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Taraji P. Henson, who has spoken out about pay disparities in Hollywood, reveals she fired her entire team because she didn't capitalize on the success of her hugely popular Cookie character in Empire.
Henson played Cookie Lyon, the wife of former drug dealer and later hip-hop mogul Lucious Lyon, played by Terrence Howard, in all six seasons of the Fox drama.
Henson, in a recent interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, criticized her previous team for not following up on the success of the fan-favorite character when asked what her best business move as an actress was.
“Firing everyone after Cookie,” she said. “Everyone had to fucking leave. Where is my offer? Where is my commercial? Cookie was at the top of the fashion game. Where is my recommendation? What did you plan to do afterwards? That's why you all haven't seen me for so long. They hadn’t prepared anything.”
You can watch the entire interview below.
Henson added that her team wanted her to headline another show centered around the Cookie character, which she wouldn't object to if it was done “right.”
“All they wanted was another cookie show, and I said, 'I'll do it, but it has to be right.' The people deserve it, she's too popular for you to do it.' And when they didn't do it right, I thought, “This is it,” and they had no choice. “You’re fucking fired.”
As we previously reported, in a previous interview with Gayle King on SiriusXM to promote her latest film, The Color Purple, Henson broke down in tears as she talked about being underpaid for her work and almost quitting the industry altogether .
“I'm just tired of working so hard, being gracious about what I do, and only getting paid a fraction of the cost,” Henson said after taking a long break and breaking down. “I'm tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over again. You get tired. I hear people say, “You work a lot.” I have to. Mathematics is not mathematics. And you start working a lot, you have a team. There are big bills associated with what we do. We don't do this alone. There is a whole team behind us. They need to be paid.”
“And when you start working a lot, you have a team,” she continued. “There are big bills associated with what we do. We don't do this alone. The fact that we're up here means we have a whole team behind us. They have to be paid. So when you hear someone say, “Oh, such and such made $10 million,” no, that didn’t go into their account. At first glance, you know Uncle Sam gets 50%, OK? So do the math. Now we have $5 million.”
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