Taraji P. Henson credits Tyler Perry for raising her stock in Hollywood
In her memoir "Around the Way Girl," Taraji P. Henson credits Tyler Perry with helping her up her quote in Hollywood by paying her what she was worth.
Taraji P. Henson said in her memoir, “Around the Way Girl,” that she was paid next to nothing compared to Brad Pitt when they both starred in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
She described the negotiations for her salary in the memoir, stating that she was paid “the equivalent of sofa change” for her role.
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“Both Brad and Cate got millions. Me? With bated breath, I sat by the phone for hours, waiting for Vince [her manager] to call and tell me the number that I thought would make me feel good: somewhere in the mid six figures — no doubt a mere percentage of what Brad was bringing home to Angelina and their beautiful babies, but something worthy of a solid up-and-coming actress with a decent amount of critical acclaim for her work. Alas, that request was dead on arrival,” she wrote.
She continued, “‘I’m sorry, Taraji,’ Vince said quietly when we finally connected. ‘They came in at the lowest of six figures. I convinced them to add in a little more, but that’s as high as they’d go.’ There was one other thing: I’d have to agree to pay my own location fees while filming in New Orleans, meaning three months of hotel expenses would be coming directly out of my pocket. Insult, meet injury.”
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But she went on to credit Tyler Perry with helping her to up her quote in Hollywood by actually paying her what she was worth for I Can Do Bad All by Myself.
“I was grateful for the work, but even more, I’m grateful to Tyler for putting me on the road to being paid my worth,” she wrote “It was he who gave me a fair wage to star in his movie, which ultimately raised my quote — the baseline pay I could negotiate going into subsequent movie deals… It was because of him — not an Oscar nomination — that I never had to take another movie project at the rock bottom of six figures.”
