TYLER PERRY'S TEMPTATION Production Notes - Visual Hollywood
TYLER PERRY'S TEMPTATION Production Notes - Visual Hollywood
TYLER PERRY'S TEMPTATION Production Notes - Visual Hollywood
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong><br />
<strong>Production</strong> <strong>Notes</strong><br />
Release Date: March 29, 2013<br />
Studio: Lionsgate<br />
Director: Tyler Perry<br />
Screenwriter: Tyler Perry<br />
Starring: Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Lance Gross, Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Williams, Robbie Jones, Renée Taylor,<br />
Ella Joyce, Brandy Norwood<br />
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance<br />
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some violence, sexuality and drug content)<br />
Official Website: Temptationthemovie.com | Facebook | Twitter<br />
STUDIO SYNOPSIS: A bold exploration of the intrigue and perils of infidelity, "Tyler Perry's Temptation" is a<br />
compelling love story that dives straight into the heart of obsessive passion. "It's about a woman who starts<br />
to get restless in her relationship and her choice to be with another man has a huge effect on the rest of<br />
her life," explains screenwriter/producer/director Tyler Perry. "She goes on a journey – in her career and in<br />
her marriage – and she ends up in a very different place than she expected." In a departure from his previous<br />
dramas, this explosive film finds Perry exploring the nature of desire – and just how powerful and dangerous<br />
a taste of the forbidden can be. "This is definitely one of the most provocative movies – sexually and<br />
otherwise – that I've made," says the director. "There are a lot of people who struggle in their relationships.<br />
They make bad choices about their marriages. They get divorced. And so many of them don't step out of<br />
their situation and really think about the consequences of what they're doing. This movie asks, 'Are you<br />
sure you want to do this?' It sends up a flag."<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
1
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
Seduction is the devil's playground.<br />
Synopsis<br />
An explosive romance about forbidden desires, <strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> tells the provocative<br />
story of Judith, an ambitious married woman whose temptation by a handsome billionaire<br />
leads to betrayal, recklessness and forever alters the course of her life.<br />
About the <strong>Production</strong><br />
A bold exploration of the intrigue and perils of infidelity, Tyler Perry's Temptation is a compelling<br />
love story that dives straight into the heart of obsessive passion. "It's about a woman who starts to<br />
get restless in her relationship and her choice to be with another man has a huge effect on the rest of<br />
her life," explains screenwriter/producer/director Tyler Perry. "She goes on a journey -- in her career<br />
and in her marriage -- and she ends up in a very different place than she expected." In a departure<br />
from his previous dramas, this explosive film finds Perry exploring the nature of desire -- and<br />
just how powerful and dangerous a taste of the forbidden can be. "This is definitely one of the most<br />
provocative movies -- sexually and otherwise -- that I've made," says the director. "There are a lot<br />
of people who struggle in their relationships. They make bad choices about their marriages. They<br />
get divorced. And so many of them don't step out of their situation and really think about the consequences<br />
of what they're doing. This movie asks, 'Are you sure you want to do this?' It sends up a<br />
flag."<br />
Perry's heroine, Judith, is a small-town girl hailing from a devout, working class background. But<br />
for all her ambition, level-headedness and integrity, Judith is inexperienced when it comes to the<br />
temptations and vices of urban life, which arrive in the form of a charismatic billionaire named Harley<br />
Madison. "Judith is unlike any character I've played before," says actress Jurnee Smollett-Bell<br />
("Friday Night Lights," "The Defenders"). "She starts off so pure, so confident, so noble, and it fascinated<br />
me that she could actually get to where she gets for so many reasons."<br />
"This story is almost like a fable," adds Perry. "It's about how we always think the grass is greener<br />
on the other side and it doesn't really turn out that way."<br />
At the start of Tyler Perry's Temptation, Judith has just finished her graduate work in psychotherapy,<br />
and she longs to complete her internship and begin a career as a marriage counselor. But the only<br />
paid internship she can find is at a trendy match-making firm for millionaires called Wise Counsel.<br />
"It's the polar opposite of what she really wants to be involved with and at the beginning she<br />
really sticks out," explains Smollett-Bell. "She doesn't dress the right way at work. She's not hip.<br />
She's unhappy in her job. She really doesn't know how to process all this stuff."<br />
Adding to Judith's frustration is her stagnant marriage to Brice, a modest pharmacist whom she's<br />
dated since high school. Routine has dulled what began as a great love affair, and Brice's lack of<br />
ambition only fuels Judith's feelings of inertia. "Brice is happy and complacent, and that drives Judith<br />
up the wall," says Smollett-Bell. "He's ready to let fifteen years pass by and just be in the same<br />
spot."<br />
So when Judith meets Harley -- a handsome, confident, self-made billionaire who's considering a<br />
business deal with Wise Counsel -- she's immediately intrigued, even if she's put off by his direct<br />
advances. Says actor Robbie Jones, who stars as Harley Madison, "Harley inspires Judith. He's very<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
2
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
ambitious. He's a workaholic. And he recognizes how gifted Judith is, how intelligent she is. He<br />
challenges her and validates her in a way that Brice doesn't."<br />
Eventually, Harley succeeds in whittling down Judith's defenses, but only because a genuine emotional<br />
relationship develops between them. "Judith's not promiscuous," Smollett-Bell points out.<br />
"She's not the kind of person who just cheats because she needs to have sex with someone. She gets<br />
caught up emotionally with Harley and that's when she gets trapped. That's when she starts doing<br />
things she never thought she would do."<br />
Smollett-Bell was immediately taken by Perry's compelling script, but she was also intimidated by<br />
Judith's sexual and emotional journey. Breathing authentic life into the character would require<br />
honesty and no small measure of courage in showing the darker sides of desire. She recalls, "When<br />
Tyler first called me and we talked about the script, I told him I wasn't sure I could do this. There<br />
were a lot of challenging scenes, a lot of challenging colors to play. But he made me feel completely<br />
safe. He was so open to collaboration. And on set he kept the environment light and energetic."<br />
"I was looking for a younger actress to play Judith," says Perry. "But I had no idea that Jurnee<br />
would be one of the most profound, powerful actors I've ever worked with. She has so many layers,<br />
so many gears. She was beyond fantastic."<br />
Together, Smollett-Bell and Perry navigated Judith's rocky path, ensuring that she remain sympathetic<br />
despite the reckless choices she makes. "Jurnee was great at keeping the balance of the character,"<br />
says Perry. "She always knew exactly where Judith was at all times. Her performance makes<br />
you feel for her. You watch her go through these break-ups and the pain of it all, and you can't help<br />
but relate to her."<br />
Adds Robbie Jones, "Judith is torn between the two men in her life -- Brice and Harley -- and you<br />
can see that dilemma in every second of Jurnee's performance. It's a beautiful process to watch."<br />
Smollett-Bell found her volatile scenes with Jones to be the most challenging of the shoot. "I'm not<br />
that person in real life. I don't really like to argue like that with people," she admits. "But Judith and<br />
Harley bring out this animalistic behavior in each other. There's this fire between them so it was just<br />
necessary to really go there together. But it wasn't easy."<br />
For Robbie Jones, committing to the dark, devilish role of Harley Madison was a dream come true.<br />
"Harley just jumped off the page when I first read the script," recalls the actor. "He's a very dynamic<br />
character, a very rich character with a lot of different layers. He's an actor's dream role."<br />
Says Perry, "Harley's definitely the antagonist in this film, but Robbie manages to be charming and<br />
charismatic and make sense of why Judith is so drawn to him. The movie wouldn't have worked<br />
without him."<br />
A self-made Internet billionaire, Harley is the kind of man who, according to Jones, "you want to<br />
bring home and introduce to your mother." However, as Judith becomes more enmeshed in his life,<br />
Harley's behavior becomes increasingly disturbing. "He has this dark side that people don't get to<br />
see too often," says Jones. "He's very threatened by other men being around women he has feelings<br />
for."<br />
"Harley is very giving, very passionate, but he has a bit of a temper problem," reveals Smollett-Bell.<br />
"But at the beginning, Judith only sees little glimpses of it."<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
3
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
Hoping to understand the nature of Harley's demons, Jones spoke with a number of psychologists<br />
and worked with Perry to create a full back-story for the character. "It was extremely helpful and<br />
insightful to speak to Tyler because it's his vision. But it's also my interpretation of this character,"<br />
says Jones. "A lot of what we created isn't necessarily in the script -- but it's been extremely helpful<br />
in my interpretation of this guy."<br />
Perry turned to Lance Gross, an actor he knows well from his hit television series, "House of<br />
Payne", to play Judith's devoted husband, Brice. "I've been working with Lance for a long time, and<br />
casting him as Brice was a no brainer for me," he reports. "Brice is your average Joe who wants the<br />
best thing for his wife. But he takes his life for granted, and the situation with his wife catches him<br />
off guard. Lance earns the sympathy of the audience all the way through. Women love him. At the<br />
end, everyone's applauding him."<br />
While Brice does everything he can to save his marriage, Gross points out that Brice is also at fault<br />
for contributing to the crisis. "Brice and Judith have known each other since they were kids. They're<br />
so comfortable with each other. They have this special bond," says Gross. "But this story is a reminder<br />
that it doesn't matter how long you've known a person, you still have to do the things that<br />
you started out doing. You can't take them for granted. You can't just assume that they'll always be<br />
there. Marriage is something that you have to work for."<br />
As Judith's romantic attentions focus exclusively on Harley, Brice looks for support from Melinda,<br />
a new hire at his pharmacy who's played by R&B singer and television star, Brandy Norwood. Having<br />
taken years off from acting work and recording to raise a family, Norwood was careful to<br />
choose a meaningful role to mark her return to film acting. The role of Melinda -- a secretive,<br />
frightened woman who is running from a violent relationship -- immediately appealed to her, as did<br />
the opportunity to work with Perry. "Working with Tyler Perry is a dream come true for me," she<br />
says. "I really wanted this role because it speaks volumes to so many women who are suffering<br />
from domestic violence. Melinda's been very abused in her life and she's running from something.<br />
And she finds a safe haven in the pharmacy with Brice. She's just trying to live whatever life she<br />
has left that's worth living."<br />
"What I love about Brandy is her truth," offers Perry. "She brings her own personal truth to everything<br />
she does. She shows it all -- the hardship, the heartache -- all the things that she can relate to<br />
in her own life."<br />
Melinda lives in fear every day of her life, but eventually she comes to trust Brice's kindness and<br />
helps him through his crisis with Judith. "She's already been down that road so this is her way of<br />
giving back," says Norwood. "She's learned from the trauma she's been through, and now she can<br />
help somebody else through it."<br />
Leading the film's stellar supporting cast is Vanessa Williams as Janice, the founder and CEO of<br />
Wise Counsel, the match-making service for millionaires where Judith works. "Janice is a pro at<br />
love. She's written many novels about love and how to get men and how to get women. Her whole<br />
idea is that love and romance are what fuels everyone," explains Williams. "You get to see her be a<br />
real flirt when she's working with Harley, but you also see her limits. She can be not so nice."<br />
Perry, who has been a longtime fan of Williams, was particularly excited to have the multi-talented<br />
performer join the cast. "It was beyond exciting," says the director. "I've been a fan of hers from the<br />
beginning. She was fantastic in the film and such a professional."<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
4
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
"Vanessa Williams couldn't have been more perfect for this role," adds Jurnee Smollett-Bell. "Not<br />
only is she just absolutely gorgeous, but she embodies the kind of strength and power and authority<br />
that was important for Janice to have."<br />
As Janice's assistant, Ava, reality television star Kim Kardashian was able to channel her selfprofessed<br />
"obsession" with fashion directly into the part. "Ava wants to fix everyone around her,"<br />
explains Kardashian, "which is how I am with my sisters sometimes. In real life, I'm always trying<br />
to tell them what to do or what to wear or how to look. And Ava's sort of the extreme version of<br />
that. She constantly tears Judith down, but only because she wants her to look her best."<br />
Despite undergoing a highly publicized divorce during production, Kardashian impressed her fellow<br />
actors on set with her focused performance. "People will be surprised," says Perry. "She really<br />
carries the role and completely owned it on screen. And she has a great sense of humor."<br />
"Kim had a lot going on in her life and to deliver something that she's not trained to do and make it<br />
look effortless was amazing," adds Smollett-Bell.<br />
Actress Ella Joyce brings her characteristic strength and gravity to the role of Reverend Sarah, Judith's<br />
mother, a woman whose religious convictions provide a strong moral backbone for the story.<br />
"Somebody has to be the voice of wisdom in Judith's life," says Perry. "Somebody has to be the<br />
voice of caution and warning. And Ella Joyce has this intensity and presence about her. She completely<br />
delivered."<br />
For her part, Joyce appreciates her character's strong sense of faith, but she also wonders if this virtue<br />
contributes to Judith's unraveling. "Sarah raised Judith in the church," says Joyce, "and there's<br />
that very delicate question: did she give her child too much church? Did she protect Judith so much<br />
that now she doesn't know how to deal with the world? Because now her daughter is losing her<br />
soul."<br />
"For so long growing up, it was just Judith and her mother," explains Smollett-Bell. "And suddenly<br />
Judith has to start thinking for herself and deciding what her own beliefs are. She has to figure out<br />
who she wants to be as a woman, and she's not totally prepared."<br />
Fate had a hand in helping Joyce and Smollett-Bell create an authentic mother/daughter bond on<br />
screen: the two actors had already played mother and daughter in an Atlanta-based production years<br />
ago, when Smollett-Bell was still a child actor. "I was 12 years old, and the film was called Selma<br />
Lord Selma," recalls Smollett-Bell. "It's so ironic, years later now shooting a film in Atlanta, working<br />
with her again. Ella's so grounded and so rooted in the soil. You're always fortunate to be in a<br />
scene with great actors because you don't have to do anything. You just react. I had a lot of fun<br />
working with her on this film."<br />
Rounding out the supporting cast is veteran actress Renee Taylor, who plays Ms. Waco Chapman,<br />
the owner of the pharmacy where Brice and Melinda work. "Working with Renee Taylor was a<br />
complete joy," reports Perry. "I love actors from her generation. They paved the way for the rest of<br />
us. And Renee is hysterical and a trooper. To be her age, hanging out all day and night -- she was<br />
just amazing."<br />
Tyler Perry's Temptation was shot in four weeks at Tyler Perry Studios and on location in and<br />
around Atlanta. Echoing the reactions of previous actors who've worked with Perry, Temptation's<br />
cast members were uniformly impressed with the atmosphere of collaboration and discovery Perry<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
5
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
fostered on set. Says Vanessa Williams, "Tyler's completely driven and down to earth. He knows<br />
what he wants. But he also allows you to have creative freedom to add things which makes the process<br />
so much fun."<br />
"The surprising thing, when you consider his huge level of success, is that he doesn't have a big<br />
ego," reveals Smollett-Bell. "He's very confident, but he also welcomes opinions. He welcomes you<br />
disagreeing with him which is really refreshing."<br />
Adds Robbie Jones. "Tyler's passion trickles down to everyone, whether it's the cast or the crew. It<br />
really bonded us all together."<br />
That passion stems not only from a love of filmmaking, but from Perry's desire to impart positive,<br />
constructive messages to his audiences. "He wants to use films like a mirror to society," offers<br />
Norwood, "to talk about things that we're uncomfortable with in our community."<br />
Perry points out that he deliberately cast younger actors in the lead roles so that young audiences<br />
would easily relate to the story. "I want young people to really hear the message," he says. "We all<br />
have choices to make. And what I'm saying here is, 'Be sure you're making the right one.' The<br />
choice you make today can affect you twenty years from now and when you're young it's hard to<br />
think that way."<br />
"I think people are going to be surprised by just how raw and real this movie is," says Vanessa Williams.<br />
"They're going to be drawn in by the intrigue and the sexiness, but they won't know how<br />
deep the rabbit hole really goes. It's going to be an enlightening shock."<br />
Perry knew that opting for a traditional, <strong>Hollywood</strong> ending -- one with a pat answer to a real word<br />
problem -- would undermine the point of the film. "I wanted to find a way to embrace what Judith's<br />
life would actually be like in the future," he says, "to remain true to the consequences of her choices."<br />
At the same time, the director was interested, as he is with all of his films, in the possibility of<br />
redemption and the power of faith.<br />
In the film's final moments, Perry finds a way to do both, unveiling a startling surprise that recasts<br />
Judith's journey in an entirely new light. "What I love about this film is that it says it's never too late<br />
to do something great with your life, even if you've made mistakes," says Ella Joyce. "It's our mistakes<br />
that create character, if we recognize them as mistakes."<br />
"I want audiences to experience hope," says Perry. "No matter what happens to you, no matter what<br />
kind of bad choices you make, there's always hope.<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
6
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
ABOUT THE CAST<br />
JURNEE SMOLLETT-BELL (Judith) is an award-winning actress and activist of rare talent and<br />
conviction. She most recently starred in Tyler Perry's Tyler Perry's Temptation, to be released in<br />
Spring 2013, after co-starring in the Emmy® Award Winning series, "Friday Night Lights" in<br />
which she portrays the character, Jess, alongside Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler.<br />
Jurnee was also seen on CBS', "The Defenders" where she starred opposite Jim Belushi and Jerry<br />
O'Connell as Lisa, the new attorney who joins their firm.<br />
Jurnee starred in The Great Debaters with Forest Whitaker and Denzel Washington, who also directed<br />
the drama. In addition to receiving rave reviews, the film was nominated for a Golden<br />
Globe® for Best Picture and Jurnee won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in<br />
a motion picture. Jurnee made her breakthrough performance at the age of 11, starring in Eve's Bayou<br />
opposite Samuel L. Jackson for which she won the Broadcast Film Critics Award for Best Youth<br />
Performance and was cited by Interview Magazine as one of the five <strong>Hollywood</strong> stars to watch in<br />
the new millennium. Other film credits include starring in Roll Bounce, Gridiron Gang, and Beautiful<br />
Joe with Sharon Stone as well as made-for-television films including the Wonderful World of<br />
Disney's "Selma Lord Selma" and Showtime's "Ruby's Bucket of Blood" opposite Angela Bassett.<br />
She recently guest starred in the season finale of "Grey's Anatomy." Other guest starring appearances<br />
include roles on "House," "E.R.," "Strong Medicine," "NYPD Blue," and closed out the 2009 series<br />
of "Grey's Anatomy" with a performance that received critical acclaim everywhere.<br />
Jurnee has starred on the FOX series, "Wanda at Large" with Wanda Sykes and on the CBS sitcom,<br />
"Cosby" with Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad for which she won NAACP Image Awards in 2000<br />
and 1999. She began her television acting career at the age of four with a recurring role on "Full<br />
House," later reviving the character for a season of "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper." She followed by<br />
starring on the 1994-1995 ABC comedy "On Our Own" with her real life sister and four brothers.<br />
In addition to acting and singing, Jurnee is an activist and the youngest board member of Artists for<br />
a New South Africa (ANSA), a nonprofit organization working in the U.S and South Africa to<br />
combat HIV/AIDS, advance human rights, and educate and empower children orphaned by AIDS<br />
as well as other at-risk youth. Jurnee has been involved with ANSA since the age of 11 and in 2006,<br />
became ANSA's pioneer presenter for Positively Speaking, a program of the Los Angeles Unified<br />
District HIV/AIDS Prevention Unit that brings people infected or affected by the disease into middle<br />
and high school classes to tell their own stories and lead discussions. Jurnee has traveled to<br />
South Africa through her efforts with ANSA, where she has met with Nelson Mandela, Archbishop<br />
Tutu, and Zackie Achmat as well as people living with HIV/AIDS and children orphaned by the<br />
disease.<br />
She recently completed an official U.S. mission for the U.S. State Department in which she was<br />
sent to Botswana, Swaziland and South Africa to conduct workshops with women and youth about<br />
activism, empowerment and HIV/AIDS. She also recently joined the board of the Children's Defense<br />
Fund at the invitation of longtime mentor, Marian Wright Edelman.<br />
LANCE GROSS (Brice) recently appeared in the remake of "Steel Magnolias," starring opposite<br />
Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard, Phylicia Rashad, and Jill Scott for the Lifetime Movie Network.<br />
Lance next stars in the Tyler Perry film Tyler Perry's Temptation opposite Jurnee Smollett-Bell,<br />
Vanessa Williams, and Brandy Norwood for Lionsgate.<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
7
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
Earlier this year, Lance produced and starred in the independent feature, The Last Fall, written and<br />
directed by Matthew A. Cherry. In the film, Lance portrays an NFL player who finds himself unemployed<br />
and struggling to reconnect with his family and high school sweetheart. The film premiered<br />
at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival.<br />
Lance starred for 6 seasons on Tyler Perry's "House of Payne" and received the 2010 NAACP Image<br />
Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.<br />
He has also starred alongside America Ferrera, Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia in Fox Searchlight's<br />
Our Family Wedding and guest starred on USA Network's "Royal Pains."<br />
TV star, entrepreneur, fashion designer, producer, and author (New York Times best-seller -<br />
Kardashian Konfidential), KIM KARDASHIAN (Ava) first burst onto the scene in 2007 after the<br />
premiere of her hit E! Entertainment reality series "Keeping up with the Kardashians." Currently in<br />
its 7 th season, the show continues to be the highest rated program on the E! Network. She also stars<br />
alongside her sister Kourtney in the spin-off show, "Kourtney and Kim Take New York" which<br />
premiered its second season last year. In addition to starring in her own programs for E!, Kim has<br />
appeared as an actress in a number of other projects, including the feature Disaster Movie<br />
(Lionsgate), and TV's "Last Man Standing," "90210," "How I Met Your Mother," and "CSI: NY,"<br />
among others. Most recently, she guest starred in a multi-episode arc on the Lifetime hit show,<br />
"Drop Dead Diva," in addition to a starring role in Tyler Perry's Temptation, which will be released<br />
by Lionsgate in March 2013.<br />
In 2010, she produced "The Spin Crowd," for E!, which premiered to 2.46 million viewers. Furthermore,<br />
in September 2008, she competed on the ABC hit series "Dancing with the Stars." In recent<br />
years, Kim has become a highly sought after name and face and ambassador for a number of<br />
high profile brands, including Sketchers Shape-ups and Midori Melon Liqueur. Additionally, along<br />
with her sisters, she has the Nicole by OPI nail polish line, Kardashian Kolors. She also has created<br />
a line of contemporary jewelry line, Belle Noel, with famed jewelry designer Pascal Mouawad. In<br />
2006, together with her sisters Kourtney and Khloe, Kim opened the designer clothing store DASH<br />
in Calabasas, California. Other stores in Miami and New York opened in 2009 and 2010, respectively.<br />
A new store opened in West <strong>Hollywood</strong>, CA, in 2012. Recently named one of PEOPLE<br />
magazine's Best Dressed Celebrities, in 2010, Kim co-designed a fashion line with her sisters<br />
Kourtney and Khloe in conjunction with the bebe fashion brand. This collaboration led to a partnership<br />
between the three sisters and Bruno Schiavi on a complete brand launch, Kardashian<br />
Kollection, encompassing apparel, shoes, lingerie, home, jewelry and accessories. Kardashian<br />
Kollection is sold at over 500 SEARS nationwide. SEARS has created a store within a store concept<br />
specifically for this brand. It is also sold in Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany. In<br />
2009, Kim launched her first fragrance, Kim Kardashian which is available worldwide. To date, she<br />
has launched four additional scents, Gold, LOVE, True Reflection, and Glam.Her online shoe company,<br />
ShoeDazzle.com, launched in March 2009 and provides affordable, fashionable shoes to its<br />
members. In December 2012, Kim and her sisters will launch a beauty line, Khroma Beauty, which<br />
will include stunning array of false lashes, a suite of Mascaras and Kardazzle Compacts and will be<br />
sold at Ulta and other fine stores world-wide.<br />
Kim has graced the covers of numerous publications around the world, including Cosmopolitan,<br />
Glamour, Allure, Harper's Bazaar, L'Uomo Vogue, and Self, among others. Kardashian's official<br />
website, www.kimkardashian.com, gets 10 million page views a month, making it the fastest growing<br />
celebrity blog on the web. She also has over 15 million followers on Twitter! Kim is involved<br />
with a number of charitable causes, including the Dream Foundation, which grants last wishes to<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
8
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
terminally ill adults and does regular sales on Ebay to generate donations for the charity. She also<br />
regularly visits the patients at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and is passionate about cancer<br />
foundations since her father the late Robert Kardashian passed away from esophageal cancer.<br />
VANESSA WILLIAMS (Janice) is one of the most respected and multi-faceted performers in entertainment<br />
today. She has conquered the music charts, Broadway, television and motion pictures.<br />
She has sold millions of albums worldwide and she has achieved critical acclaim as an actress on<br />
stage, in film and on television.<br />
Her albums The Right Stuff, The Comfort Zone and The Sweetest Days earned multiple<br />
GRAMMY® Award nominations and have yielded such classic hits as "Save the Best For Last,"<br />
"Dreamin" and "Love Is," as well as the Academy Award®-winning single, "Colors of the Wind,"<br />
from Disney's Pocahontas, among many others. Her recordings also include two holiday albums,<br />
Star Bright and Silver & Gold, Vanessa Williams Greatest Hits: The First Ten Years, Everlasting<br />
Love and The Real Thing.<br />
In 1994, Vanessa took Broadway by storm when she replaced Chita Rivera in Kiss of the Spider<br />
Woman, winning the hearts of critics and becoming a box-office sensation. She garnered rave reviews<br />
and was nominated for a Tony® Award for the 2002 revival of Into the Woods. She also<br />
headlined a limited special engagement of the classic, Carmen Jones, at the Kennedy Center and<br />
starred in the Encore! Series staged concert production of St. Louis Woman. She was last seen in<br />
Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's original Broadway musical, Sondheim on Sondheim.<br />
Vanessa made her film debut in 1986 in Under the Gun. She has starred in such features as Eraser,<br />
Hoodlum, Soul Food, Dance With Me, Light It Up, Shaft and Johnson Family Vacation. She starred<br />
in the independent features, My Brother and Somebody Like You and co-starred in Disney's feature<br />
film, Hannah Montana: The Movie. Next up, Vanessa plays Janice in Tyler Perry's Temptation.<br />
On television, Vanessa has starred in "Stompin' at the Savoy," "The Boy Who Loved Christmas,"<br />
"The Jacksons: An American Dream," ABC's revival of "Bye, Bye Birdie," "Nothing Lasts Forever,"<br />
"The Odyssey," "Don Quixote," "Keep the Faith, Baby," and she executive produced and<br />
starred in Lifetime's "The Courage to Love" for Lifetime and the VH1 Original Movie, "A Diva's<br />
Christmas Carol." She starred in ABC's critically-acclaimed hit series, "Ugly Betty," earning three<br />
Emmy® nominations as the deliciously wicked Wilhelmina Slater, in addition to numerous individual<br />
and ensemble awards and nominations, including SAG, Golden Globes® and NAACP Image<br />
Awards. In 2010, she moved to Wisteria Lane on ABC's "Desperate Housewives," where she stirred<br />
things up for the hit show's final two seasons, winning an NAACP Image Award. She currently<br />
plays Olivia, the stylish wife of the devilish Gavin (Terry O'Quinn) in ABC's supernatural drama<br />
"666 Park Avenue."<br />
In April 2012, Vanessa and her mother Helen landed on the New York Times Best Seller list with<br />
their memoir, "You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter, Her No-Nonsense Mother, and How They<br />
Survived Pageants, <strong>Hollywood</strong>, Love, Loss (and Each Other)."<br />
ROBBIE JONES (Harley) is starring in the Lions Gate film Tyler Perry's Temptation, a new<br />
dramedy written, directed, and produced by Tyler Perry, as the lead character, Harley, an internet<br />
moguel who begins a relationship with a married marriage counselor. The much-anticipated film<br />
also stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Kim Kardashian,Vanessa Williams, and Brandy Norwood and<br />
opens on March 19th, 2013.<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
9
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
Robbie is also currently starring in "90210" on the CW and in "Necessary Roughness" on USA<br />
Network. Robbie's other television credits include "One Tree Hill," "Hawaii Five-O," "Southland,"<br />
"Dark Blue," "Hellcats," and the Syfy pilot "Rewind." His stunning performances opposite Academy<br />
Award winners Forest Whitaker in Hurricane Season and Angela Bassett on "ER" are among<br />
his most memorable.<br />
Robbie hails from Sacramento California. He attended Cal Berkeley where he starred on the<br />
bastketball court. Robbie currently plays basketball in The Entertainment League (E League) alongside<br />
Ice Cube, Don Cheadle, Justin Timberlake and Jamie Foxx.<br />
A long-time music aficionado, Robbie is the much sought-after celebrity DJ "DJ RJ."<br />
RENÉE TAYLOR (Ms. Waco Chapman) Renee got her first professional acting part at fifteen – a<br />
slave girl in The Purim Pageant at Madison Square Garden. She went on to become a member of<br />
the Actors Studio and has studied with some of the greatest acting teachers of the last century, most<br />
notably, eleven years with Lee Strassberg. Her career since then has been split between acting and<br />
writing. As an actress, she has appeared in numerous plays and movies, among them: The Errand<br />
Boy, The Producers, The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The Detective, White Palace, and Alfie. But<br />
she is most recognized as Sylvia Fine, Fran Drescher's mother on "The Nanny." Currently, she can<br />
be seen in recurring roles in three other TV shows: "How I Met Your Mother," "Happily Divorced,"<br />
and "Shake It Up;" and her voice can be heard on the Fox animated series "Bob's Burgers." She has<br />
just completed major roles in two feature films: Tyler Perry's Temptation and Zarra's Law, opposite<br />
Tony Sirico.<br />
As a writer/actress, in collaboration with her husband of forty-seven years, Joe Bologna, she cowrote<br />
and co-starred in the Broadway play Lovers and Other Strangers. They collaborated on the<br />
screenplay for the movie version and for it received an Academy Award® nomination. They then<br />
co-wrote and co-starred in the original feature film Made for Each Other, They received an Emmy®<br />
Award for co-writing the TV special, "Acts of Love and Other Comedies."<br />
They co-wrote and co-starred in the TV special "Bedrooms," for which they received a Writers<br />
Guild of America Award. They also created the TV series "Calucci's Department" on CBS. They<br />
co-wrote and co-starred in the feature film, It Had to be You, based on another of their Broadway<br />
plays. They shared the same duties and also co-directed the original feature film, Love Is All There<br />
Is, casting Angelina Jolie in her first starring role. They have co-written and co-starred in two other<br />
Broadway plays, Bermuda Avenue Triangle and the semi-autobiographical If You Ever Leave Me,<br />
I'm Going With You. Also in publication is Love Allways, a compilation of their short plays that<br />
have been performed around the world. Along with their other efforts, Miss Taylor and Mr. Bologna<br />
have produced one son, one grandson, many dogs and cats, and one very bossy bird.<br />
ELLA JOYCE (Sarah) Ella is remembered and beloved in the community for her television role of<br />
"Eleanor" on TV's family sitcom "Roc" which earned her a NAACP Image Award Nomination. Her<br />
many TV Guest star appearances include the recurring role of Jasmine on "My Wife & Kids," Mama<br />
Pearl on "Eve," Annabeth on "The Jamie Foxx Show," and Porsche Langford on "In The<br />
House" and "Seinfeld" as the Dean of NYU.<br />
Numerous film credits include Detective Waller in the popular action film "Set It Off," the Nurse in<br />
"Bubba Ho-Tep," "Selma, Lord Selma" (working again with Jurnee Smollett-Bell), "Forbidden<br />
Fruits," "Dead Of Winter," "Uncle P," "Who Made The Potato Salad?""Stranger Inside," and the<br />
suffering young Mother in the famous, classic MTV Award winning music video –<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
10
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
TLC's"Waterfalls". Ms. Joyce's current movie credits include the role of Sister Watkinsin Warner<br />
Bros. popular film Preacher's Kid, parole Officer Carol Brodiein California Solo starring Robert<br />
Carlyle, which played at Sundance this past year, a hilarious cameo in the film Our Family Wedding<br />
starring Forrest Whitaker and Regina King, and the romantic comedy Hopelessly In June. Ella<br />
recently completed "Belle's" coming to TV One next season.<br />
Ella works extensively in Regional Theatre earning both the Jefferson Award and the Black Theatre<br />
Alliance Award (BTAA) from the Goodman Theatre for Lynne Nottage's "Crumbs From the Table<br />
of Joy," which she world-premieredin New York, and received outstanding reviews in the city of<br />
Chicago. Ms. Joyce world-premiered two August Wilson plays, one directed by the late Lloyd<br />
Richards: Two Trains Running opposite Laurence Fishburne, and King Hedley II which she worldpremieredat<br />
the O'Reilly Pittsburg Public Theater. She performed in Fences at the bi-annual National<br />
Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, where she has served as a Board Member<br />
helping to establish that Festival. Ella is an invited Beinecke Fellow at Yale School of Drama and<br />
was invited to perform in a new play Bossa Nova by Kirsten Greenidge. Her many legitimate and<br />
urban stage credits have taken her to regional theaters across the country.<br />
Ella is also a talented voiceover artist. Audible Books-on-tape include Ron Milner's "Ruby<br />
McCollum Story", portraying the voice of Zora Neal Hurston produced by Susan Lowenberg's Los<br />
Angeles Theater Works , and recently completed Ernest Thomas' "Conversations With My Mother".<br />
Ella received another NAACP Image Nomination for BET's "Storyporch" (the children TV reading<br />
series).<br />
Ella has spent the past five years touring her own one-woman play A Rose Among Thorns, a Tribute<br />
to Rosa Parks, in 28 cities around the country, receiving an NAACP Nomination, numerous<br />
awards, wonderful press reviews, testimonials, and accolades. Bookings and calendar for her play is<br />
available at www.aRoseAmongThorns.com.<br />
For more information on the actress, please visit www.EllaJoyce.com.<br />
BRANDY NORWOOD (Melinda) is a superstar actress, R&B/pop singer, songwriter, host,<br />
spokesmodel and record producer. Brandy just released her brand new album Two Eleven<br />
(RCA/Chameleon Records) which debuted at #1 on the Billboard R&B Album chart. Ranked by the<br />
RIAA as one of the best-selling female artists in American music history, Brandy has sold more<br />
than 40 million albums worldwide, while receiving a plethora of awards, including a GRAMMY®,<br />
an American Music Award, two Soul Train Music Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, three Billboard<br />
Awards, four MTV Awards®, six Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, two Nickelodeon Kid's<br />
Choice Awards and three BMI Awards. She arrived with a self-titled debut album at the age of fifteen<br />
and went on to record a series of hit CDs that established her as one of the successful R&B/pop<br />
female vocalists to emerge in a generation. Brandy is a cast member of BET's top-rated scripted series<br />
"The Game," receiving rave reviews and will be appearing in Tyler Perry's upcoming Lionsgate<br />
release, Tyler Perry's Temptation.<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
11
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS<br />
<strong>TYLER</strong> PERRY (Writer, Director, Producer) Tyler Perry's inspirational journey from the hard<br />
streets of New Orleans to the heights of <strong>Hollywood</strong>'s A-list is the stuff of American legend. Born<br />
into poverty and raised in a household scarred by abuse, Tyler fought from a young age to find the<br />
strength, faith and perseverance that would later form the foundations of his much-acclaimed plays,<br />
films, books and shows.<br />
It was a simple piece of advice from Oprah Winfrey that set Tyler's career in motion. Encouraged to<br />
keep a diary of his daily thoughts and experiences, he began writing a series of soul-searching letters<br />
to himself. The letters, full of pain and in time, forgiveness, became a healing catharsis. His<br />
writing inspired a musical, I Know I've Been Changed, and in 1992 Tyler gathered his life's savings<br />
and set off for Atlanta in hopes of staging it for sold out crowds. He spent all the money but the<br />
people never came, and Tyler once again came face to face with the poverty that had plagued his<br />
youth. He spent months sleeping in seedy motels and his car but his faith - in God and, in turn, himself<br />
- only got stronger. He forged a powerful relationship with the church, and kept writing. In<br />
1998 his perseverance paid off and a promoter booked I Know I've Been Changed for a limited run<br />
at a local church-turned-theatre. This time, the community came out in droves, and soon the musical<br />
moved to Atlanta's prestigious Fox Theatre. Tyler Perry never looked back.<br />
And so began an incredible run of thirteen plays in as many years, including Woman Thou Art<br />
Loosed!, a celebrated collaboration with the prominent Dallas pastor T.D. Jakes.<br />
In the year 2000, I Can Do Bad All By Myself marked the first appearance of the now-legendary<br />
Madea. The God-fearing, gun-toting, pot-smoking, loud-mouthed grandmother, Madea, was played<br />
by Perry himself. Madea was such a resounding success, she soon spawned a series of plays -<br />
Madea's Family Reunion (2002), Madea's Class Reunion (2003), Madea Goes To Jail (2005) - and<br />
set the stage for Tyler's jump to the big screen.<br />
In early 2005, Tyler's first feature film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, debuted at #1 nationwide.<br />
His ensuing films, Madea's Family Reunion; Daddy's Little Girls; Why Did I Get Married?; Meet<br />
The Browns; The Family That Preys; I Can Do Bad All by Myself; Why Did I Get Married Too?;<br />
For Colored Girls; Madea's Big, Happy Family; Good Deeds and Madea's Witness Protection have<br />
all met with massive critical and commercial success, delighting audiences across America and<br />
around the world.<br />
Perry also helped release Academy Award®-nominated Precious, a movie based on the novel Push<br />
by Sapphire, in conjunction with his 34th Street Films banner, Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films and<br />
Lionsgate.<br />
2006 saw the publication of Tyler's first book, Don't Make A Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings:<br />
Madea's Uninhibited Commentaries On Life And Love, which shot to the top of the New York<br />
Times nonfiction bestseller list and remained there for eight weeks. It went on to claim Quill Book<br />
Awards for both "Humor" and "Book of the Year" (an unheard-of feat for a first-time author), and<br />
spread Tyler Perry's unique brand of inspirational entertainment to a devoted new audience.<br />
It is a brand that quickly became an empire. In 2007, Tyler expanded his reach to television with the<br />
TBS series House of Payne, the highest-rated first-run syndicated cable show of all time, which<br />
went into syndication after only a year. His follow up effort, Meet the Browns, was the second<br />
highest debut ever on cable - after House of Payne. In 2012, Perry inked a partnership deal with<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
12
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
Oprah Winfrey's OWN to write/produce and direct their first scripted series which will premiere in<br />
May 2013.<br />
Not one to rest on success, Tyler Perry and his 350 Atlanta-based employees have been hard at<br />
work. His latest film, Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor will be released<br />
in March 2013 followed by a December 2013 release of Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas<br />
and Single Moms Club, is currently in production and will be released in 2014. 2013 will also see<br />
the release of the second production from his 34 th Street Films banner, We the Peeples. He can currently<br />
be seen in the title role in the Rob Cohen-directed Alex Cross.<br />
In the fall of 2008, Perry opened his 200,000 square foot studio in Atlanta, situated on the former<br />
Delta Airlines campus of more than 30 acres. The studio consists of 5 sound stages, a post production<br />
facility, a pond, a back lot, a 400-seat theater, a private screening room, and designated areas<br />
for entertaining and hosting events.<br />
But listen to Tyler Perry and you'll hear a man who hasn't forgotten about the people that have<br />
helped him reach the top of a mountain he could once only dream of climbing. He has been intimately<br />
involved in civil rights cases, including the trial of the Jena 6 in his home state of Louisiana.<br />
He has donated generously to charities that focus on helping the homeless, such as Feeding America,<br />
Covenant House, Hosea Feed the Hungry, Project Adventure, and Perry Place - a 20-home<br />
community that Tyler built for survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. In July 2009, Tyler<br />
sponsored a trip to Walt Disney World® Resort for 65 children after learning that a suburban swim<br />
club had turned them away because of the color of their skin. Tyler Perry has also built 2 churches<br />
and has donated generously to the NAACP.<br />
In January 2010, Perry pledged $1,000,000 via The Tyler Perry Foundation to help rebuild the lives<br />
of those affected by the recent earthquakes in Haiti.<br />
Tyler Perry practices what he preaches, and what he preaches has endeared him to millions of fans<br />
drawn by that unique blend of spiritual hope and down-home humor that continues to shape his inspiring<br />
life story and extraordinary body of work.<br />
OZZIE AREU (Producer) became president of Tyler Perry Studios, the first African-American<br />
owned major motion picture and television studio in 2008. The mission of Tyler Perry Studios, a<br />
place where even dreams believe, is to build worlds, inspiring audiences with real-life, and thought<br />
provoking issues.<br />
Ozzie's functions as president include overseeing all facets of film, television, and play productions.<br />
Tyler Perry Studios is nestled in Atlanta on 60 acres and houses over 200,000 square feet of studio<br />
space. The studio occupies 5 sound stages, full post‐production facilities, back lot locations, a 400<br />
seat theater, and private screening rooms.<br />
In addition to Ozzie's duties as president of Tyler Perry Studios, he has produced numerous Tyler<br />
Perry films and television shows. Films produced include, the newly released "Good Deeds" starring<br />
Thandie Newton, Gabrielle Union and Tyler Perry; "The Marriage Counselor" starring Jurnee<br />
Smollett-Bell, Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Williams, and Brandy Norwood; "We The Peeples" starring<br />
Kerry Washington, Craig Robinson and Ana Gasteyer; and "For Colored Girls." "For Colored<br />
Girls" received honors at the NAACP Image Awards including Outstanding Supporting Actress in a<br />
Motion Picture ‐ Kimberly Elise, Outstanding Directing for a Motion Picture/Television Movie ‐<br />
Tyler Perry, and Outstanding Motion Picture. At the 2011 BET Awards show "For Colored Girls"<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
13
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
received top honors for Best Picture. Ozzie also produced "Madea's Big Happy Family" starring<br />
Loretta Devine, Cassi Davis, Shad "Bow Wow" Moss, Tamela and David Mann, and Tyler Perry.<br />
Ozzie executive produces "Tyler Perry's For Better or Worse" due to premiere its second season on<br />
Turner Broadcasting Systems July 13, 2012. Ozzie also produces "Tyler Perry's House of Payne," a<br />
comedy series about a multi-generational, working class family who experiences all of life's struggles<br />
with faith, love and most importantly humor. The show premiered on TBS as the highest rated<br />
first‐run sitcom in basic cable's history. The show remained basic cable's #1 sitcom until TBS's August<br />
2008 premiere of "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns." For the first quarter of 2011, "House of<br />
Payne" and "Meet the Browns" ranked among television's Top 5 primetime sitcoms with African-<br />
American adults 18-34 and 18-49. Produced by Areu, "Meet the Browns" has the second highest<br />
debut ever on cable, after "House of Payne." In 2012 "House of Payne" received two NAACP Image<br />
Awards including Best Comedy Series and Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series –<br />
Keshia Knight Pulliam. In 2010 Ozzie executive produced "The Tyler Perry Show."<br />
Ozzie heads up 34th Street Films, a Tyler Perry <strong>Production</strong> arm that discovered the film, "Precious"<br />
while at the Sundance Film Festival and made the movie "For Colored Girls" and "We the Peeples."<br />
Prior to assuming duties as president of Tyler Perry Studios, Ozzie began his career with Warner<br />
Bros. in Burbank, California. He worked on set and closely with cast members of NBC's "Veronica's<br />
Closet" and "Jessie" along with one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, Emmy® Awardwinning<br />
"Friends" for nine years. Following his years of service in television, from 1999 to 2005,<br />
Ozzie worked professionally alongside two of the most successful entertainers from <strong>Hollywood</strong>'s<br />
A-list, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Next, Areu worked with Daytime Emmy® Award winner for<br />
Outstanding Talk Show, Ellen Degeneres for two years.<br />
PAUL HALL (Producer) CEO and founder of Paul Hall <strong>Production</strong>s, is a feature film and television<br />
producer whose credits include The Marriage Counselor, Madea's Witness Protection, Good<br />
Deeds, For Colored Girls, We the Peeples, Higher Learning, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, the 2000<br />
re-imagining of Shaft, Johnson Family Vacation and Pride.<br />
In 2010, Paul partnered with ESPN and director John Singleton to produce a highly-rated 30 for 30<br />
series documentary, "Marion Jones: Press Pause."<br />
Paul began his career working local news in the San Francisco market which led to positions at both<br />
the ABC and NBC networks. Soon after Paul took on the Los Angeles market, pioneering documentary<br />
programming for the PBS-affiliate KCET, and the network-affiliated programming for<br />
KABC. Paul received an Emmy® nomination for his groundbreaking work with KABC.<br />
In mid-1990's, Paul founded The Berkeley Group, a television and motion picture marketing company<br />
whose credits include the FOX Network reality series "Sightings and Encounters: The Hidden<br />
Truth." Paul's television work has aired on the FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, HBO and Showtime networks.<br />
Paul's feature filmmaking relationships span the major studios; he has spearheaded pictures<br />
for Lionsgate, Paramount, Fox, Sony, and Warner Brothers.<br />
MIKE UPTON (Executive Producer) has been producing films for over 20 years, and has made his<br />
mark on films like The Road, Akeelah and the Bee, Madea's Family Reunion, and Diary of a Mad<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
14
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
Black Woman. Upton spent four years as Senior Vice President of <strong>Production</strong> at 2929 Entertainment,<br />
followed by 2 years at Lionsgate as a consultant and <strong>Production</strong> Executive. Currently, Upton<br />
is the Head of Physical <strong>Production</strong> at Inferno Entertainment.<br />
MICHAEL PASEORNEK (Executive Producer) has been President of Motion Picture <strong>Production</strong><br />
at Lionsgate since the company's inception in 1997.<br />
According to Variety, "If there is a Lionsgate model, then Paseornek has to be considered one of the<br />
chief architects."<br />
In 2004, Paseornek met Tyler Perry and forged a relationship that brought audiences blockbusters<br />
such as Madea's Big Happy Family, Madea Goes To Jail, Why Did I Get Married?, Diary Of A<br />
Mad Black Woman, and Madea's Family Reunion, all of which opened number 1 at the box office.<br />
Lionsgate has been the home to 15 Tyler Perry movies and has recently completed a deal to produce<br />
two more.<br />
Paseornek also executive produced urban films ranging from dramas such as For Colored Girls,<br />
Pride, the critically acclaimed Akeelah And The Bee, and the upcoming family comedy We The<br />
Peeples. He also played an important role in bringing Precious to the studio.<br />
In the genre arena, building on the success of the Saw series, Paseornek broke new ground with My<br />
Bloody Valentine 3D - the first horror film utilizing the new 3D digital technology. In addition,<br />
Paseornek executive produced Sam Raimi's Ghost House <strong>Production</strong>, The Possession, and is in post<br />
on Texas Chainsaw 3D. He also oversees the U.S. debut of famed Korean director Kim Jee Woon's,<br />
The Last Stand, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.<br />
Over the past 25 years, Paseornek has played an important role in the emergence of the independent<br />
film scene developing modestly budgeted, highly targeted genre, action, and comedy films. He<br />
founded Cinepix/Famous Players (CFP's) U.S. operations in 1992 which distributed acclaimed films<br />
such as Academy Award® winner Ang Lee's first feature Pushing Hands, James Mangold's<br />
directoral debut Heavy, James Coburn's Oscar® winning performance in Affliction, and Bill Condon's<br />
Oscar® winner Gods And Monsters. When CFP went public it was renamed Lionsgate in<br />
1997. The first films under the new Lionsgate banner that Paseornek executive produced were critical<br />
successes, including Monsters Ball, American Psycho, Buffalo 66 and Shattered Glass. The film<br />
division has won over 25 Oscar® nominations to date.<br />
Outside of Lionsgate, Paseornek serves on the board of directors of UCLA Mattel's Children's Hospital,<br />
is on the advisory board of Hearts of Hope, a foundation sending doctors to Latin America,<br />
and the board of Del Corazon, a year round charitable camp for children with heart disease.<br />
Paseornek began his career after graduating from New York University in 1974 when he became<br />
the writing partner of former National Lampoon editor Michel Choquette. He then became a humorist-speechwriter<br />
for some of the nation's leading business executives and worked as a script-doctor<br />
on a number of feature films.<br />
Paseornek is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Writer's Guild<br />
of America. He has been a guest speaker at a number of institutions, including Harvard, New York<br />
University, and the American Film Institute and has served on numerous industry panels for organizations<br />
such as the NAACP and the Director Guild of America.<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
15
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
ALEXANDER GRUSZYNSKI, ASC (Director of Photography) was born and raised in Warsaw,<br />
Poland, moved to Copenhagen, Denmark where he was accepted to film school and spent the next<br />
ten years shooting numerous documentaries and feature films. After relocating to New York, he<br />
made his American film debut photographing the comedy Almost You, directed by Adam Brooks.<br />
Among his credits are films he shot in collaboration with director Andrew Fleming such as Threesome,<br />
Dick, The In-Laws, Hamlet 2 and Nancy Drew. Other credits include 54, Maximum Risk,<br />
Promised Land, Brothers, Deliver Us From Eva, Tremors and I Like it That Way for which he received<br />
nomination for Independent Spirit Award. His most recent credits are movies directed by<br />
Tyler Perry including For Colored Girls and Tyler Perry's Good Deeds.<br />
Gruszynski's television work includes telefilms "Surviving," "Cast A Deadly Spell," "By the<br />
Dawn's Early Light," "The Last Innocent Man," "The Women Of Brewster Street," among others.<br />
For his work on the television movie "Kingfish," Gruszynski won the Cable Ace Award For Outstanding<br />
Achievement in Cinematography and was nominated for same by the American Society of<br />
Cinematographers.<br />
ELOISE C. STAMMERJOHN (<strong>Production</strong> Designer) began her work with Mr. Tyler Perry on his<br />
feature film "The Marriage Counselor" that is due for release in March of 2013.<br />
In the past Ms. Stammerjohn has worked with the director Rod Lurie on a number of projects, most<br />
notably on his feature film "Nothing But Truth" starring Kate Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga and Alan<br />
Alda and on his ABC series, "Commander In-Chief" starring Geena Davis. Ms. Stammerjohn started<br />
her career as a production assistant on the film "The Long Walk Home," starring Sissy Spacek<br />
and Whoopi Goldberg. She prides herself on the fact that she has worked her way up in the industry<br />
holding most positions in the Art Department including Set Decorator and Art Director.<br />
Ms. Stammerjohn has worked as a prop maker, carpenter, accountant and even as a grip - for a day.<br />
She has tried to learn every aspect of the art and business of filmmaking but realizes that each day<br />
on set provides a new lesson. She always gives credit to her crews for their effort on behalf of the<br />
look of the film and tries to never lose sight of the collaborative nature of filmmaking.<br />
Some of her other credits include: set decorator on "The Contendor" starring Jeff Bridges and Joan<br />
Allen; set decorator on "The Last Castle" with Robert Redford; art director on the John Sayles film,<br />
"Honeydripper;" production designer on the independent drama "Farewell To Harry" and the independent<br />
romantic comedy "Falling For Grace," starring Gayle Harold and Fay Ann Lee.<br />
Ms. Stammerjohn attended Stanford University where she studied Anthropology. When she is not<br />
designing films, Ms. Stammerjohn remodels historic homes and commercial properties and does<br />
interior design work for private clients around the world. She loves photography, writes children's<br />
books and is completing her first screenplay.<br />
MAYSIE HOY, A.C.E.(Editor) began her theater training in her hometown of Vancouver, Canada.<br />
She studied improvisational theatre in San Francisco with "The Wing" and "The Committee." Upon<br />
returning to Vancouver, she formed an improvisational company called "The Good Will Store"<br />
where she was the artistic director. For the next two years, her troupe performed and taught Viola<br />
Spolin's theater games in schools and correctional institutions. During this time she was cast in<br />
Robert Altman's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller."<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
16
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
When the movie wrapped, she left for Los Angeles with only a backpack and sleeping bag. She<br />
knew two people in L.A.-- a friend who offered her a place to stay and Robert Altman. For the next<br />
eight years she learned the art of filmmaking by working for Robert Altman in research, costume<br />
and production design. She also acted in several of his films, including "California Split," "Nashville"<br />
and "Three Women and a Wedding."<br />
It was on Altman's "Buffalo Bill and the Indians" that she landed a job as an editorial apprentice.<br />
There she discovered her passion and talent for film editing. She moved up quickly to a film assistant,<br />
and then became a film and sound assistant on many Altman films and on projects that he produced<br />
with directors Alan Rudolph and Robert Benton.<br />
Her editing credits include: "The Joy Luck Club," "The Player" (co-edited), "Smoke," "What<br />
Dreams May Come", "Freedom Song," "Lovejones," "Freeway," and several films for Tyler Perry<br />
including "For Colored Girls," "The Marriage Counselor," "Madea's Big Happy Family," "Why Did<br />
I Get Married, Too?," "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," and "Madea Goes To Jail."<br />
Ms. Hoy is an alumna of the American Film Institute's Directing Women's Workshop. She is on the<br />
Board of Directors in both the Motion Picture Editors Guild and American Cinema Editors. She has<br />
been featured with thirty accomplished craftswomen in a book called "Great Women in Films."<br />
JOHNETTA BOONE (Costume Designer) A common thread woven throughout the complexities<br />
of characters in the Tyler Perry produced film For Colored Girls, featuring a star studded cast of<br />
Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Phylicia Rashad, Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, Anika Noni-<br />
Rose, Tessa Thompson and Thandie Newton, is the rich mosaic of relationships, love, dreams- and<br />
nightmares composing their lives. Their storylines are played out, with a powerful, emotional intensity,<br />
in wardrobes of color creating a buzz of its own. Enter the master designer "behind the seams"<br />
of For Colored Girls- Johnetta Boone.<br />
Starting as an aspiring art student at the Duke Ellington School of the Performing Arts, Boone has<br />
served as stylist and designer for the still photography, television, commercial and feature film arenas<br />
for more than three decades. Her fashion imprint is brought to bear on designs running the<br />
gamut--everything from turn of-the century, classic, contemporary, and retro to various uniforms,<br />
including sport attire.<br />
Boone began her career working with such notable photographers as Ruven Afanador and George<br />
Holz, while creating spreads for German Vogue, Entertainment Weekly and Us Magazine. She<br />
spent many years developing her craft while studying in New York at the Fashion Institute of Technology.<br />
With Edith Head as her inspiration, her dream of someday designing images for the motion<br />
picture industry soon became her reality. While supporting an Academy Award®-winning designer<br />
with the cast of Beloved, Boone gained acclaim not just for her captivating style but also a compelling<br />
sense of integrity.<br />
Other costume designers have described her as one of the best they've ever worked with, bringing to<br />
productions more than panache, but also a coveted authority on personal style. Academy-Award®<br />
winning designer Albert Wolsky was so highly impressed with her that on the film Runaway Bride<br />
he gave her carte blanche to recreate her exact design image, including her "personal" hand-made<br />
jewelry for actress Joan Cussack. Producer Tim Reid recognized her talent and work ethic and invited<br />
her to design for the Showtime Original Series Linc's.<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
17
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
The nation's capital served as backdrop for her expert skills when she costume designed for HBO's<br />
original television series K Street, directed by Steven Soderbergh and executive produced by<br />
George Clooney. There, she infused flair into the bland Washington, D.C. political arena. Political<br />
consultant Mary Matalin was so in love with the designs Johnetta created for her character that<br />
when the series ended, she carried it over into her personal life by purchasing each and every piece.<br />
Boone's versatility was also captured in baseball uniforms that she designed for the sports movie<br />
Mickey (written by John Grisham and directed by Hugh Wilson of Guarding Tess), boxing attire for<br />
Showtime's original pilot The Contender (also directed by Hugh Wilson), and firefighter uniforms<br />
for the History Channel's recently produced docu-drama Countdown To Ground Zero, which retells<br />
the 9/11 tragedies during the last 102 pivotal minutes.<br />
Boone's design mastery is also displayed in period attire like 1940's pieces in The Notebook and<br />
Cadillac Records,featuring Beyonce and covering 1940 to the late 1960's. She has also designed for<br />
actors such as Sam Shephard, Lynne Redgrave, John Malkovich, Kathy Baker, Maria Bello and<br />
Emily Blunt. Her work has been featured in numerous regional and national television commercials<br />
as well as the pages of the book "The Color of Fashion."<br />
A hard-working professional who loves her craft? Yes. A person wrapped in the New<br />
York/<strong>Hollywood</strong> culture? No. Boone not only grew up in Washington, DC but continues to live in<br />
the DC area, maintaining a grounded lifestyle as a suburban wife and mother of two children.<br />
Yet, based on the growing Oscar® buzz surrounding For Colored Girls, Boone is now poised to<br />
enjoy game-changing success in her field despite being anchored far from the traditional entertainment<br />
epicenters.<br />
JOEL C. HIGH (Music Supervisor) is a music supervisor and producer who has worked on over<br />
100 films and television projects and also is chief executive for a company he co-founded in 2006.<br />
Over the last decade, he created and supervised the music departments for two of the leading independent<br />
studios in the industry: Trimark Pictures and Lionsgate Entertainment. He built the publishing<br />
division for both companies and started the boutique soundtrack label Lions Gate Records. In<br />
addition to his acclaimed work in motion pictures working with directors such as Tyler Perry, Marc<br />
Forster, Peter Bogdanovich, Don Roos, Roger Avary, James Foley, Bill Paxton, Billy Ray, Mario<br />
Van Peebles, Duane Adler and Rob Zombie, he oversaw the music for the growing Television<br />
group at Lionsgate, including "The Dead Zone" and the Golden Globe®-winning series "Weeds."<br />
Joel is the music executive behind such films as "Saw," "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and the Leonard<br />
Cohen documentary "I'm Your Man." He oversaw Lionsgate's first Academy Award® nomination<br />
in the Original Song category, for Best Picture winner "Crash" and the Golden Globe® nominated<br />
score from "Girl With A Pearl Earring" by Alexandre Desplat.<br />
Joel has been the music supervisor for all of Tyler Perry's films including "Diary of a Mad Black<br />
Woman" , "Madea Goes To Jail", "I Can Do Bad All By Myself",the ground breaking "For Colored<br />
Girls" based on the prizewinning seminal play and most recently "Madea's Witness Protection". Joel<br />
has co-produced and supervised two films in a row for Mario Van Peebles including the coming<br />
of age dance film "We The Party". He recently completed "Cobu 3D" a dance film from Writer/Director<br />
Duane Adler and producer Robert Cort ("Step Up, Save The Last Dance". He is the music<br />
supervisor for films ranging from "In the Mix," starring Usher, Rob Zombie's "The Devil's Rejects,"<br />
"The Wash" with Snoop and Dre, Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert's "Strangers with Candy",<br />
Oscar® winner "Monsters Ball", "The Other Woman" starring Natalie Portman and the HBO<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
18
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
series "Little Britain – USA". He is a four-time nominee as outstanding Music Supervisor of the<br />
year and is a founding member and board member of the Guild of Music supervisors, and has previously<br />
served on the board for the California Copyright Conference.<br />
Joel is currently the principal executive at Creative Control Entertainment, a multi-faceted music<br />
supervision, consultation, live event and production company, with offices in Los Angeles and New<br />
Orleans and diverse clients ranging from independent studios and national brands to international<br />
governments.<br />
Tackling another Nicholas Sparks adaptation, The Last Song, in 2010, Zigman wrote the instrumental<br />
"Steve's Song"—which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. Going for another record,<br />
in 2007 Aaron Zigman scored an unprecedented nine films in one year. Inexhaustible and unlimited<br />
in his capabilities, Zigman has risen to the highest ranks of today's film composers.<br />
AARON ZIGMAN (Composer) is quickly proving to be one of the most prolific and versatile<br />
composers in film music today. The Emmy®-winning songwriter plants one foot in the world of<br />
pop idioms and the other in the emotional scope of a symphony orchestra to create narrative scores<br />
that complement each genre he's assigned—and with more than 50 film credits to his name, that has<br />
encompassed everything from the passionate romance The Notebook, to the fantastical adventure in<br />
Bridge to Terabithia, to the sensitivity of For Colored Girls.<br />
A classically trained pianist since childhood, Zigman began his musical career as a session keyboardist,<br />
arranger, and as a producer to popular music stars. Soon his resume boasted names like<br />
Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Phil Collins, Oleta Adams, Tina Turner, Patti Labelle, Chicago,<br />
Nona Gaye, Carly Simon, Huey Lewis, Christina Aguilera and Seal.<br />
In 2002 Aaron Zigman scored his first feature, the Denzel Washington thriller John Q, for director<br />
Nick Cassavetes which began an ongoing composer-director collaboration; Zigman went on to<br />
score three more films for Cassavetes. Their next project was The Notebook, the wildly successful<br />
adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' romantic novel, starring Gena Rowlands and James Garner. Their<br />
most recent collaboration was "My Sister's Keeper," starring Cameron Diaz.<br />
Zigman's versatile credits include the family adventure fantasy film "Bridge to Terabithia;"<br />
"Akeelah & The Bee," starring Laurence Fishbourne and Angela Bassett; "Mr. Magorium's Wonder<br />
Emporium," which he co-scored with Alexandre Desplat; the period drama "Flash of Genius" starring<br />
Greg Kennear; Tyler Perry's "For Colored Girls;" and the dark drama "Alpha Dog," another<br />
collaboration with Nick Cassavettes. In the past few years, Zigman has had three romantic hits with<br />
"Sex and the City," "The Proposal" starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, and "The Ugly<br />
Truth" starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. In addition, Zigman has scored the last nine Tyler<br />
Perry films. Other scores include "Sex and the City 2" and "The Company Men" starring Tommy<br />
Lee Jones and Chris Cooper.<br />
Zigman's broad musical palette is further evident in his diverse body of work. He masterfully transferred<br />
small screen success to the big screen by scoring both films based on the hit HBO series Sex<br />
and the City; the timely story of a downturn economy in The Company Men; the sexy rhythm of<br />
three Step Up films; the sports biopic Pride; the sweet equestrian ride of Flicka andthe touching<br />
John Cusack drama Martian Child.<br />
Tackling another Nicholas Sparks adaptation, The Last Song, in 2010, Zigman wrote the instrumental<br />
"Steve's Song"—which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. Going for another record,<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
19
<strong>TYLER</strong> <strong>PERRY'S</strong> <strong>TEMPTATION</strong> (2013)<br />
PRODUCTION NOTES<br />
in 2007 Aaron Zigman scored an unprecedented nine films in one year. Inexhaustible and unlimited<br />
in his capabilities, Zigman has risen to the highest ranks of today's film composers.<br />
KIM TAYLOR-COLEMAN, CSA (Casting Director) After a stint at Creative Artists Agency,<br />
Kim Taylor-Coleman,\ began her casting career as an intern on SE7EN. She worked as an assistant<br />
and associate on a variety of diverse projects including Enemy of the State, Bringing Down The<br />
House, Akeelah & the Bee and Amistad. She has gone on to cast movies such as Inside Man, Public<br />
Enemies, Miracle at St Anna, Good Deeds and Madea's Witness Protection. Additionally some of<br />
her feature films that have yet to be released are the feature films We The Peeples and Tyler Perry's<br />
Temptation. She most recently cast Oldboy, Baggage Claim, and Addicted. Kim has also casts TV<br />
pilots, among them "Da Brick" for HBO, "Everybody Hates Chris," "Shark" for CBS, animated feature<br />
"Boxcar Children" for Animation Picture Co., "Sleeper Cell" for Showtime, "House of Anubis"<br />
for Limepictures/Nickelodeon and "The Real Husbands of <strong>Hollywood</strong>" for BET.<br />
Kim is based in Los Angeles but casts at least one project per year out of New York.<br />
© 2013 Lionsgate<br />
20