Taraji P. Henson appeared on a recent episode of Hoda Kotb’s “Making Space” podcast (via People) and reflected on the moment she realized just how differently male and female actors are treated in Hollywood. The Oscar nominee got her movie breakthrough in John Singleton’s 2001 coming-of-age movie “Baby Boy,” which also happened to mark the feature film debut of Tyrese Gibson. But only one of them became a franchise star.
“That was huge for me. I was I was a female lead. I was new to Hollywood, and I just remember everybody coming to me going, ‘Oh my God, you’re gonna blow up. Do you understand what John Singleton does to people’s careers? Look at this person and this person,’” Henson remembered. “But I don’t know, discernment told me something different. And I just knew it wasn’t gonna be that way. Something sat on my heart, and it was like, ‘I don’t know that that’s gonna happen like that overnight for me.’ And so, sure enough… but I knew deep down it would for Tyrese.”
“After ‘Baby Boy,’ Tyrese booked two franchise movies, huge: ‘Transformers’ and ‘Fast and Furious,’” she continued. “I still have not booked my franchise film. Been in the game almost 30 years. No franchise film. I’m not gonna cry about it. I mean… I know what it is now. I’m on the other side of the table now. You can’t hurt my feelings anymore because now I know there’s politics involved.”
It should be noted that Henson has appeared in franchises, mainly via voice roles like the ones she had in “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” “Minions: The Rise of Gru” and “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie.” She also had a supporting role in the 2010 franchise entry “The Karate Kid,” though it appears in her interview with Kotb she was talking about not having any sizable role in a major live-action Hollywood franchise.
Henson has never been one to stay quiet on Hollywood’s mistreatment of women, especially women of color. She notable took a month off from work and relocated to Bali last year after feeling “discouraged” by the film and TV industry machine.
“I was just frustrated and it was making me bitter, and I’m not a bitter person,” Henson told Variety in May 2025, nodding to continued struggles in Hollywood over the lack of prominent roles, pay and awards recognition for women of color. “I made a promise to myself if I ever got there then it’s time to walk away. I’m not serving myself or the audience or the characters I play. Thank god I did that. I came back refreshed and with a new perspective.”
Henson noted that she had spent years being “graceful in getting paid less than. Not anymore though!” When she returned from her month break in Bali, she dove head first into non-acting business opportunities like her beauty brand TPH “instead of relying on that check from Hollywood.”
During a viral SiriusXM interview in December 2023 during her “Color Purple” press tour, Henson broke down in tears while discussing the pay disparity issues she still faces in Hollywood despite her success on “Empire” and having an Oscar nomination under her belt.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do [and] getting paid a fraction of the cost,” Henson said. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over…Every time I do something and break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate I’m at the bottom again like I never did what I just did, and I’m tired. I’m tired. It wears on you. What does that mean? What is that telling me? If I can’t fight for them coming up behind me then what the fuck am I doing?”
Henson is currently gearing up to make her Broadway debut opposite Cedric the Entertainer in a revival of August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”
