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Taraji P. Henson, 54: ‘Money Doesn’t Make Your Problems Go Away’

The actress riffs on getting her start in Hollywood — and her push to help understand and address mental illness

As told to

Joel Stein,

AARP

Published September 27, 2024

Golden Globe winner Taraji P. Henson (Empire 2015–20) has remained busy, most recently in the Peacock limited series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist with an all-star cast that includes Kevin Hart, Don Cheadle and Samuel L. Jackson, among others. But Henson, 54, has also joined the fight against mental illness, founding and supporting the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, named for her late father, who battled mental health issues after returning home from Vietnam. For her work with the Foundation, which is devoted to destigmatizing mental health issues within the Black community and supporting mental health treatments, she has received a 2024 honorary Purpose Prize from AARP. AARP spoke to Henson for the October/November issue of AARP The Magazine about that and several defining moments of her early and current life.

Actress Taraji P. Henson pulling up on the suspenders on the outfit she's wearing

Erik Carter/August Images

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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She started out at North Carolina A&T State University, intending to study electrical engineering, but dropped out

I just followed my really smart friend and did what she was doing. Then I failed pre-calc. Pre-calc! With two tutors. I called my dad and cried, and he was, like, “Now enroll in drama at Howard University like you’re supposed to be doing.” And I did.

While at Howard, she worked as a secretary at the Pentagon and as a singing-dancing waitress on a cruise ship

I owed North Carolina A&T some money. My stepmom worked at the Pentagon and told me about the Stay-in-School employment program. And then my best friend at Howard was, like, “Girl, I’m a waitress on this dinner cruise and the tips are amazing.” So I did both, because I was always a little hustler. “Proud Mary” was my song.

She moved to L.A. with $700

My little cousin got a part in Minor Adjustments as a child actor. When I got out to L.A., the show wrapped and my cousin’s mother was, like, “I can’t leave you here without a car.” So I gave her my $700 and she took me to the airport auction and bought me a Sentra for $3,000. As soon as I booked my first series, I paid her back and paid off my student loans.

In 2011, she posed without clothes in an antifur ad

I saw a documentary on HBO and was so disturbed. Then it was like kismet: A week later, PETA called me out of the blue to ask me to do this ad. I said, “Absolutely.” Now I have one of the most incredible faux furs. You would think it is mink, but no animal died.

Her father, Boris, was bipolar

He would turn into a whole other person, from good to mean. Also, he would be there and then he wouldn’t be there. He would reenact being in the Vietnam War. I’ll never forget him jumping up thinking bombs were going off and making us crawl around on the floor. He had a lot of work to do. But you know what I love about my dad? He wore it on his sleeve. He didn’t hide that he had issues. And he got the healing that he needed.

She spoke before the Congressional Black Caucus about mental illness

I had to share my secrets. But it’s freeing. Because then you’re not alone. For you to think that out of the billions of people on this planet, you’re the only one with this issue is fake news. I’m always looked at as strong, and people see this cape and I’m, like, “Y’all don’t understand what it’s like when I go home and I fall down to my knees and it feels like the walls are closing in.” Money doesn’t make your problems go away.

**Her one-liners on Empire came from her dad**

Everybody thought I created Cookie from a woman. It was my dad. He had some of the most amazing zingers. The line where she says, “Girls walking around here with their scalps smelling like goat.” That’s word for word what my father said. I improv’d that on the set. I knew they were going to keep it.

L.A.-based journalist Joel Stein is the author of In Defense of Elitism and Man Made.

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