Actress Taraji P. Henson is clear that firing her entire team at the peak of her popularity thanks to the series ‘Empire’ is the best decision she has ever made. Was it risky? Yes, but she had no choice but to do it because they were not opening the doors that she needed to achieve her goals on a professional level.
The actress couldn’t understand why contracts weren’t falling from the sky to become the image of different brands after having played a character like Cookie, the matriarch of the Lyon family, who was a true fashion icon. She, too, was not amused to find out that no one had drawn up a strategy for her career once the series concluded because she had bet everything on the possible spin-off centered on Cookie, which had been in negotiation for some time, but which had not been finalized. materialize.
“Everyone had to leave,” he summarized during an interview with the specialized portal Variety. “That’s why you haven’t seen me in so long. They didn’t have anything lined up. All they wanted was another series about Cookie.”
‘Empire’ came to an end in 2020 after the sixth season in a rushed and unsatisfactory way from a narrative point of view, because it left several important plots unfinished. The entire production had been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but there was another equally real threat to its future: the scandal in which Jussie Smollet, one of its protagonists, was involved in orchestrating a homophobic and racist attack against him in Chicago.
Taraji was more than willing to explore the option of filming a spin-off centered on Cookie, but only if she was presented with a story that lived up to the character’s legacy. “So, when they didn’t, I told them that road had been closed, and they had nothing else. I told them: You’re all fired.”
Suddenly, the performer was left without a plan B and without a firm project on the horizon. Although it took her a while to recover from that setback, Taraji has now returned to the movies with the new musical adaptation of ‘The Color Purple’ and she can breathe easy knowing that she was not wrong to bet on her talent and her ambition.
“You are the prize, never forget it. You are the one who has the talent, you are the prize. Don’t forget it. They are the ones who work for you. And if they don’t do it, others will,” he recommended. to other professional colleagues.
