television
Taraji P. Henson means business.
at recent days Interview with SAG-AFTRAThe actress revealed that she fired her entire team after they failed to capitalize on her success in the series “Empire” when the show ended in 2020.
“Everyone had to go,” she joked while speaking with Variety's Angelique Jackson.
Henson, who played Cookie Lyonne for six seasons on the hit Fox drama, explained that she thought she would have had plenty of opportunities after the series ended.
Instead, she was deeply overwhelmed.
“Where's my deal? Where's my commercial? Cookie was at the top of the fashion game. Where's my endorsement? And what have you got ready for this? I thought.”
“That's why you all haven't seen me for so long. They haven't had anything proven.”
The Oscar-nominated star, 53, admitted she was ready to work with her team after they told her it would be in her best interests to have “another cookie show”.
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“I said, ‘I’ll do it, but it has to be right.’ She’s too beloved to be able to do it,” she recalled.
“So when they didn't get it right, I said, 'Okay, that's it,' and they didn't have anything else,” she continued.
“You're all fired,” she added with an unapologetic expression on her face, before receiving a round of applause from the audience.
During that same interview, Henson spoke candidly about the pay inequality that she and her black colleagues have to fight in Hollywood.
“I put in the work so I could have a voice, so I could say no [to unfair offers]“So I can fight for whoever comes after me,” she explained.
“You can't pay me anything because I'll say no.”
She shared similar sentiments last week while speaking to Gayle King on SiriusXM where she became emotional over the unfair treatment of Black women in the entertainment industry.
“I'm tired of working hard, of being generous in what I do [and] “It's a fraction of the cost,” she said.
“I'm tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over again.”
The “The Color Purple” star further explained, “I'm only human and it seems like every time I do something and break another glass ceiling, when it comes time to renegotiate, I'm at the bottom again like I didn't do what I just did.” “.
“And if I can’t fight for their backs, what can I do?” I asked through tears.
She also pointed out that actors only get a small portion of their salaries because their team takes a portion of their profits.
“Off the top, Uncle Sam gets 50 percent. Your team gets a 30 percent cut…of what you make, not after what Uncle Sam took,” she said. “Now do the math.”
Henson has been a long-time advocate for getting the pay she deserves.
In 2019, she It was revealed to Variety She negotiated her salary of $150,000 for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” after initially being offered $100,000.
However, this was much less than her original request of $500,000.
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