Taraji P Henson just loves being a badass, writes Munya Vomo
Empire, the new music drama starring the talented Taraji P Henson, Terrence Howard and Malik Yoba, among others, is undeniably among the best on the box this year. Think of Nashville, but without the country music. In its place is hip hop music and new age R&B with a hint of bluegrass. Henson brings her best performance yet, portraying the hard-core fresh-out-of-jail Cookie Lyon.
As those already following the show can attest and as Henson herself explains, “You can expect a lot of incredible music. Expect fashion, expect some jaw-dropping, gut-punching one-liners from Cookie. I love her for that...”
As has already been extensively written about, Empire a project from director Lee Daniels, the man behind the films Monster’s Ball and Precious. Like Henson, Daniels and Howard have made the trek from movies to TV. With that in mind, Henson compared how things are done when shooting for the two mediums of film and TV.
“They do use the same cameras for both, but you don’t get as much time on television. So it feels a bit rushed. You have to cram in eight pages a day, instead of, in film, you do one page a day so you can let scenes and moments breathe. That’s the only difference.
“But when you’re dealing with a good script, you know, like we have here, it almost feels like a feature film because what I have noticed is that the writing is so incredible,” she explained.
The writing is what appealed to the star about playing badass Cookie, one of the lead characters in Empire.
“With the names that were attached – Lee Daniels and Danny Strong – it was a no-brainer. It had the smell of a perfect storm, if you will. The studio was behind it, the script was amazing, the director and line-up was incredible. Plus all the new talent we’re discovering and the music... When I read it, I was like: ‘This is gonna shake up TV and I wanna be a part of it,’” she said.
Since Empire has a number of black cast members, Henson feels that some people might think the show is made for a specific market.
“You know, when you get a cast that is predominantly black, then there comes this label, ‘Well that’s a black this or a black that’. And the danger in saying that is that you make others who aren’t black feel, ‘Oh well, that’s just for black people’.
“I don’t label things when I go to the movies, I don’t go say: ‘Oh, you know, this week I wanna see a white movie. I wanna see that good Chinese movie’. I go because I see the preview and it moves me to wanna spend my money. I don’t care what it is. If somebody’s in love or they’re in pain or they lost a loved one, I understand that. That has no colour,” said Henson.
For her, Empire is a story set in a black community, but it transcends race. She hopes people take it for what it is: “It crosses all colour lines because it’s about humans going through things that humans go through. We’re singing about pain everybody understands.”
Much like the country music drama Nashville, which has hit songs in almost every episode, Empire has great music which is available for purchase on iTunes. Just a few days ago, Jussie Smollett, who plays Jamal, hit the No 4 spot on iTunes for the song Conqueror which he did with Estelle.
“Fox is very smart with how they’re marketing everything. I think having a Pandora station for just Empire music is brilliant. It’s funny because when we did the white party and had a lot of extras, I could hear them in the background saying: ‘Can we download this song?’ So I already know the music’s gonna be a hit,” she said.
• Empire airs every Thursday at 9.15pm on Fox (DStv channel 125).
Will Empire work for you?
If we are going to go with the same argument as the one for Nashville, where a great plot supercedes musical taste, then most people will like Empire, although it is rooted in hip hop. We make comparisons with Nashville because it is a good TV show that is in its third season. It is based on country music, which does have a huge influence on the US market, but there are other genres, too. The scriptwriting is so good, a viewer who is not a country music fan can still get hooked on the storyline.
From the little we have seen, Empire has a similar format. You get the vicious Lucious Lyon (Howard) who pits his sons as heirs to his music empire, and his ex-wife, Cookie (Henson), who is back from a 19-year jail sentence. The pair’s reconnecting means a new way of running the family business, Empire Records, and with a lot of lies, secrets and vendettas, you don’t really need to know much about hip hop to love this show.