Taraji P. Henson cleared up the rumors that she’s feuding with Oprah Winfrey after she spoke out about Black women being underpaid in Hollywood. Taraji, 53, posted a picture of the two stars on Instagram on December 21 and wrote a message about her bond with Oprah, 69, who is an executive producer on the new The Color Purple remake that stars Taraji.
“Ms. OPRAH has been nothing less than a steady and solid beacon of light to ALL OF THE CAST of The Color Purple!!!” Taraji wrote. “She has provided ENCOURAGEMENT, GUIDANCE and UNWAVERING SUPPORT to us all. She told me personally to reach out to her for ANYTHING I needed, and I did!”
“It took ONE CALL… ONE CONVERSATION… and ONE DECISION MAKING BLACK WOMAN to make me feel heard,” the Empire star added. “Thank You Ms. @OPRAH For ALL That You Do 💜💜💜.”
Earlier in her message, Taraji thanked fans for supporting the comments she made about pay disparity in a recent interview with Gayle King. “Thank you for responding to my message with the compassion, understanding and support that I’ve received,” she wrote.
During Taraji’s interview with Gayle for Sirius XM, the actress got emotional explaining her frustrations with Black women making less money than they deserve in Hollywood. “I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost,” the Oscar nominee said. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to. The math ain’t mathing. And when you start working a lot, you have teams. Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. It’s a whole entire team behind us. They have to get paid.”
“It seems every time I do something and break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate, I’m at the bottom again like I never did what I just did and I’m just tired,” Taraji also said. “I’m tired. It wears on you.”
Taraji stars in The Color Purple alongside Danielle Brooks, Fantasia Barrino, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, and Halle Bailey. The film is produced by Oprah, who starred in Steven Spielberg‘s 1985 adaptation that also featured Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover. The Color Purple comes out in theaters Christmas Day.