Lee Daniels clarified his statements about his hit show “Empire” being his “worst experience,” saying it was merely the first time he’d ever taken creative notes from a network and struggled with being told how to represent the Black community.
“That’s so not true,” Daniels said of previous reports of him dissing his experience with Fox in conversation with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM’s “Andy Cohen Live” while promoting his new Netflix film “The Deliverance.” “What I meant was the worst because all of my films have been independently financed. It was the first time I was taking notes from anybody … no one gave me notes to do anything.”
While “The Deliverance” director said it’s “normal” for studios to submit notes to a showrunner or TV creator, but said it was still a “jarring” collaboration. He called his stint with Fox a “great” one, though he added that racial ignorance and a crossing of cultural boundaries created some tension.
“I think that I had a great experience with them and they really, they understood that things had to change, and then also, you know, you can’t, it was the first time like … You can’t tell me how to be Black. Stop with the insanity. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. And so it was a first for all of us and it was challenging for me and it was a nightmare in the beginning, but then it was great,” Daniels said.
He added that racial disparities in Hollywood’s labor market only contributed to the issue at the time.
“I think that things really changed. You have to understand, when ‘Empire’ was around, there weren’t any Black writers in any rooms,” Daniels said. “There weren’t any Black directors on television. There wasn’t ‘Black Panther,’ there wasn’t ‘Insecure,’ there wasn’t any of that. You know, and so we were learning as we were growing and there were all these rules and Black people were not able to be employed creatively because the system was not for us, so it was a bit of a struggle.”
“Empire” was co-created with Danny Strong and ran for six seasons from 2015-2020 on Fox.
“The Deliverance” is currently streaming on Netflix.
