Taraji P Henson is a professional actress with the resume to prove it. The Academy Award Nominee has been honing her craft for decades with a series of signatures roles showing off her impressive range. Many people first got to know Henson opposite Tyrese in the John Singleton movie Baby Boy. In a throwback interview of The Arsenio Hall Show, Taraji details how this particular role challenged her skills because it featured her first intimate scene.
Arsenio asked Taraji about times in her career when she felt scared to execute a character. According to Henson, she experienced this during her first starring role as Yvette in Baby Boy. Baby Boy is a 2001 cult classic film. Originally written for the late Tupac Shakur, Tyrese was given the role following his passing in 1996. The film follows Tyrese’s Jody, an immature man who struggles to embrace his growing responsibilities as a father and partner to Yvette. The movie also stars Snoop Dogg, Omar Gooding, and AJ Johnson.
Henson played Tyrese’s love interest in the coming-of-age hood classic, and the two shared an explosive chemistry on screen. Taraji said she had read the script and signed her contract, so she was well aware that the movie included a scene where she would be naked and have to simulate intercourse. Henson said that she addressed her nerves the evening before by herself. She recalls getting undressed in the mirror and confronting all the things she did not like about her body. This allowed Taraji to be at ease and focus on her character Yvette.
Unfortunately, her co-star Tyrese had not done any prep work and the day of shooting was a nervous wreck. As Taraji is recalling him sitting in a corner and crying, Tyrese walks out on stage to surprise her. A shocked Henson begins saying, “I knew it!” before running over and embracing her friend. She even gave him a kiss on the lips. Tyrese jokingly suggests that Henson is lying and that he was not scared to be naked at all. Henson then starts teasing him telling him to take his clothes off now, to which all the women in the audience cheered. While he pretended to unbutton his shirt, he ultimately stayed dressed.
Laughing together, the pair recall how stressful the film was. For Tyrese, it was his first role. He recalls Henson teaching him tips for method acting. Eventually, the two got through the awkwardness together and have been best friends ever since. Even to this day, BET continues to play the film introducing Taraji and Tyrese to a brand new generation.
Henson’s career post Baby Boy has been a series of highs. As mentioned before, she scored an Academy Award Nomination for her work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in 2008. She would actually win one for Best Original Song as part of the record “Hard Out Here For a Pimp” from the Hustle & Flow soundtrack, where she starred as Shug. From there, she would go on to star in Fox’s Empire, Hidden Figures, and Think Like a Man. Henson will be taking the role of another woman named Shug; this time, it’ll be the iconic Shug Avery in a remake of The Color Purple.
