as the gang erupted into applause. “I come from the TV world, so that is so exciting for me.”
Perry also invited onstage Brittany S. Hall, who plays Ashley, and Amber Rasberry, the Amazon MGM exec with whom he’s worked for greater than 20 years, and asked his Tyler Perry Studios crew to face. While expressing his gratitude for his or her work — and inspiring those in attendance to spread the word of the movie’s Nov. 5 global premiere date on Prime Video — Perry broke barely from the script.
“I do know we’re about to look at a fun movie. I just wish to shift gears for only a minute,” he said. “I’m very, very concerned about this SNAP advantages for thus many individuals who need them. And I just want you to know in the event you know any individual who’s on SNAP, what I’m hearing is that if you’ve gotten money left in your SNAP, WIC card or nevertheless that works, in the event you don’t spend it by the fifth, it may very well be gone.” (The Latest York Times recently reported that thousands and thousands of Americans will see massive cuts and delays to food stamps despite the White House selecting to pay partial advantages.)
As Perry continued, he became more somber. “I just feel sad that there are such a lot of people, children and elderly individuals who usually are not getting these advantages after they have to. … Please, please just, just try to help whoever you possibly can because I’m doing lots to see what I can do. Now I’m going to change gears back to Finding Joy.”
Tyler Perry’s Finding Joy is currently streaming globally on Prime Video.
From left: Shannon Thornton, Tyler Perry and Brittany S. Hall at a screening of ‘Tyler Perry’s Finding Joy’
Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Amazon