Taraji P. Henson appeared on a current episode of Hoda Kotb’s “Making Space” podcast (through People) and mirrored on the second she realized simply how otherwise female and male actors are handled in Hollywood. The Oscar nominee obtained her film breakthrough in John Singleton’s 2001 coming-of-age film “Child Boy,” which additionally occurred to mark the characteristic movie debut of Tyrese Gibson. However solely one in all them turned a franchise star.
“That was big for me. I used to be I used to be a feminine lead. I used to be new to Hollywood, and I simply keep in mind everyone coming to me going, ‘Oh my God, you’re gonna blow up. Do you perceive what John Singleton does to folks’s careers? Have a look at this particular person and this particular person,’” Henson remembered. “However I don’t know, discernment advised me one thing completely different. And I simply knew it wasn’t gonna be that means. One thing sat on my coronary heart, and it was like, ‘I don’t know that that’s gonna occur like that in a single day for me.’ And so, certain sufficient… however I knew deep down it might for Tyrese.”
“After ‘Child Boy,’ Tyrese booked two franchise motion pictures, big: ‘Transformers’ and ‘Quick and Livid,’” she continued. “I nonetheless haven’t booked my franchise movie. Been within the sport virtually 30 years. No franchise movie. I’m not gonna cry about it. I imply… I do know what it’s now. I’m on the opposite aspect of the desk now. You may’t harm my emotions anymore as a result of now I do know there’s politics concerned.”
It needs to be famous that Henson has appeared in franchises, primarily through voice roles like those she had in “Ralph Breaks the Web,” “Minions: The Rise of Gru” and “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Film.” She additionally had a supporting position within the 2010 franchise entry “The Karate Child,” although it seems in her interview with Kotb she was speaking about not having any sizable position in a significant live-action Hollywood franchise.
Henson has by no means been one to remain quiet on Hollywood’s mistreatment of ladies, particularly ladies of shade. She notable took a month off from work and relocated to Bali final 12 months after feeling “discouraged” by the movie and TV business machine.
“I used to be simply annoyed and it was making me bitter, and I’m not a bitter particular person,” Henson told Variety in Could 2025, nodding to continued struggles in Hollywood over the shortage of distinguished roles, pay and awards recognition for ladies of shade. “I made a promise to myself if I ever obtained there then it’s time to stroll away. I’m not serving myself or the viewers or the characters I play. Thank god I did that. I got here again refreshed and with a brand new perspective.”
Henson famous that she had spent years being “sleek in getting paid lower than. Not anymore although!” When she returned from her month break in Bali, she dove head first into non-acting enterprise alternatives like her magnificence model TPH “as a substitute of counting on that verify from Hollywood.”
Throughout a viral SiriusXM interview in December 2023 throughout her “Colour Purple” press tour, Henson broke down in tears whereas discussing the pay disparity points she nonetheless faces in Hollywood regardless of her success on “Empire” and having an Oscar nomination underneath her belt.
“I’m simply uninterested in working so exhausting, being gracious at what I do [and] getting paid a fraction of the price,” Henson stated. “I’m uninterested in listening to my sisters say the identical factor time and again…Each time I do one thing and break one other glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate I’m on the backside once more like I by no means did what I simply did, and I’m drained. I’m drained. It wears on you. What does that imply? What’s that telling me? If I can’t battle for them developing behind me then what the fuck am I doing?”
Henson is presently gearing as much as make her Broadway debut reverse Cedric the Entertainer in a revival of August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”
