Taraji P. Henson is getting vulnerable about a hard time in her life while she was shooting the 2016 film “Hidden Figures.”
The Howard University alum, known for her roles in “The Color Purple” and the FX drama “Empire,” has worked to build a notable career. But the journey has sometimes been painful — as she revealed on Tuesday’s episode of the podcast “Legacy Talk With Lena Waithe.”
In the episode, Waithe asks Henson how she felt delivering a pivotal monologue in “Hidden Figures” in which, as mathematician Katherine Goble Johnson, she explains to a supervisor played by Kevin Costner that her “long breaks” at work are caused by having to use a far-away segregated bathroom. Her character revealed how racism directly affected her ability to perform.
“Honestly, I was going through something very tragic in my life. A loved one of mine was suffering, and we were trying to keep them alive,” Henson revealed.
At the time, the actor said, she’d instructed her makeup artist to “keep them on the line” and to “not let them hang up.”
