‘Empire’s behind-the-scenes drama: On the set of TV’s hottest show

A dozen Empire writers are perched around a cluttered conference table in Beverly Hills when one of the series’ youngest voices clears her throat. “I think I have something,” she says, tapping her cotton-candy-pink nails nervously against the table. “It’s kinda crazy … “ “Oh, we like crazy,” says co-creator Danny Strong, coaxing her along. […]

A dozen Empire writers are perched around a cluttered conference table in Beverly Hills when one of the series’ youngest voices clears her throat. “I think I have something,” she says, tapping her cotton-candy-pink nails nervously against the table. “It’s kinda crazy … “ “Oh, we like crazy,” says co-creator Danny Strong, coaxing her along. For the next 15 minutes, they boisterously debate what constitutes cheating and whether this little tidbit is juicy enough to be repurposed as a storyline for season two.
Welcome to the Empire writers room, which is every bit as provocative, unfiltered and refreshingly diverse as the series itself. When the hip-hop drama starring Oscar nominees Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson as pigheaded music mogul Lucious Lyon and his fresh-out-of-prison ex-wife, Cookie, premiered in January on Fox, it blew up the decades-old mold of primetime programming – demonstrating that a show by black people, about black people and for black people could, in fact, appeal to other people, too. “For so long, we’ve had conversations that have ranged from challenging to unproductive with various creative partners about the value of having our shows reflect the audience that watches television,” says Fox TV Group chairman Dana Walden. “The result is that you can have a big, fat hit.”
But Empire – conceived as either a “hip-hop Lion in Winter” or a “black Dynasty,” depending on whether you ask Strong or his co-creator Lee Daniels – was more than just a hit. It was a full-blown cultural phenomenon, the likes of which network television had not produced in years. It became the first series in more than 20 years to increase its viewership with each successive episode, quickly earning high-profile fans in Oprah Winfrey, Jack Nicholson and Michelle Obama. Yes, black viewers made up 63 percent of the series’ nearly 18 million weekly broadcast audience, but it was bigger and broader than a single demo. Factor in all of the platforms on which Empire has been offered, and more than 26 million viewers have tuned in for its often-outrageous plot twists and catchy Timbaland-produced soundtrack.
With outsized success, however, comes outsized expectations and no shortage of backstage drama: Howard’s personal travails have turned him into a gossip-world pinata, Daniels has occasionally flexed his creative authority beyond the comfort zone of the network, and there are lingering concerns that too many big-name guest stars (Chris Rock, Mariah Carey, Rosie O’Donnell, the list goes on) could overwhelm the second season. But all of this soap opera within the soap opera ultimately is good for Fox, which needs as much attention as possible to keep its juggernaut rolling.
The idea for Empire was hatched when Strong, 41, was driving around Los Angeles and heard a story about Sean “P. Diddy” Combs on the radio. To the writer of HBO Emmy winners Game Change and Recount, the premise – an epic family saga set in the hip-hop world – suddenly seemed obvious, and he called Daniels, with whom he’d collaborated on Lee Daniels’ The Butler, and pitched it as a movie. Daniels, still stung from the tortuous path Butler had taken to get made, called back the next day. “Let’s do it for TV,” he told Strong. “It’d be nice to make some money.”
Daniels has talked about wanting to dramatize a wider range of the African-American experience in the series’ second season, and it was with this in mind that he, Strong and Chaiken brought in more black writers. “There’s been an appetite for a long time for network television to do something different,” she says. “And black people, in particular, love to see themselves on television because they don’t see themselves a lot – and this wasn’t about seeing yourself in a way that makes you feel bad about yourself. It’s not a slave movie. They’re rich, they’re glamorous, they’re complicated …”
But there are limits to how far even Daniels can push it. According to multiple insiders, Fox brass shot down an early idea to have Chris Rock’s character, who’s in jail with Lucious, be a cannibal in the first episode of the season. But Daniels, who directed the season opener, is said to have ignored the mandate and shot the Rock story as initially envisioned, including one particularly grotesque scene featuring the actor with a plate of human body parts before him. Rock agreed to return to the series’ Chicago set for reshoots this summer, where sources say the cannibal plotline was scaled back to the point of barely detectable at the network’s insistence.
The Chris Rock appearance was, nevertheless, something of a watershed for Empire. Chaiken had been enjoying her three-week reprieve between seasons this spring when she got word Rock was trying to reach her. Her assistant tracked her down in the California desert. “Um, I got a phone call for you,” she was told, “and I think it really is Chris Rock.” Rock had been trying to put in a good word for a writer, but once he got Chaiken on the phone, he said, “You know, I wouldn’t mind being on the show, but I want to do something really kind of cool and twisted.” Fielding this type of call was a new experience for Chaiken. “In the first season, you’re sort of begging people to come and work with you, and we heard a lot of ‘no,’ “ she says. “Then in season two, there were a lot of people who reached out to us and said, ‘Hey, I want to do something.’ “
The Empire writers found a way to work Rock in, just as they worked in Marisa Tomei, Lenny Kravitz, Ludacris, O’Donnell and Pitbull, all of whom wanted to be part of the phenomenon. The season opener also features blink-and-you-miss-them cameos from the Rev. Al Sharpton, Vogue’s Andre Leon Talley and CNN’s Don Lemon. “Now everyone wants to be on the show,” says Henson, for whom the parade of guest stars doesn’t seem to be sitting particularly well.
Maintaining the improvisational spirit of Empire’s first season will be among the show’s toughest challenges as season two gets underway. Already, a star-studded premiere event was staged Sept. 12 at Carnegie Hall, with past and present guest stars, including Courtney Love, Naomi Campbell and Mariah Carey, dangling from Daniels’ arms at the afterparty. Gold-plated Empire buses have been traveling around the country, brands like Pepsi have signed on as seasonlong sponsors and, soon, the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue will feature an exclusive Empire-inspired fashion collection from designers Cushnie et Ochs and Jimmy Choo. There are more albums coming – the first debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in March and remained in the top 100 for 19 weeks – and discussions about a Glee-style concert tour with members of the cast continue.
And though there are no deals in place yet, Daniels announced at a TV conference in early August that “without question” there would be a spinoff, which he later suggested would center on a young Cookie. It was the first that Henson had heard of the plan, and the Fox executives huddled in the back of the room also were taken by surprise. They all watched as the news began rocketing around the web; even Daniels, who has a long history of dropping bombs like this, was surprised by the frenzy that transpired. “To me, what that says is ‘Lee Daniels, keep your mouth shut,’ “ he jokes, then clarifies: “It ain’t coming anytime soon because we have to make sure this one is on the ground first, but it’s coming.”
On the Chicago set in late August, Smollett is whizzing around the cavernous halls on a hoverboard – a gift from Ne-Yo, who has joined the show as a music producer – while Henson and Howard head to Lucious’ living room to rehearse.
Howard needs a couple of minutes to get comfortable with the material, but after a few run-throughs, it’s all clicking. The scene – which ends with Cookie slamming the door on her ex-husband – is classic Empire, a mix of bawdy theatrics, melodrama and tight, delicious dialogue. (“You ain’t a boss, Lucious, you’s a busta,” Cookie snarls at one point.) And no two actors seem to have more fun with all of it than Henson and Howard, who tease each other mercilessly when the cameras are off.
Fortunately, the media has been kind to Empire’s cast, particularly 45-year-old Henson, whose stock has soared since the series premiered. She has graced the covers of Glamour, Allure and W and, earlier this summer, picked up the series’ only major Emmy nomination for outstanding actress in a drama series. “Taraji was what I call ‘Project Royalty’ because in the projects, honey, she is royalty,” says Daniels, who courted her for the role. “She was Meryl Streep in the streets; it just took a moment for white America to catch on.”
On the set, Henson has assumed the role of den mother, keeping close tabs on how each of her fictional sons – Smollett (Jamal), Trai Byers (Andre) and Bryshere “Yazz” Gray (Hakeem) – is managing his overnight stardom.
Unlike Jamal, for whom coming out was considered a threat to the family business, Smollett has signed a modeling contract with P. Diddy’s clothing line, presented a VMA to Kanye West and performed at events including the BET Awards. For 21-year-old Gray, who had never boarded a plane, much less acted professionally, before flying from Philadelphia to Los Angeles for his Empire audition in early 2014, the rise has been even more startling. “I make sure he’s saving his money and getting a business manager,” says Henson. “I want him investing in property and art and not in shoes and cars.”
The Empire halo has extended well beyond the cast, with both Chaiken and Daniels inking rich overall deals with the show’s studio this spring. By August, Daniels already had scored a pilot order for a potential series about a girl group trying to make it in Atlanta without so much as a script to show Fox. That he intends to produce it without his Empire counterparts is said to have ruffled feathers internally, though nobody involved will say so publicly.
As I pack up my things back at Empire’s Beverly Hills headquarters, I mention how convinced people seem to be that the series will return even bigger on Sept. 23. Daniels swats his hand dismissively. “I don’t buy the hype,” he says. “I don’t because the hype told me I was getting [an Oscar] nomination for The Butler. I bought into it for a second, and then I got my feelings hurt.” He pauses. “I know what goes up must come down … and I’m prepared for the worst.”
Culled from: The Hollywood Reporter