Taraji P. Henson isn’t messing around when it comes to her career!
The Color Purple star has been getting candid about her frustrations dealing with pay disparity in Hollywood, and in a new interview she just revealed why she fired her entire team after they failed to pounce on her success!
One of the performer’s most successful characters to date was playing Cookie Lyon on six seasons of the Fox drama Empire from 2015 to 2020. But she was quickly left disappointed when her team didn’t use the character’s popularity to help her career soar — you know, AKA, doing their literal jobs! Oof.
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When the SAG-AFTRA Foundation asked her what her best business move as an actress was during an interview last week, Taraji recalled:
“Firing everybody after Cookie. Everybody had to f**kin’ 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.”
Jeez! That’s terrible!
The Hidden Figures star’s team did have *one* singular thing in the works. They wanted her to lead a spin-off show, something she was open to — but only if it was done “right.” And when that fell through, it was clear they’d put all their eggs in one basket, she went on:
“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**kin’ fired.’”
Damn, we get why she was frustrated! Actors spend their whole lives dreaming of a breakout role like this to catapult them to the next level of their careers, but then to have her team drop the ball?? That sucks!! We mean, if reality star Ariana Madix‘s team (of all teams) knew how to turn a scandal into a money-making machine, Taraji should’ve had the same treatment! There were so many avenues they could’ve at least explored!
So, combine this with the fact she’s already been super frustrated by getting underpaid for her work, causing her to almost quit the industry, and we get why her former team had to be let go! As mentioned, this revelation comes after the Golden Globe winner broke down crying while talking about pay disparity on Gayle King‘s SiriusXM show, saying in part:
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost. 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.”
If she’s having to hand over so much of her hard-earned cash to a team, they better be earning it! Hear her discuss her latest career struggles (below):
We hope her new team does a much better job capitalizing on the success of The Color Purple and any of her future projects. She deserves to reap the rewards of her hard work!!
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[Image via Hulu/YouTube]
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