Taraji P. Henson Fired Her Team After ‘Empire’ Success Led Nowhere and Cookie Spinoff Failed: ‘Everybody Had to F—ing Go…They Had Nothing Set Up’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Taraji P. Henson revealed during a recent SAG-AFTRA conversation moderated by Variety’s Angelique Jackson that she fired members of her team after her career hit a wall despite the global success of “Empire,” the Fox musical drama series that she starred on for six seasons from 2015 to 2020.
Henson played the outspoken and ferocious Cookie Lyon, which won her a Golden Globe and earned her two Emmy nominations. Although a Cookie-centric spinoff was in development, the project was ultimately axed after Fox passed on it and it failed to get shopped around. “Firing everybody after Cookie,” Henson said when asked about her best business decision. “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.” Henson said that her team’s main priority was the Cookie spinoff, which the actor was willing to do as long as the direction of the “Empire” follow-up was done “right.” “All they wanted was another Cookie show, and I said, ‘I’ll do it, but it has to be right.
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