Tyler Perry. The name evokes a world of  connotations now. Typically, it’s followed by a little apostrophe and the letter “s,” indicating complete and total ownership — Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail, Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection. It’s there on the posters, sometimes a little smaller than the title, sometimes the same size. Most of the time, you know exactly what you’re buying a ticket to when you see a movie with that apostrophe-s. There’ll be some laughs, some melodrama, maybe a little good, old-fashioned sex and violence. The Perry brand is strong.

Hilarious Comedy Movies to Stream NowReady for a good laugh?

But lately, there’s been another Tyler Perry coming into view, one who’s missing the apostrophe-s. He’ll show up midway through the credits on an acclaimed drama or a sci-fi blockbuster. “Is that the same Tyler Perry?” we wonder. Yes and no.

Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Perry has become such an omnipresent cultural force that seeing him appear anywhere outside of his own Atlanta mega-studio feels almost like seeing your elementary school teacher at the grocery store — strange, shocking and maybe even a little uncomfortable. But once you get over that initial surprise, it’s easy to see that Perry’s work outside of his own films offers some of the best performances of his career thus far, without ever compromising his own identity.

In the new Netflix sci-fi satire Don’t Look Up, playing talk show host Jack Bremmer, Perry is all insincere smiles and relaxed, perfunctory repartee. His show The Daily Rip is relentlessly sunny, even in the face of impending destruction by a massive comet. He gently tries to guide his guests away from doomsaying and toward calmer pastures, asking with a hearty chuckle, “Will it [the comet] hit this one house in particular, that’s right on the coast of New Jersey? It’s my ex-wife’s house, I need it to be hit.” It’s an unsuccessful gambit, but it’s one anyone who’s seen even ten minutes of daytime news will find wholly recognizable. In the midst of the elevated, anarchic energy of the rest of Don’t Look Up, Perry helps ground the film’s talk show scenes in a very real sense of a manufactured calm. He’s desperate to keep viewers from changing the channel, and he’s very good at his job.

Perry gives the kind of sturdy, small performances that serve as the scaffolding of any great movie. In JJ Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot, Perry has a scant few minutes of screen time as a Starfleet admiral. He has little to do, but, just as in Don’t Look Up, the very fact that it’s Tyler Perry giving that performance makes it interesting. Rather than casting Perry as a riff on comical, quick-witted Madea, Abrams showcases him as stoic and serious, a source of authority. Perry told BlackVoices that Abrams cast him as “a fan” of Perry’s work and that fandom comes across even in this brief role. 

Another Perry performance, his bravura turn in Gone Girl, originated in a similar way. Famously perfectionist director David Fincher cast Perry and his co-star Ben Affleck because of their directorial resumes, hoping that they would understand his moderately demented 50-takes strategy. And clearly, on some level, it worked: Both Affleck and Perry give the best performances of their careers. Perry in particular is an inveterate scene stealer: As flashy celebrity lawyer Tanner Bolt, he sweeps into the movie with a campy flourish, immediately captivating. He coaches Affleck’s Nick Dunne through a fraught press tour after his wife’s disappearance, making him into “a trained monkey who doesn’t get the lethal injection.” 

In one of the film’s most memorable moments, Perry pelts Affleck with gummy bears as training for a crucial television interview. It’s his most comic performance outside of the Madea movies, but Bolt also nurses a dark heart. He’s an ambulance chaser, the “patron saint to wife-killers everywhere.” Bolt believes Nick Dunne, but what he really believes in is his $100,000 retainer fee. 

Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection (2012)

Perry built his brand from literal homelessness to become a titanic entertainment presence. But his obvious and incredible success has also caused him to become  underrated as a serious performer. It’s the paradox of celebrity, and it’s led many to count Perry out again and again. His wildly successful Madea movies have been met with more and more critical scorn and drummed-up controversy over the majority-Black audience he courts. He’s been criticized, sometimes fairly, for everything from his choice in wigs to his lack of a writer’s room. But in an industry that currently thrives on creation by committee, Perry has never ceased to be the definitive authorial voice behind his films. His performances channel that same directorial authority into something that, unlike Madea, is allowed to be far more bold and dynamic. 

That versatility is what really separates Tyler Perry the actor from the brand. As Madea, he’s jovial and outrageous. But as Jack Bremmer, the outwardly good-humored face of The Daily Rip, he’s hiding something a little empty under the surface. In this year’s Those Who Wish Me Dead, Perry makes a one-scene cameo, playing a mysterious boss in a faceless (and violent) government agency. The film is a mostly tense and small-scale chase thriller, but, in one scene, Perry effortlessly communicates the tremendous and deadly scope of the organization he represents. That same authority lurks under the surface of his other characters (and even perhaps in his role as producer, writer, director and mogul). If that’s what was hiding inside Madea all these years, who knows what Perry could do next.