Lee Daniels co-created Fox’s drama series “Empire,” which was one of the biggest shows on broadcast television during its six-season run on Fox between 2015 and 2020. The show, headlined by Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, was a cultural phenomenon thanks to its outlandish characters (Cookie, for starters), massive ratings and hit original songs. But working on the series was anything but a joy. Daniels recently told The Film Stage that “Empire” was “absolutely the worst experience.”
“I don’t like staying in the same lane just as a creative. When I got into television, I really just wanted to be able to answer to suits,” Daniels said about “Empire.” “I wanted to know what that experience was like. All of my friends, they get notes and shit. And I’m like, ‘What is that like?!’ You know what I mean?”
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Daniels noted that “every film of mine had been independent” prior to his pivot to television with “Empire,” so he was interested in learning what it would be like working for a major studio.
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“All of my shit is independent,” he said. “You know, my first movie was developed with drug money. ‘Monster’s Ball.’ We won the first Black woman an Oscar. Every one of my films has been independently financed where I’m able to…do my thing and nobody is in my head. There’s so many filmmakers and writers that I respect that have to answer to people. So I only did ‘Empire’ just so I could see what that experience was like.”
And what was the experience like? “Horrible. Absolutely the worst experience,” Daniels said. “Horrible! But guess what? Fucking that money, money, money! I was able to put my kids through college and shit. So that in itself was worth it.”
Daniels has been making the press rounds in support of his latest feature directorial effort, the Netflix horror movie “The Deliverance.” There was a time when Daniels planned to stay on television with the development of an “Empire” spinoff show centered on Henson’s fan-favorite character Cookie, but the project never got off the ground. Henson revealed last year she fired her team when the spinoff fell through.
“All they wanted was another Cookie show, and I said, ‘I’ll do it, but it has to be right. The people deserve…she’s too beloved for y’all to fuck it up,’” Henson said at the time. “And so, when they didn’t get it right, I was like, ‘Well, that’s it,’ and they had nothing else. ‘You’re all fuckin’ fired.’ It took me years to get there…you are the prize. Don’t you ever forget that. 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.”
Henson won a Golden Globe and earned her Emmy nominations for her work on “Empire.” Daniels got over 100 episodes made of the show, which is available to stream on platforms such as Hulu and Tubi.
