On Tuesday night, during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Taraji P. Henson revealed that the president and First Lady are apparently huge fans of Empire.
She related a story told to her by creator Lee Daniels, who met both President Obama and Michelle Obama at a state dinner for the Chinese president.
“Lee calls me and goes, ‘Oh my God, you’re not going to believe this,’” Henson said. “’You know how you’re in the line, and everyone wants to shake the president and the first lady’s hand? As soon as I get over there, our president says to me, ‘Now, you know, Lee, I would never call Lucious. He would call me.'”
(This was a reference to a moment in the show, during its first season, when the president called up Lucious to respond to his son having called the president a sellout.)
“And then [Daniels] moves down the line, and our first lady goes, ‘Where is Taraji P. Henson? I want to see her. You have no idea how much I love Cookie.’ So I dropped the phone,” Henson continued excitedly.
Earlier this year, the president had revealed that the First Lady was an Empire fan, when he said, “Michelle is real big on ‘Empire.’ She’s gotten really into it. I have frankly not had a chance to see it yet but I love the actors in it, so I’m hoping she’s DVRing it so I can take a look.”