We've seen Gabrielle Union play a high strung control freak before. Watching her play the demanding lawyer Julia in Daddy's Little Girls recalls Deliver Us From Eva to an even greater extreme. That was not the intention, but it came from Union's own instincts.
Gabrielle Union on Daddy's Little Girls
"It really wasn’t written as harsh as I made her in certain situations but the motivations are different," said Union. "[Tyler Perry]'s like, 'I don’t want this to be Eva, I want this to be a strong independent woman who might have some of the same struggles but I don’t want a carbon copy of Eva.' So I made her motivations a lot different. I’m much more Julia than I was Eva. I’m not that involved in my sister’s lives. I’m not that much of a meddler. But Julia being an independent, thirty-something, career-oriented woman who’s fulfilled emotionally with her friends and family but just sort of finding herself on the dating scene, as I unfortunately found myself in the last year. So it’s a lot more of me, than me creating this caricature."
The actress had been pursuing Perry since she caught his Los Angeles performances of the Madea plays. "I went to see him at the Kodak with some actor friends who were huge fans and said, 'Just go and not just look at what’s happening on stage, but in the audience and you’ll understand what we’re talking about.' I went and not only had he sold out three nights at the Kodak and the last time I noticed that it was sold out was Prince and much less for a stage play. Everyone was coming in in their Sunday best and they came into the theater happy and they left happy. They cheered and talked. Some lady came in late and her cell phone rang and Tyler stopped the whole thing and talked to her. The whole audience was involved and laughing. No, it’s not your usual stage experience but at the end of the day, if people are moved and enjoyed themselves, felt like they got their money’s worth, then who the hell am I to judge what’s good and what’s not?"
Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls
Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls
Once his first film came out, fate brought them together. "I rented Diary of a Mad Black Woman on DVD and watched it. I was balling my eyes out. I’m a huge fan of Kimberly Elise and you know, sometimes you get stuck in different roles. She’s always the long suffering wife or girlfriend ‘Save my kid from the…’ or whatever. And here she is the true lead of this film, she’s carrying this film. She starts off as the long suffering wife and then she evolves and Tyler takes her on this journey. She’s allowed to be beautiful and funny and dynamic. I was like ‘I want that.’ I happened to find myself coincidentally, or maybe not, on the same flight as his agent and I said I wanted to work with Tyler, can you hook me up? And a week or so later he set up lunch for me and Tyler and he got to writing and turned in the script a month later, started filming a few months after that."
Julia is hung up on dating men in her economic and social strata, so falling for a poor single father challenges her ideals. A working Hollywood actress couldn't possibly relate to that, right?
"Yeah, it’s an on-going debate I have with my girlfriends. Because what we say is, 'I just want a good man and there just isn’t a good man.' What we are acknowledging is that we are holding on to this antiquated notion of who Prince Charming is and what package he’s going to come in. He’s going to come from this kind of family, he’s going to come riding in on a white horse or white Porsche and he’s going to have this kind of paycheck and on top of it all, he’s going to be great and kind and generous and sweet. After a while, we stop focusing on great, kind, sweet, considerate and thoughtful and it’s really just about his socio-economic status has to match mine. Our thing is that if you really just want a good man, there’s plenty of good men but they might be a little thicker in the waist, they might have been around the block, they might married and divorced or they might have kids or they might not make as much as you do but if what you’re really looking for is a life partner and a spiritual partner which is so far beyond a financial business relationship, then you can find those anywhere."
Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls opens to theatres on February 14th.
For the trailer, posters, and more movie info, go to the Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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