Friday, March 29, 2024

Wesley Snipes Explains Why He Passed on ‘Empire’

Actor Wesley Snipes speaks onstage during NBC's 'The Player' panel discussion at the NBCUniversal portion of the 2015 Summer TCA Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 13, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California
Actor Wesley Snipes speaks onstage during NBC’s ‘The Player’ panel discussion at the NBCUniversal portion of the 2015 Summer TCA Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 13, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California

*As the story goes, Wesley Snipes was approached to play Lucious Lyon in Fox’s breakout phenomenon “Empire” before it was offered to its current occupant Terrence Howard.

In January, creator Lee Daniels confirmed Snipes as an original casting choice for the Lyon patriarch, then, explained how star Taraji P. Henson strongly suggested that her “Hustle and Flow” co-star Terrence Howard play her on-screen love nemesis, or she would bow out of her role as Cookie.

On Thursday, Snipes told EURweb that he actually passed on the part.

“Yeah, the ‘Empire’ thing did come across my desk and it just, the combination of things and the time demands didn’t make it viable,” he told us after Thursday’s Television Critics Association panel for his upcoming NBC series “The Player.”

(Back L-R) Executive producers John Rogers, John Zinman, Patrick Massett, John Davis, John Fox (Front L-R) actors Philip Winchester, Wesley Snipes, Charity Wakefield and Damon Gupton speak onstage during NBC's 'The Player' panel discussion at the NBCUniversal portion of the 2015 Summer TCA Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 13, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California
(Back L-R) Executive producers John Rogers, John Zinman, Patrick Massett, John Davis, John Fox (Front L-R) actors Philip Winchester, Wesley Snipes, Charity Wakefield and Damon Gupton speak onstage during NBC’s ‘The Player’ panel discussion at the NBCUniversal portion of the 2015 Summer TCA Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 13, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California

Asked if Lucious Lyon was a character he would’ve been interested in playing had his schedule permitted, Snipes would only say, “I could’ve walked through that no problem. Nino could’ve done that,” he added, referring to his infamous drug kingpin role in “New Jack City.”

“[Lucious] would’ve been a refined Nino,” laughed Snipes. “If Nino didn’t die, he would’ve been Lucious.”

Below, Snipes is asked if he watches “Empire”:

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