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Taraji P. Henson<\/a>\u00a0says that of all the smart business decisions she has made in Hollywood, one stands out as the best.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In a <\/span>new interview<\/a> with the <\/span>SAG-AFTRA<\/a> Foundation, the 53-year-old star of <\/span>The Color Purple<\/span><\/em> said that firing her entire team after her time on FOX’s hit series\u00a0<\/span>Empire<\/span><\/em>\u00a0was one of the most salient.<\/span><\/p>\n “Firing everybody after Cookie,” she\u00a0answered while\u00a0speaking with <\/span>Variety’s<\/span><\/em> Angelique Jackson. “Everybody had to f**kin’ go.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>Hidden Figures<\/span><\/em> actress — who played Cookie Lyon for six seasons prior to the show’s end in 2020 — pointed to her character’s many iconic attributes when explaining why she thought her team would be ready and able to capitalize on her fan-favorite role after the show stopped.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Where is my deal? Where’s my commercial? Cookie was at the top of the fashion game. Where is my endorsement? What did you have set up for after this? That’s why you all haven\u2019t seen me in so long. They had\u00a0nothing\u00a0set up,” Henson said during the sit-down.<\/span><\/p>\n The one thing her team did bring to her after <\/span>Empire<\/span><\/em> had ended was the idea of a Cookie-centric spinoff, which she said she was only open to if it had been done “right.”<\/span><\/p>\n “All they wanted was another Cookie show, and I said, ‘I’ll do it, but it has to be right. The people deserve- she\u2019s too beloved for y’all to f**k it up.’ And so, when they didn\u2019t get it right, I was like, ‘Well, that\u2019s it,’ and they had nothing else. ‘You’re all f**kin\u2019 fired,'” she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This interview comes after the Oscar-nominated actress <\/span>recently broke down<\/a> while discussing Hollywood’s significant pay inequality.<\/span><\/p>\n In a conversation with\u00a0<\/span>Gayle King<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0<\/span>SiriusXM<\/a>\u00a0radio alongside\u00a0<\/span>Danielle Brooks<\/a>\u00a0and <\/span>The Color Purple<\/span><\/em> director Blitz Bazawule, things became somber when Henson opened up about\u00a0her frustrations over the industry’s lack of fair pay, implying that the longstanding issues are determining factors in whether she gives up acting for good.<\/span><\/p>\n “I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, [and] getting paid a fraction of the cost,” she said. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people say ‘you work a lot!’ I have to. The math ain’t mathing.”<\/span><\/p>\n Henson pointed out that a successful Hollywood career requires a team of people who deserve to be paid. “Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone,” she said. “The fact that we’re up here, there’s a whole entire team behind us. They have to get paid.”<\/span><\/p>\n “When you hear someone go, ‘Such and such made $10 million,’ that didn’t make it to their account,” Henson continued. “Off the top, Uncle Sam is getting 50%. Now [you] have $5 million. Your team is getting 30% — or whatever you work out — off what you gross, not after what Uncle Sam took. Now do the math.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I’m only human. Every time I do something and break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate, I’m at the bottom again like I never did what I just did, and I’m tired,” she lamented. “I’m tired. It wears on you. What does that mean? What is that telling me? If I can’t fight for them coming up behind me, then what the f**k am I doing?”<\/span><\/p>\n This isn’t the first time that Henson has spoken out on the subject.\u00a0In her 2016 memoir,\u00a0<\/span>Around the Way Girl<\/span><\/em>, she claimed she experienced a considerable pay discrepancy while working on the 2008 movie\u00a0<\/span>The Curious Case of Benjamin Button<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Compared to her co-stars, including Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, Henson wrote that she was paid “the equivalent of sofa change.” She said her paycheck was in the “lowest” six figures and claimed she had to pay her hotel bill for several months during production, an arrangement she called an “insult.”<\/span><\/p>\n