Tyler Perry: Kim Kardashian, Bobbi Kristina Are Good Actresses

USMagazine, Tuesday, June 26, 2012, 4:00pm (PDT)

Tyler Perry is offering his support to Hollywood's newest actors: Kim Kardashian and Bobbi Kristina.

The director cast Kardashian, 31, in his upcoming film, The Marriage Counselor, in which she plays Ava, a friend/co-worker of main counselor.

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"She's a good actress," Perry, 42, told reporters of Kardashian at the NYC premiere of Madea's Witness Protection. "She did a really good job."

Perry admitted he did have to defend casting the reality star in the film. "There was a lot going on with her marriage and all that stuff at the time," he explained, of Kardashian's headline-making split from Kris Humphries after 72 days of marriage. "All that stuff that's in the past. The movie's called The Marriage Counselor. Of course it had something to do with that."

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As for working 19-year-old Bobbi Kristina -- the daughter of Bobby Brown and the late Whitney Houston -- on his TBS series For Better Or Worse, Perry said he was impressed by her talent.

"She did a fantastic job. That kid has such a future," he said. "She's such an actor. I'm so proud of her. I'm telling you. As far as she wants to go in this business, she can."

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And casting the newcomer to the series just months after Houston's shocking death at age 48 needed no defense. "I didn't have to defend her casting at all. The whole purpose of that was to make sure that she was around people who cared, who loved her," he explained. "What I found when my mother died is that you have to be around people who you trust. And I was glad that I could be there."

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Tyler Perry: Kim Kardashian, Bobbi Kristina Are Good Actresses