Creator of Musical Drama 'Empire', Lee Daniels Talks Show Creation, Music and Cast Selection!

The American musical drama 'Empire', created by Academy Award nominee, Lee Daniels (The Butler) and Emmy Award winner Danny Strong (The Butler), is a sexy and powerful drama about the music industry and the battle to stay on top.

Read on to find out how it all started, as Lee Daniels shares his experience, ideas and getting Timberland on board.

[About Empire]
Empire is an American musical drama television series that centers around a hip hop music and entertainment company, Empire Entertainment, and the drama among the members of the founders' family as they fight for control of the company.  In addition to the amazing credentials of the cast, Empire also features original soundtracks by the Grammy winning Timbaland who is the show's executive music producer. The series received good reviews and is renewed for a second season.

Empire airs every Tuesday 9.40pm on StarWorld (Singtel TV Ch. 301, StarHub TV Ch. 501)!

Q: This is your baby… you created this. Talk to me about where you got these ideas and (how it has) all come together to finally see it on the scene.

Lee Daniels: I didn’t create it—I co-created it with my incredible partner Danny Strong, who wrote the TheButler for me. We both liked King Lear and we loved Lion in the Winter, so he came to me while we were shooting The Butler and he pitched the idea… as a film though. And I slept on it for a little bit and I was like “We can do it on TV. Because that’s where the money is now… So let’s make some money and do it as a musical.” And so a lot of it, as with a lot of my films, comes from what I’ve experienced in my life… so I think that, voila, (is) Empire.


Q: So let’s talk about… your involvement with the music and how much you knew about music and bringing this together… and this is behind the scenes and a business side that we really haven’t seen before on a show.

Lee Daniels: Well I didn’t know the hip hop world. I do now, ask me any questions. I didn’t know who Timbaland was. My kids said… I have two nineteen year olds… they said “Dad, get out of here. Your knowledge is that of Diana Ross, maybe Whitney Houston and maybe Beyonce”. And they were right and so I said “Well who do I go to?” and they said “Timbaland”. And I said “Who that?” So I went to Tim and he knew (of) me, and 24 hours later he gave me some music that was just off the chain and it was magic. It’s God working...


Q: Summarize this (show) for me as far as, what is this about…?

Lee Daniels: I wanted to see Dynasty, I miss Dynasty. I grew up on Dynasty… And so, I missed that, I missed it, because we don’t have it any more. The closest thing we have to that are these Housewives Shows, and I’m addicted to them… So in walks a little bit of King Lear, a little bit of Dynasty, a little bit of that mess, and a lot a bit of my personal experience, with music! Ta da!


Q: And the music! The music is like another character; the music is so awesome. And obviously that’s going to be a massive part every week.

Lee Daniels:  And we’re not just making hip hop. We have Courtney Love in doing rock, we do a little bit of everything, even though the core is R&B and hip hop, current day.

Q: So let’s talk about these layered characters… so let’s talk a bit about Terrence… he (Terrence) was on Ryan Seacrest this morning… and he (Luscious) is not a nice man.

Lee Daniels: He’s complicated, I don’t think he’s not nice. He’s as nice as the guy from Breaking Bad, or he’s as nice as the Godfather was, you know? He’s complicated… He’s a bigot, he’s a homophobe. But he is a product of his environment. So I think that under it all, I sort of feel for him. I don’t know whether I feel bad for him. I feel that he’s trying to understand… you know, here’s the thing. My dad, I’m openly gay, and my dad told me “Why? It’s hard enough, especially when I grew up, being a black man, you can’t walk down the street—why do you want to be gay on top of it all?”. And I think we’re addressing issues that have not been addressed, in not only the African American community, but in America itself. We’re hitting Americans right in the eye, punching them right in the gut, and making them take a look at themselves.


Q: There’s a layered relationship there… because even in the pilot… you see that he’s (Luscious) not accepting of his son… he wasn’t from a very young age. And I’m assuming that’s from your personal experience as well.

Lee Daniels: It is, yes it is… and there’s some stuff that happened… in the show that happened and hopefully America will learn from it.


Q: And then maybe just go through a couple of the other characters?

Lee Daniels: Cookie! The Cookie Monster! Cookie is based on my sister with my cousin’s name. She’s a combination of many women that I’ve known, not just African American women, (but also) white women, Puerto Rican women… it’s just that woman who’s trying to take care of her kids and survive. She will do anything she can to keep her family together. She went down for family, what she did was for her family, she gave up her life for her family. And that’s what a mother’s about.


Q: Did you have any particular actors in mind? Did you get who you wanted for each character?

Lee Daniels: You start out, you don’t even know. I knew that I wanted Taraji. Terrence and I were friends because we did The Butler together and we were looking for other film work… I spoke to Taraji, I skyped her and told her, you know, ”Hey do you want to come in, test you for the network and everything?” I was talking to another African American actor to play Luscious, she was like “Yeah, but I don’t want him. I want Terrence to play Luscious”. I was like “You ain’t got the job yet to be talking that talk, Cookie”. And I then I realized I had Cookie, because that’s what she’d do. So we bailed on the other actor. And I had Terrence and she come in together and it was bombastic, it was dynamic, it was everything. So she was right…


Q: And then just future storylines, what can we expect?

Lee Daniels: What I can tell you is that we’re going to explore the political injustices going on today. We’re going to take a hard look at race, we’re going to take a hard look at homophobia; we’re going to take a hard look the injustices that are going on to not just African Americans. But to Americans. We’re going to have America take a good look at itself… and realize we’re not number one anymore. We’re not number one, we’re part of a globe and we have to live together.

Empire airs every Tuesday 9.40pm on StarWorld (Singtel TV Ch. 301, StarHub TV Ch. 501)!