Taraji P. Henson fought for The Color Purple cast to be given drivers.
The 53-year-old actress – who plays Shug Avery in the musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s classic novel – slammed producers for giving her and her co-stars hire cars to drive themselves to set, arguing it was “insurance”. responsibility” and it would be “dangerous” for them.
“They gave us rental cars, and I thought, ‘I can’t drive myself to Atlanta,'” she told the New York Times. “This is an insurance liability. It’s dangerous. Now they’re robbing people.”
“What do I look like when I go to work alone in a rental car? I’m like, ‘Can I get a driver or a security person to take me?’ I’m not asking for the moon. They say, ‘Well, if we do it for you, we should do it for everyone.'” Well, do it for everyone!
“It’s things like that, things I shouldn’t have to fight for. I was on the set of Empire fighting for trailers that weren’t plagued with bugs.”
Taraji expressed her frustration with such situations “because you struggle so hard to establish a name for yourself and gain respect in this city to no avail.”
She claimed that studios were reluctant to promote “noir films” globally.
“With black films, they don’t want to take us outside, and I don’t understand that,” she said.
“Black is translated all over the world, so why not movies? I have followers in China from all over the place. You won’t benefit from that? Doesn’t everyone want to make money here?
“I’m not one to pull the race card every time, but then what’s the other thing? Tell me. I’d rather it not be about race, please give me something else.”
Her latest comments come after the ‘Hidden Figures’ actress recently broke down in tears over the pay disparity she has experienced over the years.
“I’m tired of working hard, being generous with what I do, and getting paid a fraction of the cost,” she told SiriusXM.
“I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over again. ‘You’re tired.’ I hear people say, ‘You’re working too much.'” However, math is not math.
“And you start working a lot, and you have a team. The big bills come with what we do. We’re not doing this alone. It’s a whole team behind us. They should get their money.”
