Like the film’s title, Duplicity isn’t simply what it seems on the surface. The tale of an unarmed Black man being shot by law enforcement is a familiar one from which writer, director, and producer Tyler Perry drew inspiration, but that incident is just the beginning of a series of unforeseen revelations that rock lawyer Marley Wells (Kat Graham) in her fight for truth and justice.
During the premiere of Tyler Perry’s Duplicity, he took to the stage to explain his intentions for writing the movie, never taking for granted the opportunities he has, how the cast brought the characters to life, and why Duplicity is not based on a real person but is inspired by our current world.
“I wanted to write a thriller about people abusing the system on all sides,” Perry explains. “While on the outset the story seems straightforward, there is so much more to it, and I loved the idea of allowing viewers to unravel the truth scene by scene. People are going to be really surprised when they see where things go.”
There’s a tense uneasiness surrounding Marley’s good friend Rodney (Joshua Adeyeye), husband of her best friend Fela Blackburn (Meagan Tandy), from the beginning. And it’s a sense that doesn’t go away until the fateful moment he’s killed by rookie cop Caleb Kain (Jimi Stanton) who, along with supervising officer lieutenant Kevin Moore (RonReaco Lee), are responding to a 9-1-1 call of a man breaking and entering into a home. Perry knew instantly he wanted Lee to play a police officer in the film, adding, “right from the start audiences will probably feel uneasy about him without being able to totally put their finger on it.”
“Watching and recreating a Black man being shot by the police was, of course, the most difficult scene for me,” says Perry. “We’ve seen it happen too much over the last several years, and to recreate that felt very real on set for everyone involved.” Therefore, Perry “didn’t want this to be about a real person, so I wrote a fictional character. This story revolves around people who you think are in your corner, but they’re not really in your corner. This is about the people around you; it’s about people taking all of these incredibly important movements and then using them to find their way to get evil and wicked intentions inside of something that was meant to be good or something that needs to be solved and fixed.”
On the surface, Fela Blackburn is an upstanding broadcast journalist and grieving widow following the shooting death of her husband, but the true Fela is something else. Perry has praise for Tandy’s ability to convey those difficult emotions onscreen. “[Meagan] understood how to make the viewer feel the utter sadness and despair of what she’s going through in such a complex time even as she starts to learn more about her husband after his death,” he says.
Marley, in her grief, refuses to leave any stone unturned, promising Fela she will get justice for her and Rodney. Her persistence serves the thrilling nature of the film, as the concerning details she uncovers about the case begin to shatter her trust in everyone around her, including boyfriend Tony Crenshaw (Tyler Lepley). It also underlies the message Perry sought to impart with the film: “That justice always must prevail,” he says. “The truth is not always what it seems on the surface, and it was important for us to explore the different sides of the legal system here.”
Although filmed two years prior, the themes of racial prejudice, police brutality, and the pervasiveness of conservative rhetoric explored in the film are particularly reticent, given the current socio-political climate in America. “These are all important themes that Black people in America think about every day, and while I wanted to make a film to entertain, I also want it to get people to talk about and reflect on certain issues that their fellow citizens or they themselves go through,” Perry says.
“I wrote this movie just to be wild and crazy and do something crazy and twisty. I love those movies from back in the ’90s and ’80s with all those twists and turns at the end. Well, this was twisting and turning a whole lot, so just be ready, just be ready,” Perry added.
Reflecting on his successful career, “I don’t take any of this for granted at all. Everything going to number one, all of the support for all these years, everybody still watching still standing there with us, with me supporting everybody at the studio. There’s not one moment that I’m not grateful, that I’m not thankful. There’s not one moment that I will miss in gratitude. I am grateful for you, so thank you for that. As you watch this movie and take it all in, just go for the ride,” Perry concluded.
Tyler Perry’s Duplicity releases on Prime Video on March 20th. Check out Tyler Perry’s full introduction in the video above.
