Dreams really do come true, and Tyler Perry is revealing just how he was able to make that happen for a star in one of his shows.
On Sunday, June 27, the day of BET Awards 2021, he uploaded a beautiful photo of Crystal Renee Hayslett, who plays a paralegal named Fatima on his BET series “Sistas.” He started his caption with the words, “She worked in my wardrobe department. She was my stylist many years. She never told me that she wanted to act or even that she could act.”
Continuing, Perry said, “She had secretly auditioned a couple times, but since I never saw them, she assumed that I didn’t think she had what it takes (…she never told me either).” Revealing just how Hayslett’s character came about he said, “After I created Sistas, she reluctantly asked if she could audition for a small role. So I said I’ll write a character for you, but you better kill it. And she KILLED IT! Fatima was born! I’m so damn proud of you @luvcrystalrenee.”
Perry, 50, added, “I’m crying happy tears for you as I wait to see you on stage tonight at the #BETAwards with all my other incredible ladies of Sistas, Ruthless, and All The Queen’s Men!! All these women make me so damn proud!! I love y’all. #SistasOnBET #RuthlessBETPlus #AllTheQueensMen.”
In January, Hayslett told Essence it was “a full-circle moment” when speaking about how she landed the role. She initially was a production assistant at the Tyler Perry Studios in 2012, worked her way up into the wardrobe department, and like Perry said in his post, eventually became his personal stylist. It wasn’t until 2019, after doing several secret auditions, that she eventually told him about her aspirations for wanting to act.
Previous to working at Tyler Perry Studios, she said she had a job at Capitol Hill. Eventually, she came to terms with the fact that “Politics wasn’t [her] passion.” She said, “I’m such a creative, so in 2009 I left DC and moved to Atlanta to pursue music and acting.”
