Tyler Perry wants his crew back on-set, and he’s ready to invest in their health to make it happen. After getting his COVID-19 vaccine on TV in January to reduce public fear about it, he’s now helping his crew get vaccinated.
The film and TV mogul set up a site at Tyler Perry Studios production facility in Atlanta, Georgia, funding it himself, but working in collaboration with the nearby Grady Hospital to make it happen. He opened the doors to crew, and their family and friends.
"There's still a lot of vaccine hesitancy out there," Perry tells The Hollywood Reporter, noting that 55 percent of his crew agreed to get vaccinated. "It's my hope that people will just get out and get the vaccine, and know that I have it and other members of my staff have it and we've no issues, no problems."
For the past year, when in operation, the studio has been working in a bubble; the vaccine rollout would help ease that. Perry is one of the first in Hollywood to aggressively pursue vaccinated crew members; most studio have told cast and crew that they need to line up their own shots.