‘Joe’s College Road Trip’ was wild ride for Tyler Perry’s co-star

Actor Jermaine Harris got to ride shotgun to Joe’s excesses as his uptight, preppy Urkel-like grandson.

“Joe’s crazy,” Harris said in a Zoom interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He has a one-track mind. He likes what he likes and he knows what he knows. In past Madea movies, he was that voice in the corner saying outrageous things. This is the first time we see him three dimensionally, and we understand his reasonings behind the things he says.”

Harris, who grew up outside San Francisco, was first cast to play B.J. in the 2025 film “Madea’s Destination Wedding.” Perry, he said, liked him so much he decided to create a film with a heavy focus around Harris.

Credit: Perry Well Films 2/Courtesy Netflix

Credit: Perry Well Films 2/Courtesy Netflix

“When I saw the script for ‘Joe’s,’ I was blown away with how funny it was,” said Harris, 27, who previously played a regular in the short-lived Disney series “Saturdays” in 2023. “I was ecstatic.”

The setup for “Joe’s College Road Trip” is simple. B.J.’s father, Brian Simmons (also played by Perry), a man who has tried to raise his son “not to see color,” is appalled that B.J. is against going to a historically Black college like Morehouse and favors Pepperdine University in Los Angeles. (Madea makes a brief cameo appearance in a scene featuring Perry playing Brian, Joe and Madea at the same time.)

To shake up B.J.’s worldview, Brian persuades his father, Joe, to drive B.J. to Pepperdine and teach him Black history along the way. Joe is old enough to have lived through Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement, but was more part of the “Shaft” crowd than the Martin Luther King Jr. crowd.

At the same time, Joe teaches his grandson to simply loosen up, taking him to a brothel and a Confederate biker bar, where an over-the-top fight ensues. “Joe’s College Road Trip” also gives Perry a chance to show off America. Besides Atlanta, the movie filmed in Las Cruces, New Mexico; Memphis, Tennessee; and Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Credit: Perry Well Films 2/Courtesy Netflix

Credit: Perry Well Films 2/Courtesy Netflix

“I grew up watching Richard Pryor specials. I loved Dick Gregory,” Harris said. “It’s always been in my life in some way, shape or form even before I was acting. It’s almost like ‘Good Will Hunting.’ I understand it.”

Madea will always be special for Perry. She was the subject of his first motion picture 31 years ago, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” which led to a raft of hit sequels. In 2019, Perry “retired” Madea, but the pandemic inspired him to bring her back for two more films.

Perry has not yet indicated plans regarding Madea, who has a huge following but hasn’t exactly been catnip for traditional movie reviewers. Surprisingly, “Joe’s College Road Trip” received plaudits from unlikely places, including Variety and The New York Times.

“While expansively anarchic to a fault, the movie’s anger, and its pride, is convincing,” the Times’ Glenn Kenny wrote.

Variety veteran film reviewer Owen Gleiberman called it “a rude and rollicking lark,” describing Perry’s performance as “a spectacular piece of high-wire burlesque.”

Harris said he was just happy to spend so much time with Perry, expanding his knowledge of the craft of acting.

“He made me want to be on my game even more,” Harris said. “And he was open to my ideas whenever I offered them.”

Harris said he is honored to be part of such a storied franchise.

“Madea is part of the zeitgeist of great cinema, especially for African Americans,” he said. “It’s awesome.”