Tyler Perry, the creative force between the hit movies Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family Reunion, settles for just being behind the camera in his latest film, Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls. Daddy's Little Girls is a romantic drama about Monty (Idris Elba), a hard-working single dad who teams up with a gorgeous attorney (Gabrielle Union) to try and stop his ex-wife (who's dating a drug-dealer) from getting custody of his daughters.

Romance is in the air if only Monty and the Ivy-League educated attorney can put aside the differences in their backgrounds and social status long enough to let love grow.

The Inspiration for Daddy’s Little Girls: Tyler Perry says the idea for the story came to him because a friend of his was constantly on the phone. “He was always on the phone and I was thinking, ‘Who is this guy talking to all the time? Every time I turn around he's on the phone and he's supposed to be working.’ And then I found out it's his children. He has these three beautiful daughters. So he was my muse for Monty. He was a guy that grew up in the 'hood.

I have another friend who is very successful - [she's] in corporate America - who is really, really rich. She was my muse. She was always saying how she can't find a man. So I was thinking, ‘What if I introduced the two of them?’ And I started laughing so hard. I said, ‘I gotta write this. It would be hilarious.’”

But Perry never did play matchmaker. “No! They know each other but it could never happen.

Only in the movies, man, only in the movies.”

Where Daddy’s Little Girls Fits In: “I just think that it's like feeling what am I led to do next. I think fathers is what I'm supposed to be talking about now. However, it fits in. I think it'll fall in right where it should. Whatever happens, I'll be happy either way. I think what makes a lot of people in this town unhappy is that you start off with a script or idea, and bring it to a studio. It's shot down. It's changed. It's watered down. So then the movie comes out and doesn't do well and everybody's disappointed, but your vision was lost. But because I'm in the position that I'm in, I've been able to maintain my vision. If I do something that's 100 percent that's my vision, which this movie is, and it fails, I'm still happy because I maintained my vision.”

A Tyler Perry Movie Without Tyler Perry: Perry remains behind the camera for this film and says he never even considered taking a role in Daddy’s Little Girls. “I had done 300 performances of Madea Goes to Jail and done two movies and promoted two movies, and had the book out all in an 18-month period. So at this point I needed a break. And, to me, this was a break - getting behind the camera and getting to play and not having to worry about weight and eating right and all that stuff.”

Fans of Madea need not worry. Perry says the success or failure of this film will not play a part in his decision on how soon to return to Madea. “I know I'm away from Madea for at least two years. It won't have any weight one way or another. I've got a plan I want to follow. There are two movies that I absolutely have to do before I get back to a Madea movie.”

Perry says two years is definitely as long as he’ll go without stepping back into Madea. “I don't think the audience will let me wait that long, or let me go that long, because I have this communication with them and I can see it heating up. I'll give them the Madea book and it'll calm them down a little bit, or give them the book on tape, and that will calm them down. I have to watch it on my website to know when it's time. But they'll dictate it. They'll definitely dictate it.”

Progressing as a Director: Tyler Perry is very forthcoming when it comes to judging his prowess behind the camera. “Madea's Family Reunion was the worst directing,” said Perry. “I'll say it first hand. I think that this was my beginning because I had an opportunity to understand you're supposed to do things with the camera here. There was a movie that drove me crazy, Friday Night Lights, which I really wanted to see. But the camera movement, I got sick in the theater. I was like, ‘Why is the camera a character?’ I always want the camera to just be in the room and let that be my eyes. My eyes don't jump around when I'm watching things, you know? But yes, I'm taking more choices with cameras and doing some different things. It's fun.”

The Church as a Vital Component in Perry’s Films: Asked if it will continue to remain an important part of his movies, Perry responded, “Not in all of the stories. I think it's more of God component than a church component. My next movie, the one I film this summer, it's called A Jazzman's Blues. It's about a jazz singer. I play a jazz singer in 1947 who's in love with a woman that's passing for white, who's married to someone in the town. I meet up with a Holocaust survivor who becomes my manager. [My character] becomes the biggest jazz singer in the world and comes back to get this woman. It's a straight drama. It's a departure from anything I've done. It was written 12 years ago. I had to do these movies in order to have the leverage to do this one.”

The Holocaust survivor is based on someone who affected him deeply. “My mother worked all her life at the Jewish Community Center in New Orleans, where she cared for all of these children,” explained Perry. “As I got older, I got intrigued by it because I didn't know what it meant to be Jewish. I thought there were black people and there were white people. Period. As I was growing up, I realized there was a Holocaust museum not too far from my house so I went and met this woman named Franka. She was speaking to a bunch of children, children that my mother was helping at the community center. She talked about how she survived, and it blew me away. I left with her on my heart and on my mind and I started writing this story. Being in New Orleans and Bourbon Street and the music and the jazz and walking from end to end, it all kind of came together for me.”