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    Taraji P. Henson on Almost Walking Away from ‘Color Purple’

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    Before things started to click for Taraji P. Henson, she sought career counseling from the man upstairs.“I had a talk with God a long time ago when things didn’t pop,” she said. Invoking the women she had watched as a child, like Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, and Diahann Carroll, she told him, “I want longevity and work that matters.”This, Henson has had: At 53, she is an Oscar-nominated actress with a long career that includes films like “Hidden Figures,” “Hustle & Flow” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” She also spent six seasons playing the music-industry matriarch Cookie on the Fox series “Empire,” a juicy role that netted her a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award.But she is candid about the frustrations she still faces in an industry that undervalues Black actresses. “The fact that I made it through is a blessing because a lot has happened,” she said, noting that she had to step away from work last year when things got to be too much. A monthlong trip to Bali helped to recenter her, as did attending to her successful beauty brand, TPH.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      Watch Taraji P. Henson Sing in ‘The Color Purple’

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      The director Blitz Bazawule narrates a scene from the musical, featuring the star performing as the dynamo Shug Avery.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.Shug Avery knows how to make an entrance.The sultry nightclub singer lights up a room, and a swamp, in this scene from “The Color Purple,” the film musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel. At the beginning of the sequence, a performance of the song “Push Da Button,” Shug (Taraji P. Henson), wearing a shimmering red dress and a feathered headdress, arrives at a juke joint on a barge.The director Blitz Bazawule, narrating the sequence, said that his production designer, Paul D. Austerberry, suggested shooting it on location, rather than on a soundstage. They found a swamp in Georgia that they drained and refilled, to build the juke joint in which Shug performs.Bazawule said that it took two weeks of rehearsal to figure out the blocking, with choreography by Fatima Robinson. It was “very important that we gave Taraji an opportunity to shine,” he explained. Henson does all of her own singing in the scene, having taken vocal lessons to prepare for the role.An idea for a dance break while the lights are shut off came to Bazawule when he was on set early one day, before shooting, and saw the environmental lights on. “The blue light started to bleed through,” he recalled. “I said to myself, ‘I think that’s it. If we can go from light to darkness this way, I think we could have something special.’”Read the “Color Purple” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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      ‘Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project’ Review: An Afrofuturist Space Odyssey

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      The experimental documentary is punctuated by Giovanni’s poetry, read both by her and the actress Taraji P. Henson. But the film offers only what the poet is willing to give.Nikki Giovanni wants to die in zero gravity.“We don’t have any poets in space,” she says in a speech featured in “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” a documentary about the elusive artist, directed by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson.Giovanni would like to travel to the space station to record what she sees, adding that, when it’s time for her to go, she can simply be released into the ether. This desire — part jest, part genuine — drives the biographical project, in which the directors try to capture Giovanni’s legacy and her Afrofuturist vision for Black women.“Going to Mars” combines archival footage of Giovanni and moments in Black history, images of space and present-day interviews and speeches to paint an expansive picture of the poet’s evolution from young firebrand to elder. Giovanni posits that viewers should turn to Black women to learn about surviving in space because of our ability to survive all the hardships thrown at us on Earth. Throughout, the scenes are punctuated by her poetry, read by both Giovanni herself and the actress Taraji P. Henson.The documentary offers only what the poet is willing to give. And Giovanni is a challenging subject: She has firm boundaries, and there are questions she refuses to answer. “You want me to go to someplace that I’m not going to go, because it will make me unhappy,” she says in response to a question about her childhood. “I refuse to be unhappy about something I can do nothing about.”Yet other times Giovanni’s work speaks for itself. She won’t discuss how she felt after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, for instance, but what follows is a powerful rendering of her poem “Reflections on April 4, 1968,” in which she expresses anger over the injustice. Here, and in general, viewers must fill in their own blanks.Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni ProjectNot rated. Running time: 1 hours 42 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie’ Review: Sit, Roll Over, Save the World

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      In this sequel, the canine gang faces Taraji P. Henson’s villain who sends a dangerous meteor toward Earth. And, yes, Kim Kardashian returns too.Adventure City’s fluffiest heroes return in “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” the second film tie-in to the popular Canadian TV show.This time the gang faces a brand-new villain, Victoria Vance, a.k.a. Vee (voiced by Taraji P. Henson), who sends a dangerous meteor toward Earth in an effort to prove herself as a reputable scientist. The Paw Patrol successfully saves Adventure City from disaster, but they soon discover that exposure to the meteor and its magical crystals has given each of the pups unique superpowers: lightning-fast speed, super strength, and so on. This is a particular boon to Skye (Mckenna Grace), the youngest member of the team, who is struggling to fit in as the runt of the litter.Much of the cartoon action and canine wisecracking found in the TV show — and “Paw Patrol: The Movie,” from 2021 — is rehashed here. It isn’t long before Vee joins forces with (former) Mayor Humdinger (Ron Pardo), the mustache-twirling, cat-loving villain from the first film, whose grand plan of stealing the crystals from the Paw Patrol leads to all sorts of antics. There’s even a cameo from Delores, the previous film’s self-absorbed poodle character, voiced by Kim Kardashian.Directed by Cal Brunker, who also helmed the first installment, the film has no shame in being formulaic in plot or execution. Skye’s zero-to-hero plot arc is predictable as they come, though it’s easy to see why younger audiences may find it relatable. The animation is cute, but there are noticeable moments where corners were cut and characters or objects slide awkwardly across the screen.Still, if you can imagine your kiddo enjoying an animated car-chase scene featuring puppies and kittens, set to Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” they’ll probably be thrilled with “The Mighty Movie.”Paw Patrol: The Mighty MovieRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters. More