Totally Taraji

As she returns for a fourth season of Fox’s hit drama Empire, Taraji P. Henson is ready for her biggest year yet, with four movies due for release in 2018. The hardest-working girl’s girl in Hollywood says she fights for her characters, ‘because I believe in them; because I believe in me.’ So do we 

- Janet Mock

THERE’S NOTHING MORE MUNDANE THAN SITTING ACROSS FROM A CELEBRITY IN A STERILE, GREY CONFERENCE ROOM. But when the star sitting across from you is Taraji Penda Henson, you are being treated to a master class in the art of the hustle. Taraji struts into her publicist’s office in West Hollywood, California, with the commanding and exacting gait of a woman twice her height. It’s as if she’s never wandered a day in her life. She doesn’t say a word or take off her be jewelled sunglasses as she situates herself, just smiles as a courtesy, but you know you’re just another thing on her never ending to-do list. You study her look because you’re writing for a fashion magazine and note the plunging African-print minidress by MuurSwagg, a designer she fell in love with on Instagram.

‘I don’t know this woman, but I appreciate her hustle,’ Taraji says. ‘I’m drawn to people who’ve got passion, who’ve got their bigger picture.’ That’s when you realise that every piece of her ensemble means something. Take, for instance, her René Caovilla strappy heels. When her father was dying of cancer, ‘People would come to the house and cry, and he would ask them, “Why are you crying?”,’ she says as she takes off her sandal to reveal its glittery sole – a detail that reminds her of him (he died in 2006). ‘“Where I’m going, I’m going to be walking on streets paved with diamonds.” That’s what he said.’