Despite all of Lee Daniels’ success with his past hit series Empire, he had a “horrible” time working on it.
Empire built a strong audience during its six-season run on Fox. Daniels created the American music drama with Danny Strong and enjoyed the weekly engagement the show garnered on social media. While the show was reeling in high ratings for Fox, Daniels was suffering from behind-the-scenes drama with network execs.
“I only did Empire just so I could see what that experience was like,” Daniels told The Film Stage.
As for how he feels about his time creating Empire, The Butler
director says it wasn’t smooth sailing, but he enjoyed all of the money he could make from its success. According to Daniels, the profits were the only thing that made the experience “worth it.”“Horrible. Absolutely the worst experience. Horrible!” he exclaimed. “But guess what? F—ing that money, money, money! I was able to put my kids through college and s—.”
Empire served as Daniels’ successful transition into television following his Oscar-award-winning performances in his films Precious (2009) and The Butler (2013).
“I don’t like staying in the same lane just as a creative,” he recalled. “When I got into television, I really just wanted to be able to answer to suits. I wanted to know what that experience was like.”
Having made all of his films independently, Daniels was curious about working within Hollywood’s system, where he had to answer to someone.
“There’s so many filmmakers and writers that I respect that have to answer to people,” he said.
Once he got his first taste of the television world, Daniels soon learned how confining that part of the industry can be. Filming Empire during the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Daniels found himself subjected to rules and restrictions from higher-ups that stained his television experience.
In 2019, he got candid with Vulture about his distaste for working on the show after Empire‘s cancellation was announced. In one instance, Daniels was told that he “can’t use certain words,” like “the B-word” on set, which left him feeling “triggered.”
“I said, ‘Okay.’ And I think they said, ‘You can’t look people in the eyes too long. Be careful with touching.’ These are all things that I do in my room when I work,” Daniels recalled.
“And then they said, ‘And you can’t say the N-word.’ I was shook. It led to a bigger conversation of me being afraid to be me on the set and how I make my movies. I said, ‘I can’t have this conversation. I need to know who I can call on you. Because you have me triggered. You’re not going to play these games with me.'”
Daniels’ new film, The Deliverance, became the most-watched movie on Netflix during its premiere on Labor Day weekend. The thriller sees Daniels reunite with Mo’Nique following a yearslong feud over their 2009 film Precious. Andra Day, Aunjanue Ellis, and Glenn Close star alongside Mo’Nique in the film.