--- title: Taraji P. Henson by Lee Daniels: TIME 100 description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301243/taraji-p-henson-2016-time-100/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-20T16:27:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:13:25.075Z og:title: Taraji P. Henson by Lee Daniels: TIME 100 og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301243/taraji-p-henson-2016-time-100/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt159864d296c33aca/69888fd8e20a872224a907f5/time-100-2016-taraji-henson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Taraji P. Henson by Lee Daniels: TIME 100 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taraji P. Henson by Lee Daniels: TIME 100 twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt159864d296c33aca/69888fd8e20a872224a907f5/time-100-2016-taraji-henson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 20, 2016 # Taraji P. Henson by Lee Daniels  Actress Taraji P. Henson who stars in the new Fox show "Empire" in New York on October 27, 2014. Actress Taraji P. Henson who stars in the new Fox show "Empire" in New York on October 27, 2014.Ethan Hill—Redux What I love most about Taraji P. Henson is that she’s fiercely loyal. During her audition for _Empire_, she told me she wouldn’t take the role unless Lucious was Terrence Howard. She didn’t have the job yet, but she was standing there fighting for Terrence. That was the moment I knew she was Cookie. Taraji is the modern-day Bette Davis, touching audiences with her honesty and intensity. When you are on set with Taraji, she listens, but she also questions. She challenges everyone to go the extra step to get it right. She has a deep understanding of the human condition, and she displays it with her eyes—the pain, the happiness, the love, the laughter. She probably would have been a great silent actor, but then the world wouldn’t have had Cookie. Before _Empire_, she was underappreciated by white America and Hollywood, while African Americans heralded her as our Meryl Streep. I’m so proud that Cookie has moved her into the zeitgeist. What Taraji has done with the role made the world finally appreciate who she is—quite simply, a tour de force on and off the screen. _Daniels is a director, writer and producer and co-creator of_ Empire ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301243/taraji-p-henson-2016-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301243/taraji-p-henson-2016-time-100/"},"headline":"Taraji P. Henson","datePublished":"2016-04-20T16:27:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:13:25.075Z","description":"The modern Bette Davis","url":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301243/taraji-p-henson-2016-time-100/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt159864d296c33aca/69888fd8e20a872224a907f5/time-100-2016-taraji-henson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt159864d296c33aca/69888fd8e20a872224a907f5/time-100-2016-taraji-henson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301243/taraji-p-henson-2016-time-100/","name":"Taraji P. Henson"}}]}] ```