Essence Atkins Says Tyler Perry’s Experiment With Kim Kardashian Didn’t Work

Movie mogul Tyler Perry is no stranger to criticism. With his popular Madea movies, hit TV shows and other business moves, he continues to build an empire. Despite public gripes from his peers, (both directors and actors) fans and naysayers, Perry continues to pack movie theaters nation wide and score big on both the big screen and television. Recently, he joined forces with friend Oprah Winfrey and a multi-million deal bringing his audience and success to her network.

His most recent project “Temptation” has received mixed reviews for its message on morality and the dangers of adultery. While some people have been speaking out on (what they call)  Tyler’s “typical” depiction of love and other matters, others have begun to find fault with the director’s casting choices.

Actress Essence Atkins, known for her roles on such shows as  “Half & Half” and “Smart Guy” and movies like “How High” and “A Haunted House,” recently talked with S2S Magazine and gave her opinion on Kim Kardashian’s portrayal of a fashion-crazed match maker in Perry’s latest work. Specifically, Atkins spoke on what she thought about directors hiring socialites or personalities instead of actual actors in hopes of increasing the films popularity. Check out what she had to say below:

I found it interesting that Tyler did that with Temptation, hiring Kim Kardashian because she has 16 million Twitter followers, which would seem like a brilliant marketing plan. He has one of the biggest Twitter personalities out there in his movies, and he had one of the worst box office weekends. It’s not a failure, but it did worse than his movies usually do just based on him. I thought that was an interesting finding. Your experiment didn’t work. People want to see good stories. It’s not necessarily that they want to see Kim Kardashian in a movie. They want to see her in a bikini. They want to see her with Kanye [West]. They want to see her on her show talking about her life with her sisters, but that doesn’t mean that they want to see her in a movie. The fact that people want to see their lives and the volatility of that…. I don’t think that it translates at all.”

Interesting.

Perry’s newest scripted shows air on the OWN network in May.

What do you think–did Tyler Perry’s ‘Temptation’ flop in theaters, because of Kim Kardashian’s involvement? Or were other factors to blame? 

[IW]

-@crelsmusic