Lee Daniels co-created the Fox drama “Empire,” which was one of the biggest shows on television during its six seasons on Fox between 2015 and 2020. The show, which starred Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, was a cultural phenomenon thanks to its quirky characters (Cookie, for example), huge ratings and hit original songs. But working on the show was not fun at all. Daniels recently told The Film Stage that “Empire” was “the worst experience ever.”
“I don’t like to stay in the same lane as a creator. When I got into TV, I just wanted to be able to respond to lawsuits,” Daniels said of “Empire.” “I wanted to know what that experience was like. All my friends get notes and stuff. And I’m like, ‘What was that like?’ You know what I mean?”
“All my movies were independent” before he moved to television with “Empire,” Daniels noted, so he was interested in seeing what it would be like to work for a major studio.
“Everything I do is independent,” he said. “You know, my first movie was developed with drug money. Monster’s Ball. We won the first Oscar for a black woman. Every single one of my movies has been independently financed where I can… do what I want and nobody has to interfere with me. There are a lot of filmmakers and writers that I respect who have to answer to people. So I only made Empire so I could see what that was like.”
“And what was the experience like?” Daniels said. “It was a horrible experience. The worst experience ever. Horrible! But what happened? I wasted all this money, money, money! I was able to put my kids through college and stuff. So it was worth it in and of itself.”
Daniels has been making the press rounds to support his latest directorial effort, the Netflix horror film “The Deliverance.” There was a period when Daniels planned to stay on TV by developing an “Empire” spinoff centered on Henson’s fan-favorite character Cookie, but the project never got off the ground. Henson revealed last year that she fired her team when the spinoff flopped.
“All they wanted was another Cookie show, and I said, ‘I’ll do it, but it has to be right. People deserve it… She’s too beloved to screw up,’” Henson said at the time. “So when they didn’t make it, I said, ‘Well, that’s it,’ and they had nothing else. ‘You’re all fired.’ It took me years to get there… You’re the prize. Never forget that. You’re the talent. You’re there to validate. Never forget that. They’re working for you. If they’re not… somebody else will. I stayed with the same team for years.”
Henson won a Golden Globe and received Emmy nominations for her work on Empire. More than 100 episodes of the series have been produced, and it is available to stream on platforms such as Hulu and Tubi.
