Tyler Perry isn’t playing around when it comes to COVID vaccinations. His Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta will enforce an across-the-board vaccine requirement for all cast and crew members, according to our sister site Deadline.
Hollywood unions and major studios’ return-to-work protocols in June of last year didn’t mandate vaccinations, but gave producers “the option to implement mandatory vaccination policies for casts and crews in Zone A” — where the actors perform, and their immediate proximity — “on a production-by-production basis.”
Both Disney and Netflix previously established a policy for their own U.S. productions, requiring vaccinations for everyone working in Zone A. Other studios have been enacting policy on a show-by-show basis.
In contrast, Tyler Perry Studios notified everyone working on its shows and movies that they had to be fully vaccinated and have booster shots (if eligible). According to Deadline, Perry made the call after he attempted to start production on a soon-to-be-officially greenlit second season of his BET+ series All the Queen’s Men.
That shoot, however, was pushed to Jan. 10 when the number of COVID positive tests shot up from zero to 16 during routine pre-production testing; the ongoing and highly contagious Omicron variant surge has further delayed production to Jan. 31.
The requirement at Tyler Perry Studios will be strictly enforced, with the studio independently verifying vaccination cards (because of the number of fakes that have popped up in an around the industry).
Perry has long been an outspoken vaccination proponent. In addition to requiring studio audiences for his The Tyler Perry Show: Sistas After-Show Edition to be screened, tested and then tested again, the prolific producer has encouraged his fans to get vaccinated via social media and through his BET standalone show Covid-19 Vaccine and the Black Community: A Tyler Perry Special.
