Taraji P Henson: “I thought that meant I couldn’t act.”

9 to 5ish with theSkimm

theSkimm

Entrepreneurship, Careers, Business

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2018

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You might know Taraji P Henson as Cookie on “Empire,” or from her roles in movies like “Hustle and Flow” and “Hidden Figures.” But you might not know the rest of Taraji’s story. She’s always wanted to be an actor. But she didn’t take her passion seriously until she flunked out of precalculus in college. After school, she moved to Los Angeles to chase her dreams -- with just $700 in her pocket. And she made it happen. Now, Taraji’s using her voice to create change in a new way. She started the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation to tackle the stigma around mental health in the African American community. On the couch, she talks to us about rejection, not giving into fear, and what it’s like to negotiate in a quickly-changing Hollywood.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for today's episode is brought to you by Goldman Sachs 10,000 women.
0:04.4	You know what Goldman Sachs is, but you might not know that they have a program that works to empower female business owners around the globe.
0:11.2	10,000 women is a global program founded by Goldman Sachs that provides female
0:15.3	entrepreneurs around the world with practical and actionable business tools.
0:19.7	It supports women with resources like business and management education, networking, and here's a big one, access to capital.
0:27.0	We know how important that one is, born that leader.
0:30.0	For now, let's get into it.
0:32.0	And as an actor, that's my job to show up and give you these feelings at the drop of a dime.
0:39.0	And I've just perfected my craft where I have a non-off switch, so I literally could be in a sink like no
0:45.0	I'm cut girls on anybody last
0:50.0	I'm Danielle Wiesburg and I'm Carly Zakin and we are the co-founder of the Skim.
0:56.0	You're listening to our podcast Skimmed from the couch where we talk to other female entrepreneurs
1:00.0	about what it's like to get to the top and then what it's like along the way.
1:04.6	We're talking bad advice, the really, really low days, the manager mistakes, everything that goes
1:09.7	into the real stuff.
1:11.6	No BS. We started the skim from a couch so what better place to
1:15.2	talk it all out than where it all began. We're on a couch.
1:19.1	So I am completely freaking out because we are welcoming to Rajj P. Hansen to the couch today.
1:25.1	You might know her as Cookie on Empire
1:27.7	or from her roles in movies like Hustle and Flow,
1:30.7	loved it, hidden figures also loved it, and so much more.
1:35.0	But you might not know the rest of Taraji's amazing story.
	...

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