On Q with Taraji P. Henson

Henson: Well I don’t see it as being difficult. I actually found it quite refreshing that I met someone on this planet who is more obsessive than I am. He’s a perfectionist. So am I. I mean that’s your art, that represents you. Your name is all over it and you want it to be the best. And it’s very rare in the film industry where you get a chance to take your time with a film. I didn’t even count the takes. It was just great being in a position where we didn’t have to rush, rush, rush.

N’Digo: In the film, you start off as a young, vivacious woman and end up as an elderly woman. What was your process for portraying a character that aged during the course of the film?

Well you definitely have to research what’s going on in each decade because that’s what molds us and shapes us, as we grow. We’re different people now, I mean we’ve got our first black president, things that happened in the environment that shaped and molded you. But also I had to research physically what happens to a person, to a body as it ages, what part of her body is going to cause her the most grief. And once I did the research and picked the certain part of the body that would be affected, I committed myself to it.

N’Digo: Bill Duke directs your upcoming film, Not Easily Broken with Morris Chestnut. What was your experience working with such an established actor and director?

I so wanted to work with Bill Duke. I took the first acting class he ever taught in L.A. and he trusted me and helped my process in how I approached and did research for a character. He’s the one who made me understand that acting is very spiritual, he would guide you about how you have to meditate and release energies and remove yourself so that the character can use your body as a vessel. I was so excited to work with him. And of course I loved going to work everyday hugging up to Morris Chestnut.

N’Digo: You mean Dark Gable?

(Laughs) Dark Gable! Absolutely! But I just really liked what the script was saying. There are so many broken families, it’s so easy to walk away from a relationship. But if you really make that commitment to stay, especially if you’ve found the right partner and invested so much into it, why walk away from it? There’s nothing really out there.

N’Digo: Would you say that your character in Broken is more like you in real life?

I put a lot of myself in everything I do. I draw from something. Exposing my character’s pain is perhaps a little insight into some of my pain, some of how I love, some of what makes me tick.

N’Digo: Well are you saying that acting for you can be emotional draining at times?

It can be. It can be therapeutic. And cathartic. Like Benjamin Button, I need to do that film because I lost my dad a year before we started filming and it actually helped me bring some resolve to that loss. But that’s the purpose of art. It can affect life. It changes life. It creates life. What I hope to do when I portray a character is that when people see me up on the screen they can see a part of themselves in these characters and hopefully say, “Wow! I need to look at this about myself and maybe I can change this for the better.” That’s what I’m hoping, to move people in a positive way, impacting their lives in a positive way through my art.

N’Digo: How do you handle those gossip blogs? Does the gossip bother you, or do you consider it the price you pay for being in show biz?

You know what? Life is like spiritual warfare. The good against the bad, You have the positive, you have the negative. We have angels, we have devils. And I know that even Jesus couldn’t make everyone happy. So who am I? (Laughs) I can’t make everyone happy. And that’s O.K. That’s O.K. That’s life. I’m not wasting my time on trying to change them. I’m only interested in the people who are interested in me.