*Taraji P. Henson appeared on Tuesday night’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” where she gushed about a recent conversation she had with “Empire” co-creator Lee Daniels in which he revealed exciting details about his encounter with President Obama at September’s state dinner in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Taraji explained to host Jimmy Kimmel, ”Lee calls me and goes, ‘Oh my God, you’re not going to believe this! 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.'”
As The Huff Post notes, President’s Obama’s comment was in reference to an episode from season one of “Empire” when Obama called Terrence Howard’s character, Lucious Lyon, to respond to Lyon’s son calling the president a sellout.
Henson went on to share her excitement about learning that First Lady Michelle is a huge Cookie Lyon fan.
“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,” Taraji said in reference to Michelle Obama’s comment.
President Obama confirmed his wife’s fandom of the series earlier this year during a chat with Dish Nation.
“Michelle is real big on ‘Empire.’ She’s gotten really into it,” he said to “Dish Nation” host Rickey Smiley. “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.”
In related news, Taraji went au naturel for her spread in the latest issue of CR Fashion Book #7. In the accompanying interview, she explains that it was never her initial plan to rock her natural hair, but during her wardrobe fitting, her headscarf slipped off, exposing her braids to famed fashion photographer Bruce Weber, who insisted he shoot the actress rocking her natural hair. Henson confessed she was hesitant.
“A part of me was like, ‘No, no, no, NO!’ This is the hair no one is supposed to see,” she tells the magazine. “This is like behind-closed-doors hair. I feel naked. I feel like a plucked chicken… or a wet one. A baby chicken! But Bruce says to me, ‘It’s not about the hair, it’s your face.’
Watch Taraji on Kimmel via the video below:
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