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Story by: Terry Shropshire |
No
matter what happens for the rest of the year, 2009 has already shaped
up to be an unforgettable one for acclaimed thespian Taraji P. Henson.
The star of the upcoming Tyler Perry vehicle, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, was officially inducted into an exclusive club when her brilliant performance in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Henson, who co-starred with Tyler Perry and Sanaa Lathan in 2008’s The Family That Preys, will play an estranged mother and wife in I Can Do Bad All By Myself. As we speak, Henson is in China with Will Smith, his son, Jaden, and Jackie Chan working on her seventh film of 2009, The Kung Fu Kid, a highly anticipated remake of the 1980s classic, The Karate Kid.
With her career revved up in fifth gear right now, it’s hard to imagine
that Henson could have possibly suffered from post-Oscar angst earlier
this year.
“It was sort like a withdrawal the next day after the Academy Awards.
Because [before the Oscars] I was busy, busy, busy. Then the day after
the Oscars, it was like nothing. And then I started having like work
withdrawal, because I felt I needed to be somewhere and doing
interviews. It slowed down for a minute and then things got crazy
again. So I’m back to the craziness of it all — which is good because
I’m working back to back to back.”
In Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself,
which opens Sept. 11 — which coincidentally is the day she was born 39
years ago — Henson’s character has purposely detached herself from her
family in order to try to restore some semblance of sanity and sense in
her life.
“Her name is April and she is pretty much a very self-involved
individual, estranged from her family. Certain circumstances have
happened and she’s forced to grow up overnight,” Henson says. “So it’s
a lot of drama. But it’s funny, too. What I like about this character,
it really shows my range. I have to be funny and serious. I make you
laugh and cry at the same time.”
AMERICA DISCOVERS
A GEM:
The noise you heard back in February 2009 was the sound of urbanites
letting out a collective chuckle when it was declared that Taraji P.
Henson was a star who came out of nowhere. We’re always amused —
replete with a slight smirk and shrug of the shoulders — when the rest
of the nation plays catch up and beholds a genius talent that has been
operating below the mainstream radar. Henson is the quintessential
example of this long-standing trend.
Samuel L. Jackson, for example, became a worldwide superstar with his
riveting, Scripture-spewing, homicidal-maniac character in Pulp Fiction. But he commanded the screen years earlier in his performances in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and especially with his award-winning portrayal of a junkie in Jungle Fever. Angela Bassett, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Lawrence Fishburne all attained mainstream Hollywood stardom in their performances in What’s Love Got to Do With It?, Jerry McGuire and The Matrix, respectively. Yet all three collaborated with director John Singleton to create the urban classic Boyz N the Hood years before that.
In the case of Henson, urbanities were taken with this rare gem when
she shot-putted herself into our consciousness playing the neurotic,
profanity-spitting Yvette in Singleton’s Baby Boy opposite Tyrese. She said she is still stopped in the streets and grocery stores about the movie that came out in 2000.
“Baby Boy
is my favorite movie because of Taraji,” says Kianne of Philadelphia,
who speaks for many. “She just came off as genuine and I believed she
was that girl and I was able to relate to. I think she’s just one of
those great actresses that is just good at what she does. She’s
professional and she embodies every woman. She is officially my sister
from another mister.”
Michele from New York said Henson “has an everywoman quality about her
that makes you feel like you know her. You get the impression that she
would be just as comfortable grilling hot dogs at home as going to some
highfalutin industry shindig. Yeah, she has the usual physical assets
that Hollywood likes, but she’s not afraid to scrub off the makeup,
screw up her face and let the snot fly.”
Jerome from Alabama said her titillating performance in Talk to Me opposite Don Cheadle captivated him. “She held her own with Don Cheadle in Talk to Me
and she’s able to portray pain in her characters better than most
actresses. I think she is poised to become an Oscar-winning actress.”
Some point to the fact that Henson, in addition to all her skills, is
simply hot. “Taraji is a very beautiful woman whose down-to-earth
persona makes her seem very approachable,” writes Steve of Detroit.
“She seems like the kind of woman I’d enjoy taking out. “
In I Can Do Bad All By Myself,
Henson accomplishes a couple of personal milestones. This will be the
first movie in which she is the lead character. Moreover, Henson has
the opportunity to showcase her romantic side, something that has been
conspicuously missing in her illustrious career up till now. While that
might be a nerve-wracking situation, Henson was comforted by the fact
that she was cocooned by familiarity, having worked with Tyler Perry in
last year’s hit, The Family That Preys.
“I am a huge fan of Tyler Perry. He is an amazing man. He continues to
grow and push himself as an artist. He’s actually the first person in
Hollywood to give me my own movie. ‘Cause you know, [I Can Do Bad All By Myself]
is really my character’s story. So thank you for that. After the
Oscars, he called right away with the script, and was like ‘I want you
to read this script. If you like it, we start shooting in three weeks,’
” Henson said, still registering surprise over the opportunity. “I read
the script and I wanted to work with him again.”
In I Can Do Bad All By Myself, audiences get a glimpse of Henson that has never been revealed before.
“Oh, God. They had my character dressed up in [sexy] dresses. I had on
Armani, Jimmy Choo. Just amazing, amazing colors. I haven’t been known
for playing sexy characters. But this character’s pretty sexy and she’s
a performer, by the way. The cutie from ‘CSI: Miami,’ Adam Rodriguez,
is in it. He plays my love interest. Brian J. White plays my love
interest. My character is a hot mess,” Henson recounts, adding that she
also gets to do something that she hasn’t done since 2005’s Hustle & Flow:
sing. “I do sing in the movie but I sound like Cheryl ‘Pepsii’ Riley.
My character performs in the club that’s owned by Mary J. Blige’s
character.”
We’re going to be seeing a lot of Henson in the coming months as she is
determined to cash in on her Oscar fame. In addition to I Can Do Bad All By Myself, Henson starred in T.D. Jakes’ Not Easily Broken opposite Morris Chestnut, Kevin Hart and Niecy Nash earlier this year. Henson has a long string of movies — Hurricane Season, Once Fallen, Peep World and Date Night, which are all in postproduction.
Imagine being in love with something that you do, yet being unable to
view the finished product. That sums up Hollywood star Taraji P.
Henson. That’s amazing to those who pack the theaters to see her films,
because we cannot tear our eyes away from her.
“I am my worst critic. I hate the way that I sound, and I don’t like the way I look sometimes,” Henson told rolling out in
a previous interview. “I’m always getting on myself like ‘why did you
do that? You could have done that so much better.’ So it’s always
really odd when someone comes up to me and tells me that I blew them
away. It’s just really hard for me to watch myself, so I just do the
work and walk away. I just know that I love what I do, and I love the
impact that I’m making on my journey in life. And to be able to impact
people with my craft — that’s what I’ve been sent here to do.”
Yet despite her work schedule and doing what she believes is her life’s
calling, Henson doesn’t get it twisted. She also knows that her one and
only son is her first and most important priority. It is, Henson
attests, how she remains grounded and able to sustain balance and
sanity in a place that doesn’t promote stability and continuity.
“A typical day for me: Waking up at 7 o’clock, cooking breakfast for my
son, taking him to school. It depends on if I’m working, if I have
interviews or photo shoots. It changes from day to day,” she says, her
face aglow with pride. “I mean, you know, a mother is who I am. … That
comes before career. That comes before anything else in my life …”
