'Empire' TV Show Cast: Actor Originally Cast As Lucious Lyon Speaks Out; Is He Bitter? [VIDEO]
While Empire is one of the biggest shows of the year, there’s been buzz about a certain actor who was supposed to take on the role as Lucious Lyon. Now he’s speaking out as to why he didn’t necessarily want to play the part.
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Wesley Snipes was secured as Lucious until lead actress Taraji P. Henson said she refused to play Cookie if Terrence Howard wasn’t Lucious. Some have wondered if this made Snipes upset at Henson for coming in between his opportunity for the juggernaut series. But he seems to be unbothered and said he wasn’t too pressed about playing Lucious to begin with.
He told Access Hollywood Friday, “It wasn’t a good situation for me.”
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But Snipes didn’t walk away empty handed. In fact, he’s set to star in his own primetime television series called The Player.
“[The Player] was a better deal. It was a better combination of people, and I wouldn’t have been able to do the kind of range of acting that I can do on this show.”
Still, his role doesn’t seem too far off from Lucious Lyon. He’s still playing a trickster and cunning man.
Snipes said of his role, “[He]s a facilitator, he has to go into different worlds…That gives him an opportunity to move through all of these different cultures and interact with these different people, good and bad. I get to play with accents and do disguises and action— the martial arts as well.”
As far as Empire, he said that he believes they’re doing just fine.
Empire returns for season 2 Wednesday at 9/8c on Fox. See Snipes in The Player Thursday at 10/9c on NBC.
