Taraji P Henson is continuing to speak out against the difficulties she has faced in her career.
During a recent Q&A for SAG-AFTRA, the Oscar nominee shared that she sacked her entire team after her breakthrough moment as Cookie Lyon in the TV series Empire, claiming that the people she had trusted with taking her career to the next level “had nothing set up” for her when the hit show came to an end.
Asked for her best business decision, Taraji said (per Variety): “Firing everybody after Cookie.”
She continued: “Everybody had to fucking 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.”
“All they wanted was another Cookie show,” Taraji continued. “And I said, ‘I’ll do it, but it has to be right. The people deserve…she’s too beloved for y’all to fuck 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 fuckin’ fired’.”
To the aspiring actors in the audience, she added: “You are the prize. Don’t you ever forget that. You are the talent. You are their check. Don’t ever forget that. They work for you. If they are not…somebody else will do it.”
Earlier this month, an interview with Taraji – who is currently starring in the movie musical The Color Purple – went viral after she revealed she’d considered quitting the entertainment industry altogether due to a lack of opportunities.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, being paid a fraction of the cost,” she said. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired.”
During the tearful interview, she later added: “It seems every time I do something and I break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate, I’m at the bottom again, like I never did what I just did.
“And I’m just tired. It wears on you, you know?”