Taraji P. Henson hosts the
2017 Black Girls Rock!
Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic
Taraji P. Henson
in Proud Mary
Photo: Dana Starbard
That’s just one of the three films Henson has coming out in 2018;
she’ll be seen in her third Tyler Perry flick, “Tyler Perry’s She’s Living
My Life,” in March, and she’ll voice a character in Disney’s “Ralph
Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2,” coming in November.
Plus, she shoots “Empire” every season in Chicago from July through
March and she’s about to repeat her popular “Taraji’s White Hot
Holidays” television special during the 2017 holiday season, the third
installment of the Christmas variety show she produces, hosts and
calls “my baby.”
“That’s my ode to Carol Burnett. Carol Burnett saved me from the
streets when I was a kid. I laughed instead of playing out in the
street. I love comedy and I miss variety TV. I miss family TV. Especially
around the holidays. I’m a big family person. My family, we still
get together in D.C. and sing and dance and put on variety shows
on Christmas,” Henson says gleefully. “This is my baby, the show I
produce that I love, so every season it will change. It will be different
every year.”
The first two seasons have showcased the comic and musical abilities
of everyone from her “Empire” co-star Terrence Howard to Mary J.
Blige, John Legend and Patti LaBelle in the first year to Alicia Keys,
Taye Diggs, Pharrell Williams and Snoop Dogg last year. She’s not
giving away who will join her for the fun in 2017, but tells us that it
will air on the Fox Network in early December.
Henson has her hands full, but that’s not stopping her from feeling
that call of the nomad that beats in the heart of most actors. For
while she makes sure her mother and her son are well taken care
of, she’s always on the move. She shot Tyler Perry’s newest in
Pittsburgh, “Proud Mary” in Massachusetts, and another upcoming
biopic film she is starring in called “Best of Enemies” in Atlanta. But
that bouncing from airport to airport and city to city invigorates her.
“I love what I’m doing. I’m living my life, earning a living doing what I
love. It took me long enough for people to stand up and take notice.
I’m not going to sit down now. So I’m all over the place. Wherever
the job calls me, I’m there. I’m waiting for the exotic locations, now.
Prague. When am I going to Prague for my next movie?” she asks.
Henson actually has a list of places she’s dying to visit, if she can
ever find the time in her jammed work schedule — “There are places
I need to go. I haven’t been to Barcelona or Spain,” she admits,
“South Africa was beautiful, but I have to go back because I didn’t
make to Cape Town. I want to go back to Japan because I didn’t
have enough time there. I kept falling asleep there, I was jet lagged. I
really wanted to experience the nightlife, but I never made it. I need
to go back there.”
Until she finds a chunk of free time to go traveling, look for Taraji P.
Henson in one of the three places in America that she calls home —
Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. For her favorite things to
do in Washington D.C., see the sidebar on page 7.
WINTER 2017/18
9 FLYWASHINGTON.COM