‘What the Hell Was That?’

Movie mogul Tyler Perry and Empire star Taraji P. Henson first collaborated for the feature I Can Do Bad All by Myself. In the midst of shooting, Henson took certain liberties with her co-star that did more than shock the producer.

Taraji P. Henson shocked Tyler Perry with her kiss scene

Henson was excited to star in Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself. It was yet another project that took place in Perry’s Madea universe, starring Henson as the aunt of three troubled siblings. Henson also considered the film her first starring role, which she appreciated since she wasn’t really given the opportunity to carry a film.

“The day after the Oscars, he was the first call I got. I’ve been doing this for 10 years, this is my first leading role. It’s an opportunity to show the industry that I can carry a film. Thank you Tyler Perry,” Henson once told Cinemablend.

She co-starred alongside actor Adam Rodriguez, who served as a potential love interest. But when it came to their love scene, Perry confided that Henson went a bit too far.

“Well there is this one scene, it was a really serious scene where Taraji and Adam are sitting on the sofa and we’re shooting the scene and Taraji leans over and she starts to kiss him but it wasn’t in the script,” Perry once told HuffPost. “So I’m looking through the script and I’m sitting at the monitor watching and I just sit back and see how long it’s going to go. I don’t understand how when you’re kissing somebody you put your tongue in their mouth and you’re supposed to be acting, when there’s no camera inside your mouth to see the tongue.”

Eventually, the Gone Girl star tried to intervene in the scene.

“So the kisses went on and on and on and I sat there waiting for them to finish and they just kept kissing,” he said. “I have it on video; it’s a long long long long long kiss and they wouldn’t stop. So I finally said ‘Cut’ and I said, ‘What the hell was that? Where did that come from?’ Taraji was like, ‘What? It’s in the script,’ ‘Show it to me,’ so they adlipped,” he said.

Taraji P. Henson starred as the lead in this Tyler Perry film because of ‘Fatal Attraction’

I Can Do Bad wasn’t the only Perry film that Henson ended up starring in. He would circle back towards the Hidden Figures actor years later for Acrimony. Acrimony was a bit darker than Perry and Henson’s previous feature. This 2018 movie saw Henson portraying a jaded wife trying to get back at her lover for not appreciating her enough. Henson was persuaded to star in the film because it reminded her of a similar 1980s movie.

“Because it reminded me so much of Glenn Close’s character in Fatal Attraction,” Henson once told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s the carrot Tyler dangled in front of me … then I read the script and I was, like, ‘I’m in.’ What I didn’t know was that he was trying to shoot it in 10 days. Because who does that?”

Perry, who was known for his quick filmmaking, helped Henson complete the project quicker than that.

“He originally wanted me to play the [character in college and as an older woman], but Empire wasn’t going to let me off all of those days so he broke it up. And [Ajiona Alexus], who plays me as Cookie, plays the younger me in Acrimony. She naturally has light eyes and wears dark contact lenses for Empire. This time I wore light colored contacts to match her eyes. So my portion of the film [was completed] in five days,” she said.

Tyler Perry was the reason Taraji P. Henson started getting paid more for films

Perry’s films not only looked nice on Henson’s film resume, he was instrumental in Henson receiving a sizable salary bump for her film work. Speaking with Variety, Henson shared how Perry was the first filmmaker to pay what she asked for. And this would later create a domino effect for Henson’s career and net worth.

“I was asking for half a million. I didn’t get paid that until I did my first Tyler Perry film. He was the first person that gave — that broke the standard that I was getting paid for films, and he gave me $500,000,” Henson said.