{"id":546304,"date":"2026-04-23T11:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/546304\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:33:15","slug":"taraji-p-henson-its-exhausting-to-have-to-fight-for-my-worth-taraji-p-henson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/546304\/","title":{"rendered":"Taraji P Henson: \u2018It\u2019s exhausting to have to fight for my worth\u2019 | Taraji P Henson"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a Wednesday evening in midtown New York, generations X through Z spill out of the Ethel Barrymore Theatre to cluster around the venue\u2019s side stage door. They\u2019re waiting for Taraji P Henson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m Cardi B<\/a> on tour,\u201d Henson jokes. When we talk over a video call this April, the actor is one week out from the opening night of her Broadway<\/a> debut in the revival of August Wilson<\/a>\u2019s Joe Turner\u2019s Come and Gone. Throughout the show\u2019s preview period, Henson has made an effort to make it out to street level after performances to shake hands, take pictures and sign playbills. \u201cIt\u2019s good to see my fans like this, up close and personal,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Over the past 30 years, Henson has become a Hollywood mainstay for her thoughtful character work. She\u2019s been a hip-hop soul star in Hustle & Flow, an ardent adoptive mother in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and a groundbreaking Nasa mathematician in Hidden Figures<\/a>. She\u2019s also a four-time Emmy-nominated, Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated actor and a Tony-nominated producer. But Henson\u2019s formal training is in theater, and it\u2019s here she truly thrives. \u201cI got that good Howard [University] training,\u201d she says of her alma mater, where she studied drama in the 90s. \u201c[I was] made for the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may seem like Henson waited to come to Broadway. But in truth, Broadway was waiting for her \u2013 and when it was ready, all it took was a 20-minute phone call from Debbie Allen, the veteran actor, choreographer and film-maker. After Denzel Washington, a steward of August Wilson\u2019s works, tapped Allen to helm the stage and screen revival of Joe Turner\u2019s Come and Gone, she began to assemble her players.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Turner found me. [My character] Bertha found me,\u201d Henson recalls. She takes a beat, then launches into an eerily spot-on Allen impression, raspy drawl and all. \u201cDebbie called me and was like, \u2018Taraji, I got something for you! How do you feel about doing Miss Bertha in Joe Turner\u2019s Come and Gone, honey? We gon\u2019 do the film, but we gotta do this Broadway<\/a> play first, honey.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Well, Debbie, anything for you. All you had to do was say August Wilson, and I\u2019m in.\u2019 It was that easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Turner\u2019s Come and Gone is the fourth play in August Wilson\u2019s classic Century Cycle, set in 1911 Pittsburgh. The original cast included Black luminaries such as Delroy Lindo<\/a> and Angela Bassett<\/a>. Today, Henson leads the star-studded cast of the Allen-directed revival alongside Cedric The Entertainer, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, an actor and playwright, and Joshua Boone, a Broadway star. Henson portrays Bertha Holly, the devoted matriarch of a boarding house she runs with her husband Seth. Bertha and Seth care for their boarders with a parental attentiveness that is empowering, loving and protective, fostering an environment ripe for self-discovery: an everlasting practice for descendants of slaves.<\/p>\n

Taraji P Henson as Bertha Holly in Joe Turner\u2019s Come and Gone. Photograph: Julieta Cervantes<\/p>\n

The characters in Joe Turner are, at most, only one generation removed from slavery. Most move up north in urgent pursuit of identity, stability, prosperity and connection, only to find that the afterlife of slavery is ubiquitous: in each intentional scene, Joe Turner\u2019s characters are faced with constant reminders of slavery\u2019s destruction. The foundational matting on which these characters tread is a motley patchwork woven of the free Black migrant\u2019s dreams, faith, grief, integrity, desires, trauma and invincible joy.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s countless elements of Joe Turner that, tragically, still apply to our own 2026 setting, like the theme of displacement. \u201cFamilies are being pulled apart right now as we speak,\u201d Henson says. \u201cSomebody who is being detained by ICE<\/a> right now just disappeared. Whole families are being wrecked. That\u2019s crazy to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a play also steeped in Black spirituality, both Hoodoo and Christianity, details that Henson says audiences \u201cdidn\u2019t understand\u201d when it first opened in 1988 at the same theatre where the 2026 production is staged. But now we\u2019re in a post-Sinners<\/a> world, one where comprehension of the spectrum of African-American faith has been expanded on a mainstream scale: in 2025, Ryan Coogler\u2019s spiritual thriller invited audiences to engage in a cultural meditation on Black religion outside of the Christian church with its insightful depiction of the sacred practice of Hoodoo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s Black people, period. That\u2019s just who we are,\u201d Henson says. \u201cYou could take us, snatch us from a whole continent, and what you not gon\u2019 do is disconnect us from the creator.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Henson, the play\u2019s central message is a call to action. \u201cIt is very important in your lifetime to find your purpose, whatever that is. Nobody can give it to you,\u201d she says. \u201cEverybody has a purpose. [The character Bynum] talks about it as a \u2018song\u2019. Because once you find your purpose, you\u2019re going to want to sing about it, you\u2019re going to want to tell the world about it, because now you\u2019re going to impregnate somebody else with their purpose. And it\u2019s all connected to God, connecting yourself back to the creator, love and laughter \u2026 There\u2019s so much to be learned from [the play], but I think the overall theme is making sure love is in that purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taraji P Henson and Janelle Mon\u00e1e in 2016\u2019s Hidden Figures. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Henson believes that her Broadway debut was divine timing and a lesson \u2013 or reminder \u2013 in embracing her own purpose. \u201cI still have a love for the craft. I\u2019m a producer, I have a production company, [so] I\u2019m behind the curtain,\u201d Henson explains. \u201cThe wizard doesn\u2019t exist for me anymore. The rose-colored glasses are off. So now I understand the business, and a lot of times the business involves politicking. That takes the artistry out of me. It wears me thin and it makes me question, \u2018Why am I doing this?\u2019 Because it doesn\u2019t make me happy, having to fight and scrap and scrape for a dollar and my worth. That\u2019s exhausting.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, Henson made headlines by opening up about how the pay disparity for Black women in Hollywood has affected her career. \u201cI\u2019m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do [and] getting paid a fraction of the cost,\u201d Henson said<\/a> at the time. Henson tells me today that the last time she felt such a high level of burnout was when she left the CBS drama Person of Interest in 2013, feeling \u201cempty\u201d, disillusioned and questioning her career. She walked away from the screen and instead joined the cast of the 1930s-set play Above the Fold at the Pasadena Playhouse, as a test of her devotion to and compatibility with the craft of acting. She was searching for their spark, and theater was her refuge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought Hollywood to me in Pasadena, that was the difference,\u201d Henson says. \u201cThat\u2019s how I got Cookie [in Lee Daniels\u2019 hit TV show Empire<\/a>], because Fox [executives] kept coming to that play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching Henson on stage, it makes sense why those execs kept coming back: her magnetism is irresistible. As Bertha she pulls off a hat-trick, showcasing her emotional depth as an actor, her impressive singing skills as well as her natural knack for improv.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the night you came, I dropped flour,\u201d Henson says, referring to a kitchen scene in which Bertha prepares biscuits while talking to her husband. \u201cI came home and beat myself up like crazy. Then I called my friend. [They] was like, \u2018Taraji, you are so busy in that kitchen. Why would an audience member not think that dropping the flour is normal?\u2019 I cleaned it up, and no one noticed. No one.\u201d<\/p>\n

She laughs breezily, her voice echoing off of the walls. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s so beautiful about live theater: you have to stay in it. You can\u2019t say, \u2018Oh fuck, I dropped the flour, oh shit!\u2019 [Then] I\u2019m Taraji. I have to stay Bertha and I have to work it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bertha Holly feels like she was written specifically for Henson, a fit Allen discerned before Henson did. \u201cI understood why [Allen] called on me to be Bertha,\u201d she says. \u201cA lot of characters I\u2019ve portrayed in my career have been the glue, the moral compass [like Bertha].\u201d Allen\u2019s explicit trust in Henson has been reciprocated tenfold, making for an intimate actor-director dynamic and blossoming friendship that Henson calls a \u201csafety net\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd whenever I\u2019m safe, I\u2019m uninhibited,\u201d she says. \u201cYou want an artist to explore, to feel free and safe enough to go there, to just forget that they\u2019re acting \u2026 You just want to make [Allen] proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taraji P Henson as Cookie Lyon in Lee Daniels\u2019 hit TV show Empire. Photograph: Chuck Hodes\/AP<\/p>\n

Henson treats every night like opening night, but is self-aware enough to balance strict discipline with rest and gratitude. \u201cThis Broadway moment forced me to really sit down and pat myself on the back \u2026 that\u2019s why I\u2019m glad I came now,\u201d she says, getting teary-eyed. \u201cThis is years of my hard work and me putting everything I have into all of these characters that I portray and earning the trust of my audience. It is hard out here. People are barely getting by, eggs and gas and groceries and insurance [are expensive]. So when people come out of their pockets to purchase a ticket that has my name on it, I\u2019m going to give them everything I got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since previews began, Henson has met folks by the busload who traveled to New York<\/a> with their churches or their universities, or flown in from California or Texas, to see her in her Broadway debut (the show\u2019s run has been extended twice). Seeing her tangible impact as an artist through her audiences was not simply re-affirmation, but a new definition of success. She\u2019s no longer placing her value as a performer in a gold-plated statuette.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very hard on myself,\u201d Henson says. \u201cThe industry can play a game with your mind and make you think you\u2019re not worthy because you don\u2019t have \u2018the gold\u2019. I don\u2019t care who got that gold. Are they coming to see you like this? I\u2019m so giving of my gift to the world, and the world sees it. That\u2019s why they show up for me. And that\u2019s [worth] more than man-made gold.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a Wednesday evening in midtown New York, generations X through Z spill out of the Ethel Barrymore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-546304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}