Tisha Campbell has a new movie role that is already making fans laugh before catching her in action on the big screen in the upcoming flick “Not Another Church Movie.”
The project boasts a cast of stars like Jamie Foxx, Vivica A. Fox, Kevin Daniels, and Mickey Rourke. According to IMDb, the film’s logline reads: “It follows Taylor Pherry, who is given a mission from God Himself: to tell his family’s stories and inspire his community. What he doesn’t know is that the Devil has plans of his own.”
Campbell gave her Instagram followers a peek at behind-the-scenes footage, writing, “Hope this makes someone smile cuz it’s been a longggg day.” The clip showed her in a black pencil skirt, fusichia blouse, heels, and rocking a pixie cut and body padding that gave her a larger backside.
“Getting into character starts wayyyy before one hits the set. I was still working out the physicality up to the last moment. S/O to costumes, hair and makeup. We had fun in the process,” she wrote in the video’s text as she waddled from her trailer to shoot a scene.
Fans instantly picked up on Campbell’s unrecognizable appearance including one who said, “Somebody help a brother out is that Gina that played on Martin Lawrence.”
Others immediately mistook Campbell for one of Tyler Perry’s most beloved “Madea” characters, Cora Jean Simmons, who has appeared in countless plays, films, and sitcoms. Actress and singer Tamela Mann has portrayed the God-fearing Southerner for two decades.
“Is that Cora?” wrote one person. “Was waiting for Mr Brown to run out behind her until I realized that aint Cora,” commented another individual on the post. A third joked, “Looking like you bout to sing ‘Take me to the Kiiinnnggg.”
Not Tisha Campbell playing Cora 😂🤣😂🤣😂 https://t.co/8drKgHfkDw
— CJ, is that you?? (@MrBucNRight) March 30, 2024
Elsewhere on Instagram, people who also noticed the obvious likeness to Perry’s work wrote things like, “Tell me this is a Tyler Perry production without telling me it’s a Tyler Perry production” and “Tyler going to send you a “cease and desist.”
Social media users are right about their assumptions that Campbell is playing Cora, or better yet, Flora Black, and that’s exactly how “Not Another Church Movie” writer and director Johnny Mack intended it to be.
Since we starting a Tyler Perry play thread here is one of CORA going off 😭 pic.twitter.com/OGV6Qv6JCN
— 👩🏾💻creative communicator (@msjacksonspage) March 24, 2019
Speaking on how the project came to fruition, he explained that while watching “back to back all these faith-based church movies, and I was like this the same movie, the same concept, the same things happen. And I was like, how can I make this funny? How can I flip this and make it funny?”
“Not attacking anybody, not attacking the church, ‘cause everybody know I love God…but how can I make it funny?” added Mack in a past interview. “Then I thought of what if I spoofed it? And actually, when I came up with the idea, it’s gonna be disgusting, I do my best thinking on the toilet. I went to the bathroom, and I was on the toilet…and when I got off the toilet, when I got out of the bathroom, I had the idea of how to flip, how to spoof all these faith-based movies.”
Oscar-winner Foxx serves as the executive producer for the movie as well as portraying the motorcycle-driving version of God.
Rourke plays the Devil, and Daniels — most recently known for his work on the reboot of “Frasier” and “Will Trent” — takes on the task of playing the mogul-esque roles of Taylor Pharry and Madude, who is a spoof of Madea. The film is slated to hit theaters on May 10.
