[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for A Madea Homecoming.]Writer/director/executive producer Tyler Perry has brought Madea out of retirement for the Netflix original movie A Madea Homecoming, which sees her celebrating her great-grandson’s graduation from college. The joyous event is almost derailed by secrets and family drama, but a family that loves each other as much as this one will be sure to get the homecoming back on track.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, which you can both watch and read, Perry talked about why it was important to bring back Madea right now, that need for laughter also inspiring him to produce Sister Act 3, balancing the humor with serious socio-political issues, how working with co-star Brendan O’Carroll was a dream come true, whether Madea might stay out of retirement, who he’d still like to get to do a Madea movie, and how the wild tribute in the end credits came about. He also talked about finally getting to make A Jazzman’s Blues from the first script that he wrote, and taking a moment to feel gratitude for his accomplishments.

Collider: Thank you for making me laugh. It’s always appreciated.

TYLER PERRY: Oh, I love that. That’s exactly what I wanted the movie to do.

A Madea Family Funeral was supposed to be the final film of appearance of Madea, and yet here we are with A Madea Homecoming. When you did that last film, did you truly feel like you were really done, that was it, and that was the last time we were going to see Madea on film, or were you always thinking somewhere down the road she’d come back because she just can’t help herself?

PERRY: No, one hundred percent, I thought that was it. I was tired of doing the character. It had been a good run. But looking at the state of the world and everything that was happening, I wanted to do something to make people laugh. I was like, “What do I have in my toolbox to make people laugh?” It’s clearly Madea, so I just wanted to bring that out.

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Was that need for laughter also what led you to producing Sister Act 3? That’s a movie that people have asked for, for a long time, but those are films that just make people feel good.

PERRY: That’s exactly right. I think we’re at a time right now where we’re missing a lot of that because there’s so much is going on. But yeah, that’s major part of it. It’s my love for Whoopi [Goldberg] and also just wanting to be sure that movie got made. Absolutely.

How close are we to that being shot?

PERRY: We are very close. The script is going well. We just did another round of notes on it. We’re really happy about it.

You do something very interesting with this Madea movie, in that you wanted to make people laugh, but you also merged that with serious socio-political issues. How do you gauge and balance that, so that the humor is there, but you aren’t actually poking fun or making a joke out of the issues that you’re spotlighting?

PERRY: Well, that’s exactly what I wanted to do, not poke fun, but just make sure that I was highlighting them, using laughter to be the anesthetic to get us to talk about it. I just think that so much is plaguing us as a society, we need to at least address some of it. I thought, “Hey, maybe this is a way that Madea could at least be talking about these things.”

Do you have an internal gauge for yourself? If something feels like it’s going too far or that you need to go funnier with it, is that just a gut feeling?

PERRY: Oh, that’s probably 30 years of being on the road in front of an audience and trying new things and ad-libbing every night to see what works and what doesn’t. They train me. They’re in my soul and in my ear. I can hear the, when I feel like I’m going too far or it’s just enough.

You have quite the co-star in this, with Irish comic Brendan O’Carroll as Agnes Brown. I love the two of you guys together. What was it like to go head to head with him?

PERRY: Brendan is so funny. His timing is so amazing. So, to have somebody on camera that I could spar off of, that wasn’t in my original gang, was really awesome. Our careers have been on parallel tracks for many years, so for us to finally get together to do some work together was a dream come true for me.

What’s it like to put a character that you know as well as Madea into situations with a character like that? What is the most fun about having him as a scene partner and feeling out how to react to his approach to the comedy?

PERRY: The amount of ad-libs that he comes up with, I had to remind myself to stop watching him because he’s so funny, and not laugh. Just the amount of ad-libs he comes up with and the level of just comedy that’s in his brain is really amazing.

I feel like I would love to see a road trip with those two characters, but ut at the same time, it might be terrifying.

PERRY: How funny would that be, right? A road trip. That would be hilarious. Okay. I’ll remember that.

You have this film about a young man in college, you’re on Netflix, you’re calling this A Madea Homecoming, so I can see how you connected those dots to Beyoncé. What made you take things a step further and go full Beyoncé with this?

PERRY: We were gonna do Homecoming and the story about the kid coming home from college was a story I already had. I thought, “She already did this Homecoming thing. Let’s just go for it, as an homage in the end credits.” And we did.

What was that like to shoot and what was it like to see yourself in the full get up, the first time you did it?

PERRY: I’ve never been high doing an interview, but I definitely had to smoke a joint to be able to get through that whole thing. Just know that I had a couple of puffs before I could hit that stage. That was a lot for me. That was extreme.

It was insane to watch. How long did it take to stage all of that?

PERRY: We did it over a few days. We were just having fun, man. It was just having fun.

As I was watching it, I kept thinking, “No, there can’t be more,” and there just kept being more of it. How did you channel your inner Beyoncé?

PERRY: First of all, I’m a huge, huge, huge fan. Before I did that, the first person I called was her and said, “Hey, take a look at this. How do you feel about this” She laughed herself to silly, so I thought, “Okay, we gotta right thing to do.” But yeah, I’m a huge fan and she’s a friend, so just having an opportunity to do that was really awesome.

Was there ever a point when you regretted doing that, or were you just all in, once you decided to do it?

PERRY: Oh, no, once I’m in, I’m all in. We’ll see what happens, as the movie comes out, if I regret it or not.

I could have just watched a whole movie of that. I’m glad that we got as of it as we did because it was crazy.

PERRY: Yeah.

You also finally got to make A Jazzman’s Blues, which is from the first screenplay you wrote back in 1995. How does it feel to finally have made that film?

PERRY: It was the most fun I’ve ever had on set. It was the most enjoyable time I’ve ever had on any movie. Taking my time to be able to film this movie was beyond anything I ever could have imagined. The cast is phenomenal. I cannot wait for people to see it. It’s gonna upset the apple cart because nobody’s expecting this from me.

What can you say about what we can expect from it? It sounds so different from everything else you’ve done.

PERRY: Well, being set in the ‘40s and having this incredible cast who took my words and made them come to life, I’m just really, really proud of the work. I don’t say that lightly. I’m really proud of everything that we put on film.

You were named Showman of the Year in 2020. You’re this major player who leads your own studio in Hollywood. You’ve had massive success in film and television. You kept people safe and working during the pandemic. And you make a difference in your community. Are you able to actually really take that in and enjoy it, or are you someone who’s always focusing on the next thing or the next several things?

PERRY: I’m always focusing on the next several things. Usually, when I get a break at some point in the year, when I actually stop and take a minute, is when I really realize the impact and all that’s going on. It’s really an overwhelming feeling of gratitude when I have that.

It’s amazing to hear that, not only are you making all of these great projects for all of us to enjoy and to laugh with and to have tons of entertainment, but the fact that you kept so much of that going during the pandemic is crazy.

PERRY: Yeah, we didn’t stop. I realized I had a lot of people working for me who had bought houses, had families and kids in college, and new cars, and all these things, so we had to keep going. We found a way, and it was great, without one positive case. We got through the whole pandemic, at that time, at the top of the pandemic.

Would you say Madea is back now? Are you retiring her again? How do you feel about her, at this point?

PERRY: I’m just gonna let it play out. Whatever happens, happens. We’ll see.

I thought it was so interesting to hear that you’re developing a prequel series, Mabel. What did that come from?

PERRY: Her life in the ‘70s was always really interesting to me, so I wanted to empower a real actress to go in and play the role and see what that would be like. We’re in the beginning processes of writing that script to see what happens.

Does it feel like there are still surprises about Madea to uncover?

PERRY: I know her pretty well, so it would be pretty interesting for anything to surprise me because she’s pretty much done it all.

You’ve had some great actors appear in the Madea films. Is there anyone you’d still like to get to do a film or to interact with her, in some way?

PERRY: I’ve had everybody that I’ve wanted. But I think that Oprah would be pretty funny, to have her do something with Madea. We’ll see about that.

Have you tried to get her to do it yet?

PERRY: I have not.

So, there are still goals with Madea.

PERRY: Yeah, for sure. For sure.

A Madea Homecoming is available to stream at Netflix.