“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost…”
Taraji P. Henson recently opened up about her career and her future in Hollywood to Gayle King. During an interview on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy station, The Color Purple star and entrepreneur revealed to King that despite being in the entertainment industry for over 20 years, she is still underpaid and getting tired of it.
“I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost,” Henson said tearfully during the interview. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over; you get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to; the math ain’t mathin’.”
The 52-year-old added, “I hear people go, ‘You work a lot,’” she continued. “I have to. The math ain’t mathing. When you start working a lot, you know you have a team. Big bills come with what we do, we don’t do this alone … there’s a whole entire team behind us and they have to get paid.”
Henson went on to break down the salary distribution in Hollywood. “And when you start working a lot, you have a team. Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. The fact that we’re up here, there’s a whole entire team behind us. They have to get paid. So when you hear someone saying, ‘Oh, such and such made $10 million,’ no, that didn’t make it to their account. Know that off the top, Uncle Sam is getting 50%, OK? So, do the math; now we have $5 million.”
As a result, Henson says she doesn’t see her accomplishments as an actor due to being underpaid throughout most of her career and that when she breaks “another glass ceiling” and “it’s time to re-negotiate”, she is at the bottom again as if she never did anything.
“That’s why I have other things,” she told King on how she survives. “I have my TPH brand. I have my mental wellness,” Henson said. “I have other things because this industry if you let it, it’ll steal your soul, but I refuse to let that happen.”
This is not the first time Henson has opened up about pay disparity in Hollywood compared to her white counterparts. In 2021 she revealed only took home $40,000 for her Oscar-nominated role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, while her co-stars starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, earned millions.
She told Variety in a 2019 interview that she asked for half a million for the role but the studio offered $100,000 before bumping it up to $150,000 in negotiations.
“You’ve got to check your ego. I mean, I’m a black woman, so I knew it was going to be a fight,” she told Variety.” Still a fight. I don’t get paid if I don’t fight.”
Henson’s transparency hit home for several of her colleagues in the industry, including Keke Palmer.
“This is why no one can really have one job anymore! People working outside of the entertainment industry may do Uber eats, postmastes, accountant part time, substitute teacher every other week etc.,” Palmer captioned a screenshot of Henson’s interview on her Instagram. “For an entertainment career you may be like me, an actor, influencer, host, singer, speaker etc. I keep a job because I HAVE to haha. We ALL work multiple jobs and we may like some but also because we HAVE to.”
