Taraji P Henson sobs over pay disparity in Hollywood: ‘The math ain’t mathing’

‘The Color Purple’ star said she feels so undervalued she’s considered quitting acting

Taraji P Henson sobbed as she revealed that she feels so underpaid in Hollywood she has considered quitting acting.

The 53-year-old Empire star said: “I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do [and] getting paid a fraction of the cost.”

She added: “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ Well, I have to. The math ain’t mathing.”

Henson was speaking to Gayle King as part of a SiriusXM interview to promote her new movie musical The Color Purple.

The actor, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role in 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, explained that even sizeable pay cheques are quickly eaten away by costs.

“When you start working a lot, you have a team,” she said. “Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. It’s a whole team behind us. They have to get paid. When you hear someone go, ‘Such and such made $10 million,’ that didn’t make it to their account.”

“Off the top, Uncle Sam is getting 50 per cent. Now you have $5 million. Your team is getting 30 per cent off what you gross, not after what Uncle Sam took. Now do the math.”

Taraji P Henson talking to Gayle King at SiriusXM Studios in New York (Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

Henson added that even after decades in Hollywood she still finds herself fighting the same battles. “I’m only human,” she said. “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. 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*** am I doing?” she added, covering her face and sobbing.

Earlier this year, The Color Purple producer Oprah Winfrey recalled the small pay cheque she received for her Oscar-nominated role in Steven Spielberg’s previous 1985 film adaptation of the same novel.

Ahead of the forthcoming musical version, Winfrey reflected on the “full-circle moment” in an interview with Essence magazine.

“I can’t even begin to tell you what it means to me – a person who wanted nothing more in my life than to be in The Color Purple,” the TV host said of the life-changing opportunity. “God taught me to surrender – that was the big lesson for me.”

She said she was offered just $35,000 [£28,800] to be in the film, but remembered it as “the best $35,000 I ever earned.”

“It changed everything and taught me so much. It is God moving through my life,” Winfrey added.

The Color Purple follows the epic life of an African-American woman who survives incredible abuse and bigotry in the South in the early 1900s. The only thing that keeps her going is her hope of one day reuniting with her sister in Africa.

The new musical version is set to arrive in cinemas on 25 December.