1 day Ago By Antonio Stallings
Empire once entertained the idea of casting Wesley Snipes as the show’s lead Luscious Lyon. Taraji P. Henson helped convince the show to cast Terrence Howard instead, and it was a character the veteran star quickly made his own.
But when he initially signed onto the project, a part of him didn’t think Empire would become the hit it did.Terrence Howard panicked to his assistant when he first read the ‘Empire’ scriptThere was a period when Empire was one of the most popular shows on television. It received high ratings, audience acclaim, and even earned its star Henson a Golden Globe award.
In addition to its gripping storytelling, Empire was renowned for discussing issues about the Black community that were rarely touched on in television.But the show’s own lead, Howard, doubted the show would’ve come close to the heights it eventually reached. Although he signed onto the project, he started to grasp what he was getting himself into the deeper he delved into the series’ script.
In an old interview with Access Live (via Digital Spy), Howard shared that he couldn’t believe what he was reading.“I read the script, and it’s got Cookie and Lucious and what the hell is all of this? And my gay son? I didn’t think it was going to work,” he said.He even expressed his concern to his assistant at the time.
“I called my assistant [and said,] ‘This is crap. This ain’t going to work. How is this going to work? How are they going to shoot this?’ Because I thought initially in the very first ten minutes, 12 minutes into the pilot, you’ve got two black men kissing,” he said.
“If I was 12 years old and my father came downstairs and saw me watching a TV show that had men kissing, I would have a life-long conversation with my daddy. I’d never be allowed to watch TV.”The Iron Man star admitted that he brought his concerns to Fox, but in the end, he later realized he was worried for nothing.
The success of Empire showed him he underestimated the audience’s tastes.“I called Fox. I was like, ‘You need to take the kissing out, because this is going to stop, shut down the show.
’ I was so wrong. I didn’t know how ready the world was to see the truth,” he said.Terrence Howard eventually called out ‘Empire’ for its bad writingRelatedTerrence Howard Once Claimed Bill Cosby Blackballed HimIt took a few seasons before Howard might’ve felt Empire lost its way a bit.
The outspoken star called out the show’s writers for Luscious acting out of character for season 5. The complaint came when the fictional music executive intentionally betrayed his wife Cookie by abandoning her in jail. Howard believed his actions were a complete betrayal of Luscious.
“I have done nothing dirty to Cookie, but you have to understand that it is from the writers’ perspective,” Howard said in an interview with Page Six. “That is just some bad writing.”Furthermore, Howard felt the mistake proved that he knew his character better than the show’s writing team.
“The Lucious that I play would have never left her in jail. The Lucious that I know did not leave her in jail for 17 years, because that is impossible for me to leave my friend and the love of my life in jail,” Howard said. “Whatever they are perceiving is not the reality.
The real reality is that Lucious would never leave her behind — ever. The Lucious that I know would never do that to Cookie,” he added.It wasn’t the only time Howard had a problem with the show.
He once even sued Fox for money he was owed from Empire.However, despite these issues, Howard was still emotional when Empire came to an end after six seasons.“I have made many, many friends on that set that I spent more time with than I spend with my own family,” he said on The Real Daytime.
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