Taraji P. Henson was already a big deal before she nabbed Empire. Heck, she even already had an Oscar nomination. But it was playing Loretta “Cookie” Lyon that catapulted her into the rafters. Since the show wrapped in 2020, she’s done plenty of strong work, including playing nightclub performer Shug Avery in the new musical movie version of The Color Purple. But she could have had more post-Cookie, for which she blamed her (former) employees.
Per Deadline, in a recent sitdown with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the Golden Globe-winning actress was asked to name the best business decision she’s made thus far. She didn’t have to think too hard.
“Firing everybody after Cookie,” Henson replied. “Everybody had to f*ckin’ go. Where is my deal? Where’s my commercial? Cookie was at the top of the fashion game. Where is my endorsement? What did you have set up for after this? That’s why you all haven’t seen me in so long. They had nothing set up.”
Henson said the best her previous employees could come up with was her doing another Cookie-type character, which she he wasn’t against:
“All they wanted was another Cookie show, and I said, ‘I’ll do it, but it has to be right. The people deserve, she’s too beloved for y’all to f—k it up.’ And so, when they didn’t get it right, I was like, ‘Well, that’s it,’ and they had nothing else. ‘You’re all f*ckin’ fired.”
Henson may be extremely successful, but that doesn’t have problems with the industry. Indeed, earlier this month she unloaded to Gayle King about how she never seems to make any progress in terms of projects or pay worthy of her abilities.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost,” Henson said after taking a long pause and breaking down. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to. The math ain’t math-ing. And you start working a lot, you have a team. Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. It’s a whole team behind us. They have to get paid.”
(Via Deadline)