Viola Davis & Taraji P. Henson Discuss Their Hit Roles ‘I Hate That Bitch Cookie’

Cookie on the other hand is sassy, sexy, and with the sharpest tongue we’ve seen on any mother that’s on TV. She is so loved and revered that even Taraji P. Henson began her segment in such Cookie way to declare how she feels about her role in the history-making Fox hit.

I hate that bitch. She’s stolen my identity! [Laughs] My friends don’t want to talk to me unless it’s about Cookie.

However once she declared that, she immediately reverted back to her softer side and revealed that playing Cookie scared the hell out of her. Not only was she in the midst of taking a break from TV and movies because she didn’t feel challenged but she knew as soon as she read the script that Cookie was going to change the game.

Cookie scared the hell out of me. Just before I got the role, I’d said, “F— it all, I’m going back to theater.” I felt lazy and like I needed to sharpen the tools. So I did theater at The Pasadena Playhouse. Then my manager said,”You have to read this script.” I’m like, “Hip-hop? Oh my God, what are they trying to do? Fox is going to pick this up? This isn’t HBO?” And then I got nervous and started pacing the floor. “Oh my God, Cookie is bigger than life. You will love her or hate her.”

Yet a true thespian and attacker of her craft, Taraji P. accepted the challenge, not only for her fans but for her craft.

I was petrified but for me that fear means it’s a challenge that I had to take on. If it doesn’t shake me up, then why am I doing it. I’m not servicing the character or the fans if I just walk through it and that’s not what I got in this industry to do. Art is so powerful and I felt like the subject matter this project dealt with was something we haven’t seen on primetime television. Empire has forced people to have conversations that they were afraid to have. And that is what art is supposed to do. I was like finally we get a chance to shake it up a bit. I just didn’t know it was going to shake things up this much!