Taraji P. Henson Says Hollywood Only Sent Her ‘Ghetto Baby Mama’ Roles After ‘Baby Boy’ [VIDEO]

Taraji P. Henson Says Hollywood Only Sent Her ‘Ghetto Baby Mama’ Roles After ‘Baby Boy’ [VIDEO]

Taraji P. Henson is opening up about the struggles she faced after her breakout role in the 2001 film Baby Boy.

During an appearance on Keke Palmer’s podcast Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, Taraji shared that Hollywood kept offering her the same type of parts. “It’s interesting because when you’re first getting started, when you do something really well, then they kind of just send you a lot of scripts like that,” she said. “So, it happened when I did Baby Boy. They sent me every ‘Ghetto Baby Mama’ [role] and I was like, ‘I’m really classically trained, guys.’”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The Jasmine Brand (@the.jasmine.brand)

The actress explained that people in the industry “just couldn’t figure me out,” and admitted she had to fight her way into more dynamic roles. Turning down projects became part of her strategy: “When you’re trained in theater, you know what a script should look like. By page ten, if I’m not feeling something, nine times out of ten, it’s not a good script.”

Despite the early challenges, Taraji went on to break through with films like Hidden Figures and Proud Mary.

Thoughts?