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Lee Daniels' mom wanted him to 'make movies like Tyler Perry': 'You're embarrassing us at church'

All Lee Daniels' mother wanted was for her son to 'make movies like Tyler Perry.' 'You're embarrassing us at church,' she said. So he made 'The Butler' to appease her, calling it 'the most refrained I’ve ever been, ever.'

Lee Daniels' 2013 film The Butler may have won him widespread acclaim and more than quintupled its budget at the box office, but he didn't do it for the glory or the cash. "I don’t like staying in the same lane just as a creative," he said, adding "that part of me, the fear I had" while making The Deliverance, Daniels' first out-and-out horror film, "was doing something that was different for me, checking a box." He returned to Oscars glory in 2021 with The United States vs. Billie Holiday, starring singer Andra Day in her first screen role.

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