Taraji P. Henson Says A Role Written For Her Went To Naomi Watts

You know Cookie. Now it's time to get acquainted with Taraji. Empire star Taraji P. Henson is opening up about her personal life and career in her new memoir, Around the Way Girl. The book, out on hardcover today, details the actress' abusive relationship with the father of her son, her experiences as a single mother, and footing her own hotel bill while starring in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. According to an excerpt obtained by USA Today, the memoir also reveals some hard truths about being a Black woman in Hollywood. “Time and again, I’ve lost roles because someone with the ability to green-light a film couldn’t see Black women beyond a very limited purview he or she thought ‘fit’ audience expectations,” Henson writes. She claims that the pregnant Russian sex worker character in the Bill Murray film St. Vincent was specifically written for her by screenwriter and director Theodore Melfi. The role ultimately went to Naomi Watts, however. “It was a meaty gig,” she writes of the part. “I would have loved it. Alas, I couldn’t get served at that particular restaurant.” On a brighter note, Melfi is now directing Henson in Hidden Figures, the historical drama about the Black women who helped shape NASA's history.