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Golden Globe winner Taraji P. Henson (Empire 2015–20) has remained busy, most recently in the Peacock limited series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist with an all-star cast that includes Kevin Hart, Don Cheadle and Samuel L. Jackson, among others. But Henson, 54, has also joined the fight against mental illness, founding and supporting the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, named for her late father, who battled mental health issues after returning home from Vietnam. For her work with the Foundation, which is devoted to destigmatizing mental health issues within the Black community and supporting mental health treatments, she has received a 2024 honorary Purpose Prize from AARP. AARP spoke to Henson for the October/November issue of AARP The Magazine about that and several defining moments of her early and current life.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
She started out at North Carolina A&T State University, intending to study electrical engineering, but dropped out
I just followed my really smart friend and did what she was doing. Then I failed pre-calc. Pre-calc! With two tutors. I called my dad and cried, and he was, like, “Now enroll in drama at Howard University like you’re supposed to be doing.” And I did.
While at Howard, she worked as a secretary at the Pentagon and as a singing-dancing waitress on a cruise ship
I owed North Carolina A&T some money. My stepmom worked at the Pentagon and told me about the Stay-in-School employment program. And then my best friend at Howard was, like, “Girl, I’m a waitress on this dinner cruise and the tips are amazing.” So I did both, because I was always a little hustler. “Proud Mary” was my song.
She moved to L.A. with $700
My little cousin got a part in Minor Adjustments as a child actor. When I got out to L.A., the show wrapped and my cousin’s mother was, like, “I can’t leave you here without a car.” So I gave her my $700 and she took me to the airport auction and bought me a Sentra for $3,000. As soon as I booked my first series, I paid her back and paid off my student loans.
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