Lee Daniels is recounting his days working on the hit show “Empire.”
During a recent interview, the co-creator said that it was his worst experience. He talked about feeling discomfort about staying in the same lane creatively. “All my friends, they get notes and s***,” he said. “And I’m like, ‘What is that like?!’ You know what I mean? Because every film of mine had been independent. All my s*** is independent. You know, my first movie was developed with drug money — “Monster’s Ball.” We won the first Black woman an Oscar. Every one of my films has been independently financed where I’m able to … do my thing, and nobody is in my head.”
He continued, “There’s so many filmmakers and writers that I respect that have to answer to people. So I only did Empire just so I could see what that experience was like.” He was then asked about his experience on set and his reply was, “Horrible! Absolutely the worst experience.”
Daniels explained that the main purpose for creating the show was because it was an opportunity to put his children through college. “F*****g that money, money, money!” he said. “I was able to put my kids through college and s**t. So that in itself was worth it.”
He added, “I didn’t understand what we were doing when I made Empire. I really didn’t. I was too busy about Cookie’s hat and the music hat I was trying to get to realize that I was shifting, literally the culture.”
“Empire,” starred Taraji P. Henson, Terrance Howard, Jussie Smollett, Bryshere Y. Gray, and more. The show received eight Emmy nominations and became one of the highest-rated Fox shows. It ended in 2020 after six seasons.