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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 2015)
Arts & Entertainment Celebrity Interview: Lee Daniels on ‘Empire’ Two-time Oscar-nominee for ‘Precious’ and ‘The Butler’ talks about directing for television A fter directing and/or producing such suc- cessful feature films as Monster’s Ball, for which Halle Berry won an Acade- my Award, and Precious, for which Mo’Nique won hers, and The Butler, Lee Daniels has set his sights on TV for the first time. Here, he talks about directing the new nighttime soap opera Empire, co-starring Ter- rence Howard and Taraji P. Henson. Kam Williams: Hi Lee, thanks for another opportu- nity to speak with you. C ELEBRITY I NTERVIEW by Taraji P. Hen- son]. Cookie’s little bit of all of them. KW: Harriet by Kam Pakula-Teweles Williams asks: How do film actors like Terrence and Taraji make the Why TV, as opposed to the transition from the big screen to the small screen? big screen? LD: That’s a very good LD: What happened was we decided that’s enough question and a very compli- with movies, let’s do it for cated one, because with film television so that we could we get the luxury of time. It bring this to life for America works at a different pace. on a weekly basis. It picks It’s nice and slow. As a film up, historically, where The director and as film actors, you get used to a certain rhythm that’s slow. But with TV, it’s hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. It’s a different pace. So, it’s about adjust- ing to the pace. It’s not meant for everybody. KW: Has the frenetic pace frustrated you? LD: No, I think it’s made me a better director, because I have to think fast. I no longer have the luxury of taking my time. Does that make any sense? Lee Daniels at the Sundance Film Festival Lee Daniels: Great, Kam. How are you? KW: All is well, thanks. What was the source of inspiration for Empire? LD: My partner, Danny Strong, came to me with this idea of telling a story about my life, and merging that with music and the Hip- Hop world. He wrote The Butler and originally want- ed to do Empire also as a movie. KW: I had no idea it was s e m i -a u t o b i o g ra p h i c a l . Butler left off, and deals with race relations. It’s a lit- tle bit like my family, a little like some friends of mine with money, their world, and a little like some of my friends without money, their world. I think it’s the African-American experi- ence. KW: Which character are you? Lucious Lyon [played by Terrence Howard]? LD: I’m Lucious… I’m Jamal… I’m all of the char- acters. My sister and my cousins are Cookie [played to do TV.” But then he said he would, and there you go. KW: Chalyn also says: Most writers avoid dealing with homosexuality within the black community. What made you choose that path? Unlike your counterpart, Shonda Rhimes, who has What I expected to see was gay men, but what I found were African-American women and children who’d been infected with HIV by black men on the down-low. They were on the d-l because their pastor says, because their minister says, because their neighbor says, and their homeboy says, biopic. What does he mean to you? LD: The more research I do, the more I uncover not only his brilliance, but how much of a pioneer he was at a time that was harder on African-Americans than it is right now, if that’s imagi- nable. His experience as a black American was very We decided that’s enough with movies, let’s do it for television so that we could bring this to life for America on a weekly basis depicted white males in a passionate relationship, per- haps to target a whiter audience, you’ve put two males of color in a gay rela- tionship. Why did you choose to do so? LD: I did it because I think it’s time to destroy a myth in the black communi- ty about gay men. When I was doing research for Pre- cious, I went to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis here in New York City, because the movie dealt with AIDS. “You can’t be gay.” Black men on the d-l are killing our women. I can’t hate the men on the d-l, I only hate that they’re on the d-l, because our people forced them to be. So, this is really dedicated to educating. This is the civil rights movement of our generation. So, this is really dedicated to educating KW: Editor/Legist Patri- cia Turnier: You are working on a Richard Pryor similar to mine. We both come from troubled back- grounds. He was very open about his sexuality, and what he did, and he spoke the truth. And he fought for the truth for everybody. And because he was so torment- ed, he was a drug addict, and so was I. Our similari- ties are strangely connected. So, he speaks to me. He was ahead of his time, and he See DANIELS on page 11 KW: Absolutely! Chalyn Toon asks: Did you consider other actors or did you always envision Taraji and Terrence for the lead roles? LD: I always considered Taraji, but even though Ter- rence and I are very good friends and had worked together on The Butler and were thinking about doing The Marvin Gaye Story. But I didn’t know if he’d do TV. I was thinking of Wesley Snipes for the role, but word on the street was that Taraji wasn’t feeling it anymore. Then she told me, “I’ll do it, but only if Terrence does it.” I went, “girl, you ain’t even got the job yet.” And I was like, “Terrence ain’t going January 21, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 9
