Taraji P. Henson may be an Oscar-nominated actress, Golden Globe-winner, multi-NAACP Image Award winner and more —but consistent pay disparities in Hollywood might have just pushed her to her limit.
Speaking in a new interview with Gayle King for SiriusXM on Tuesday to promote her upcoming film “The Color Purple” alongside her costar Danielle Brooks and director Blitz Bazawule, the decorated actress spoke on her frustrations over the lack of fair pay alluding to it being a determining factor in whether or not she was going to give up acting for good.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, [and] getting paid a fraction of the cost,” she said. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people say ‘you work a lot!’ I have to. The math ain’t mathing. And when you start working a lot, you have a team. Big bills come with what we do, we don’t do this alone.”
She went on the break down the pay for actors in Hollywood, detailing the misconceptions folks have over how much take home pay actors get after making a movie. Out of $10 million, she explained that the government takes half off the top. That’s then followed up by another 20-30 percent shaved off of gross income to pay various members of their team (managers, agents, publicists, stylists, etc.) and then whatever is left over goes
“I’m only human and it seems every time I do something and break a 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 just tired,” Henson tearfully said. “I’m tired. I’m tired. It wears on you. Because what does that mean? What is that telling me? And if I can’t fight for them coming behind me, then what the fuck am I doing?”
Of course, this isn’t the first time the “Hidden Figures” star has sounded the alarm on Hollywood’s pay gap for Black actresses. In 2019, she spoke out about it for a cover interview with Porter Edit. Months later, she echoed similar sentiments in Variety’s “Actors on Actors” roundtable when she revealed Tyler Perry was the first person to pay her half a million dollars for a role.