Why Taraji P. Henson Dropped Her Entire Team After Empire: 'You're All F--kin' Fired'

The actress, who won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for two Emmys for her work as Cookie Lyon on the Fox series, explained by "firing everybody after Cookie" was her best business decision during a recent SAG-AFTRA conversation with Variety.

Her reasoning, she said, was that they didn't do enough to capitalize on her hot streak and instead banked on a project which never materialized.

"Everybody had to f--king 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?" she explained. "That's why you all haven't seen me in so long. They had nothing set up. All they wanted was another Cookie show."

A spinoff based on Cookie was in the works and a pilot was even filmed, but Fox passed on the show in 2020. It was reportedly shopped to Hulu and ABC as well, but never got picked up.

"I said, 'I'll do [the spinoff], but it has to be right. The people deserve ... she's too beloved for y'all to f--k it up,'" she continued. "And so, when they didn't get it right, I was like, 'Well, that's it,' and they had nothing else."

With that, she said, she told them, "You're all f--kin' fired."

In the time since Empire went off the air in 2020, Henson has kept a lower profile -- doing voice work in films like Minions: The Rise of Gru and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, as well as appearances as herself on a number of reality shows. This year, however, she scored an Emmy nomination for a guest appearance on Abbott Elementary and has been getting Oscar buzz for her work in The Color Purple, which opened to record-breaking numbers on Christmas.

"It took me years to get there ... you are the prize. Don't you ever forget that," Henson said during the panel. "You are the talent. You are there check. Don't every forget that. They work for you. If they are not ... somebody else will do it. I stayed with the same team for years."

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter alongside her The Color Purple costars earlier this month, the actress revealed she's had to fight even for her base pay for projects despite having a critically acclaimed, decades-long career.

"I've been getting paid and I've been fighting tooth and nail every project to get that same freaking [fee] quote. And it's a slap in the face when people go, 'Oh girl, you work all the time. You always working.' Well, goddammit, I have to. It's not because I wish I could do two movies a year and that's that. I have to work because the math ain't mathing. And I have bills," Henson said, getting emotional.

"Listen, I've been doing this for two decades and sometimes I get tired of fighting because I know what I do is bigger than me. I know that the legacy I leave will affect somebody coming up behind me," she continued. "My prayer is that I don't want these Black girls to have the same fights that me and Viola [Davis], Octavia [Spencer], we out here thugging it out."

The Color Purple is in theaters now.