Check out what Taraji P. Henson had to say during her conversation with moderator Gayle King at the 2015 American Black Film Festival.
At the age of 44, Taraji P. Henson has appeared in 28 films, been nominated for an Academy Award, single-handedly raised her 20-year-old son and is now the celebrity ambassador at the 19th Annual American Black Film Festival. On Friday, June 12th, Taraji sat down with Gayle and spoke about her journey before Hollywood as well obstacles she continues to face as “Cookie” on the ridiculously popular television show “Empire.” From multiple rejections to being told she was too old for Hollywood, take a look at how far Taraji has come.
Taraji was drawn to the arts from a very young age, but a rejection from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts had her believing she wasn’t good enough. Convinced that she lacked the talent needed to pursue her dreams, Taraji decided to be an electrical engineering major at A&T until she failed pre-calculus. Taraji mentioned that after failing pre-calc, her father told her that she needed to fail in order to realize that she should be pursuing acting at Howard University. Taraji also spoke about the challenge of getting pregnant at such a young age and still managing to finish college with a baby. Taraji’s always been a determined individual and said that she didn’t want to be another statistic by dropping out of college after getting pregnant. She said, “having a baby is not a disease, it’s a blessing” and graduated with her son, Marcell, by her side. Taraji also discussed how her son is her best friend and how she’s taught him to find a partner who’ll push him and challenge him to be better. She’s also raised Marcelle to not let hateful words have influence over him such as n*****.
In terms of her future and her career, Taraji said that she’s hungry for more and wants to push the limits as far as she can by playing a man or a white person, something seemingly impossible. She hopes to inspire and touch people through her work and honestly wants to be in a movie that’s a franchise. When she first arrived in Hollywood, Taraji “had no one but her son and Jesus” and was told she was too old, too dark, too light, too ugly etc., for multiple roles. She struggled and worked in Hollywood long before “Baby Boy,” which most people consider to be her debut. Even after receiving an Oscar nomination, her career didn’t skyrocket, in fact the first person to call her and mention numbers was Tyler Perry. She hit some controversial topics and discussed how Hollywood hesitates to have black leads in films they plan to promote and screen overseas and internationally. Taraji said that Hollywood will only take you seriously if you’re in a movie that is successful overseas and she wants to see more of an effort from Hollywood in promoting African-American-led films overseas.
Gayle read an interesting email she received from Lee Daniels in regards to working with Taraji and he highlights that despite what people think, Taraji was in fact his first choice for the role and that she never acts, she simply is. Taraji discussed her initial hesitation with going to television and especially with taking on this role. She mentions that she didn’t even consider it, but after being coaxed to read the script she was overcome with fear and knew that the role of Cookie would be her next challenge. From her perspective Cookie’s abusive and homophobic character is still endearing because she speaks her mind and is blunt and isn’t afraid to be honest. Taraji’s character undoubtedly contributed to the weekly rise in ratings and 17.5 million viewers and said that she sees a lot of Cookie in her father, which helped her inform her role.
Taraji said that maintaining relationships and dating has gotten harder since Empire. Even when people claim to be unphased by her fame, she says it’s still difficult to recognize authenticity. Gayle did cajole Taraji into revealing what she’s looking for in a partner. Her ideal partner would be her best friend, challenge her, make her laugh and make her feel special. She also said that she’s never dated outside of her race, but that doesn’t mean that she wouldn’t and that’s why she can’t physically describe her ideal partner, because she doesn’t know what he would look like.
-Nishat Baig
