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" With Taraji P. Henson&amp;#039;s\u00A0Emmy-worthy portrayal of Cookie Lyon on\u00A0Empire,\u00A0many good things have been born: a fierce\u00A0new fashion icon, timely\u00A0Halloween costume inspiration and ultimately, an incredible\u00A0career revival for the 45-year-old actress. However, all of\u00A0these feats almost never happened\u2014and it&amp;#039;s because Henson wasn&amp;#039;t initially interested in stepping into Cookie&amp;#039;s Louboutins.\u00A0 &amp;quot;Television to me always felt like a caged little box,&amp;quot; she said during a panel at Entertainment Weekly&amp;#039;s EW Fest. &amp;quot;By that\u00A0I mean,\u00A0to me, it always felt like a genre for the writers. I&amp;#039;m like a true artist, I need to be free. Don&amp;#039;t cage me. Let me breathe. Art is supposed to be free.&amp;quot; That &amp;quot;need to be free&amp;quot; resulted in a few stipulations made on\u00A0Henson&amp;#039;s part\u00A0if she were to accept series\u00A0creator Lee Daniels&amp;#039;s plea for her\u00A0to join the cast; the most important, she reveals, was being able to have her say in who would play\u00A0her on-screen son, Jamal Lyon.\u00A0While sitting next to Jussie Smollett (who eventually nabbed the coveted\u00A0role as Cookie&amp;#039;s second-born),\u00A0Henson recounted the moment she laid out her ultimatum: She, along with her costar, Terrence Howard, refused to do the show unless Smollett was offered the part.\u00A0 Like her TV alter-ego, Henson is hard-pressed to find an argument she can&amp;#039;t win.\u00A0&amp;quot;I kinda meant it!&amp;quot; she joked later on about her casting\u00A0demand. However, a knowing smile gave away that she most definitely\u00A0wasn&amp;#039;t kidding. It&amp;#039;s a gesture that Smollett will always appreciate.\u00A0           Imma always ride for @tarajiphenson. Jamal will always ride for Cookie. Don&amp;#039;t get it twisted. @empirefox season 2 coming Wednesday, September 23 on FOX. &#128074;&#127999; #SetLife A photo posted by Jussie Smollett (@jussiesmollett) on Jul 22, 2015 at 6:45pm PDT     &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s allowed me to allow people in just a little bit more. It&amp;#039;s made me walk in my truth,&amp;quot; he explained of the profound\u00A0affect playing Jamal has had on him. &amp;quot;In many ways, [we are] going through parallel journeys, except he&amp;#039;s a billionaire. I&amp;#039;m a hundred thousandaire baby.\u00A0There was a time when I was a one-inaire so this is a huge deal.&amp;quot; Yasss, Boo Boo Kitty, a huge deal indeed.\u00A0 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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