Issue Date: February 15, 2009
A dream deferred
How Taraji P. Henson nearly missed her chance at Oscar glory for a yard sale.
By Lola Ogunnaike
Taraji P. Henson has had more occupations than she cares to remember. Before becoming an acclaimed actress, her jobs included stints as a Pentagon secretary, a substitute teacher and a singing waitress. "You name it and I've done it," Henson, a single mother, says with a warm laugh. "But me and my baby never went hungry, and we always had lights and heat."
Long gone are the days when Henson, 38, had to sing for her supper. After memorable turns in films like "Baby Boy," "Talk to Me" and the Oscar-winning "Hustle & Flow", in which she played a pregnant prostitute, she's well on her way to stardom. In director David Fincher's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," out now, Henson plays a barren caretaker who mothers an orphaned child with a rare aging disease. The estimated $170 million dramatic fantasy with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett is Henson's biggest film to date, and it may have earned her the chance to give an Academy Award acceptance speech next week when the best supporting actress envelope is opened.
Henson was so sure that she wouldn't land the role (that Fincher would cast a "name"), she nearly blew off the audition. "I had a garage sale planned that day, and I was so upset that I had to cancel it," she says over a steaming latte at a Manhattan hotel restaurant. "I went there kicking and screaming."
Unbeknownst to her, "Button"'s casting director, Laray Mayfield, had already decided that the part belonged to Henson. "Laray is a huge fan [of my work], and she actually started crying during my audition," Henson says. "She was going on and on about "Hustle & Flow," and I'm thinking, 'Did she forget to take her medicine today?' "
Makeup-free and dressed down in jeans and a yellow sweater this afternoon, Henson has an undeniable natural beauty. Her cheekbones could cut glass; her cocoa skin appears never to have known a blemish. Yet, she's drawn to roles that downplay her comeliness. In "Button," with the help of prosthetics, she ages from 26 to 71. In the upcoming "Hurricane Season," she's the wife of a high school basketball coach (Forest Whitaker) in post-Katrina New Orleans. "I'm not relying on pretty or sex appeal," Henson says with a dismissive flick of the wrist. "Yeah, I'm cute now, but things are going to eventually sag and droop. Ultimately, it's only going to be about the acting, so let's just get that started now."
Henson, born and raised in Washington, D.C., knows pain. The father of her son was murdered years ago. "He was my first love, and we'd been together for eight years," she says quietly. "It was such a senseless death." Then, in 2005, two weeks before she performed "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" at the Oscars, Henson's father died of liver cancer. "It still hurts," she says. "We were very close."
Her father, a janitor, often told her she was destined for the stage. The acting bug bit her during a kindergarten recital. "I don't remember what I said, but I remember being the loudest and the most charming child up there," she recalls. "I remember the audience response, and something in me just came alive. It was so intoxicating, and I've been chasing that feeling ever since."
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She shelved her acting dreams when the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, a prestigious public high school, rejected her. After a torturous year studying electrical engineering at North Carolina A&T University ("I failed pre-calculus"), she transferred to Howard University, where she earned a degree in theater arts. With little in her pocket but hope, she headed for Los Angeles. She was 26, ancient in Hollywood years. "I was late to start," says Henson, who was a receptionist at a CPA's office before landing bit parts on sitcoms such as "Sister, Sister."
The director John Singleton, who first discovered Henson and cast her in his 2001 coming-of-age drama "Baby Boy," says the fact that her rise wasn't meteoric is a good thing. "She has what every true artist should have -- a bit of life experience," he says. "She can bring something to her craft."
Singleton now calls her his "go-to actress. She is the first person I think of when I'm about to cast a film," he says. "She's my secret weapon because I know when I put in her a movie, she's going to help everyone around her step their game up."
As hardworking as ever, Henson welcomes the choices her success affords her. "I have a reputation to maintain, a legacy to build," she says.
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