“She Gave Me a Voice”
In late 2023, Taraji P. Henson created headlines for her outspoken candor on the press tour for The Color Purple. In various conversations supporting the Warner Bros. film — a musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, previously adapted for film in 1985 by director Steven Spielberg — Henson has tearfully relayed her frustrations as a Black woman in Hollywood. Despite an Oscar nomination and four Emmy nods, Henson has admitted that finding roles that represent her stature as a respected leading lady still proves difficult. “The industry had me thinking I was too edgy, I’m street, I’m this, I’m that, and I ain’t Hollywood pretty. But the fight in me and my purpose, once I understood I had a purpose in this thing, I was like, ‘Oh no,’” she told The Hollywood Reporter in December. “There’s a place for me because there’s a girl out there that needs to see herself on this screen.” But while The Color Purple has made Henson an awards contender once again, she’s also involved with another film …