Henson denied having any issues with the producer of her hit film.
Taraji P. Henson is not allowing a feud narrative between herself and her The Color Purple producer Oprah Winfrey to continue. The 53-year-old actress and mental health advocate set the record straight once and for all in a new interview with Today.com.
Winfrey previously spoke to ET, disputing the internet's claims that Henson was speaking about her, while addressing her experiences with pay disparity in Hollywood.
"I would just like to say about this whole Taraji thing ... I heard I was trending yesterday," Winfrey, who served as a producer of the film, told ET's Kevin Frazier at the Golden Globes. "People are saying that I was not supporting Taraji. Taraji will tell you herself that I've been the greatest champion of this film. Championing not only the behind the scenes projection but also everything that everybody needed. So whenever I heard that there was something that someone needed, I'm not in charge of the budget because that's Warner Brothers you know that's the way the studio system works."
Henson confirmed that Winfrey's comments to ET were accurate in her new interview, telling Today.com, "[Oprah] would step in and do whatever (she) could to make it right" on set.
"You know, she called me, she called me personally," Henson shared. "Not my team, not my people — me. And asked me, 'Taraji, if there’s anything you need, you let me know.' And I said it with a shaking voice, I was like, 'Well, yeah,' — since she asked. And I told her and she fixed everything the next day."
Henson applauded the producer for stepping up, saying, "That’s what a producer is supposed to do."
She went on to discuss how hands-on Winfrey was throughout the filming.
"She held our hands the entire production. She showed up, she was there — there are producers that don’t show up on set," Henson shared.
Henson also made it clear that she was not about to stand for the narrative that she and Winfrey were at odds.
"And what you’re not gonna do is pit two Black women together — not on my watch," she noted. "I hope they can focus back onto this film, because right now, to me, it feels like what I said is now becoming louder than this beautiful film."
"And that’s not fair to me, or anybody in the film," Henson continued, "because the film deals with women who are oppressed — who live in an oppressed system. Men and women. And all the characters in that film except for the white people. So that movie is about healing. That movie is about sisterhood."
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