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