Taraji P. Henson Book: 'Empire' Star Writes On Hollywood's Problematic Treatment Of Black Actresses [VIDEO]
Taraji P. Henson opens up in her new memoir about receiving significantly less money than her co-stars on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Despite being less known than co-stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett at the time, Henson still feels she deserved better pay for her role as Queenie in Benjamin Button. The actress writes about this in her new memoir, Around the Way Girl.
"Both Brad and Cate got millions. Me? With bated breath, I sat by the phone for hours, waiting for Vince [her manager] to call and tell me the number that I thought would make me feel good: somewhere in the mid six figures - no doubt a mere percentage of what Brad was bringing home to Angelina and their beautiful babies, but something worthy of a solid up-and-coming actress with a decent amount of critical acclaim for her work," she writes, via Vulture. "Alas, that request was dead on arrival. 'I'm sorry, Taraji,' Vince said quietly when we finally connected. 'They came in at the lowest of six figures. I convinced them to add in a little more, but that's as high as they'd go.' There was one other thing: I'd have to agree to pay my own location fees while filming in New Orleans, meaning three months of hotel expenses would be coming directly out of my pocket. Insult, meet injury."
The actress admits that she felt humiliated by what was being asked of her, but notes that it's typical of the way black actresses in Hollywood can be treated.
"There are way more talented black actresses than there are intelligent, meaningful roles for them, and we're consistently charged with diving for the crumbs of the scraps, lest we starve," she writes. "This is exactly how a studio can get away with paying the person who's name is third on the call sheet of a big-budget film less than 2 percent what it's paying the person whose name is listed first. I knew the stakes: no matter how talented, no matter how many accolades my prior work had received, if I pushed for more money, I'd be replaced and no one would so much as a blink."
The topic of the Hollywood pay gap has been more relevant than ever over the past few years, with prominent actresses like Jennifer Lawrence and Patricia Arquette promoting the issue publicly. And as Henson suggests, it's even worse for actresses of color.
Henson would later receive an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Benjamin Button. She would go on to star in such films as I Can Do Bad All By Myself, The Karate Kid and Think Like a Man. She made a name for herself on television too, starring for several years on CBS's Person of Interest.
But it wasn't until her scene-stealing, instantly iconic role as Cookie Lyon in Fox's Empire that Henson became a household name. The actress has since won a Golden Globe for the role and received two Emmy nominations.
