Madea is back for more in 'Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself,' in theaters Friday, and Tyler recalls the emotional moments working with Janet Jackson when she learned her brother had died.

"Janet and I are very close so I was very, very worried about her," Tyler tells our own Thea Andrews. "I wanted to make sure she was protected and comfortable."

Tyler was filming with Janet on the sequel 'Why Did I get Married Too,' coming out in April, when news broke that Michael Jackson had died. In the middle of filming an airport scene with 500 extras, Tyler says, "I [felt] the energy drain out of the room."

Upon discovering what had happened, he spoke with Janet, who he says was "very strong; very quiet, very solid, like a mother. … Her strength was amazing."

After flying home to be with her family, Tyler says Janet came back to work every day.

"I think it was a perfect time for her because she needed some place to vent and release, and her character was going through so much," he says. "To keep her mind off the loss and the circus, and the disrespect of it all and everything that was happening. She was so insulated from it that it was really great; watching black-and-white movies and not really watching television, because it would make her so angry."

Out of respect, Tyler says that he rewrote a particularly relevant scene in the movie: "There was a funeral at the end of the movie where she had to talk about a person who had died, and it was so eerie because the things that she was saying were so close," he explains. "I didn't want to put her through that."

In 'Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself,' America's favorite pistol-packing grandma catches a 16-year-old girl and her two younger brothers looting her home. Taking matters into her own hands, Madea decides to teach them a lesson and delivers them to their Aunt April (Taraji P. Henson), a heavy-drinking nightclub singer. Initially reluctant to take in the kids, she soon learns to open up her heart when she's faced with choosing between her old ways and new possibilities of family, faith -- and even true love. Mary J. Blige and Gladys Knight also star.

Watch ET for more with Tyler Perry and the cast of 'I Can Do Bad All By Myself.'