Tyler Perry made headlines last year after being one of the first producers to reopen a film studio during the pandemic, but it wasn’t without precautions.
By July, he and his staff were up and running, working safely in a quarantine bubble model, in which casts and crews stayed in place on the lot during the duration of a shoot. Things have seemingly gone well enough that a rep for the “Alex Cross” star revealed that the bubble would be coming to an end on Saturday, April 10, following a mass vaccination event that took place last weekend on April 3.
Deadline reported that Perry covered all the logistical costs after contracting Atlanta’s Grady Hospital, whose crew built vaccination sites for his staff and their family and friends who had not yet received a COVID-19 shot. Vaccines are not mandatory at TPS. However, over 250 people were injected with the Pfizer vaccine. Grady Hospital personnel are scheduled to return in a few weeks to administer the second dose.
The “Nobody’s Fool” creator received his vaccination in January and released a clip from the drive at TPS. “You hear the cheers and everything, so people are excited and happy to get back to normal. My hope is that people would just get out and get the vaccine,” he said in the clip.
Though the bubble is coming to an end, Perry will continue to implement strict COVID protocols during filming and following industry safety guidelines that other producers at other studios who are not currently in a quarantine bubble.
Earlier this year, the 51-year-old appeared on a BET project titled “COVID-19 Vaccine and the Black Community: A Tyler Perry Special,” where he was filmed getting the shot and asking doctors questions in an effort to help ease the worries surrounding the vaccine.
The director admitted that he didn’t feel like he could trust it before learning about the technology that created the vaccine quickly. “Once I got all the information, found out the research, I was very, very, happy,” he explained. Still, he expressed zero regrets in taking the shot, stating, “I think it’s important for people to know that if you take your chances with COVID, you never know how it’s going to affect you, and it could affect your long-term health.
