Lee Daniels calls ‘Empire’ the ‘worst experience,’ but doesn’t regret it

Lee Daniels is opening up about the “horrible” time he had making Empire for Fox.

Lee Daniels attends ‘The Deliverance’ Los Angeles premiere in August.

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“I only did Empire just so I could see what that experience was like,” he recently told The Film Stage while promoting his new Netflix horror flick The Deliverance.

So what was it like?

“Horrible. Absolutely the worst experience. Horrible!” he exclaimed. “But guess what? F—ing that money, money, money! I was able to put my kids through college and s—.”

Empire ran for six seasons of Fox, garnering rave reviews and bonanza ratings, once earning it the title of “the most valuable show on broadcast TV.” Empire boosted Daniels into a new stratosphere of Hollywood clout and creative opportunity, but surmises that it was the money “in itself” that made the experience “worth it.”

Daniels began his career in Hollywood as a casting director and ultimately talent manager. His breakthrough as a below-the-title credit was 2001’s Monster’s Ball, which he produced, and ultimately led Halle Berry to make history as the first-ever Black Best Actress winner at the Academy Awards.

Empire was far from his first major hit Daniels scored as a director or creator; he’d taken both Precious (2009) and The Butler (2013) to box office — and Oscars — glory. But Empire made Daniels the rare filmmaker to successfully transition to broadcast TV — without giving up filmmaking.

It was Daniels’ early experiences in independent filmmaking that got him curious about working for studios like Fox and Netflix. “I don’t like staying in the same lane just as a creative,” he recalled. “When I got into television, I really just wanted to be able to answer to suits. I wanted to know what that experience was like.”

He remembered that “all of my friends, they get notes and s—. And I’m like, ‘What is that like?’ You know what I mean? Because every film of mine had been independent.” Daniels enjoyed being able to “do my thing” where “nobody is in my head.”

“There’s so many filmmakers and writers that I respect that have to answer to people,” he said. Working on Empire allowed him to see what it’s really like working within the heart of the system, and to Daniels, it was “horrible.”

Daniels has spoken about his frustrations working on Empire before. After it was announced that Empire was canceled in 2019, Daniels recounted an experience to Vulture that soured him on the “suits” who gave Empire a home.

Daniels recounted being called into Fox’s human resources department “around the time of the whole Harvey Weinstein thing.” He was told “this is all preventative,” and then cautioned that he “can’t use certain words,” like “the B-word” on set.

“I said, ‘Okay.’ And I think they said, ‘You can’t look people in the eyes too long. Be careful with touching.’ These are all things that I do in my room when I work. And then they said, ‘And you can’t say the N-word.’ I was shook,” he told Vulture. “It led to a bigger conversation of me being afraid to be me on the set and how I make my movies. I said, ‘I can’t have this conversation. I need to know who I can call on you. Because you have me triggered. You’re not going to play these games with me.'”

Empire collapsed around the revelation that star Jussie Smollet had staged a hate crime and filed a false police report. At the time, Daniels expressed “pain and anger and sadness and frustration” over Smollett’s actions, but has since indicated that he’d work with Smollett again, telling The Breakfast Club that the actor “was a son to me.”

The Empire executive experience must not have been horrible enough for Daniels to retreat fully back into independent mode. He made The Deliverance for Netflix, though he did experience production frustrations that he was characteristically candid about. “Netflix kept saying tension, tension, tension, tension. And I didn’t really want tension,” he said. But ultimately resolved, “‘Okay, let me just give them what they want a little bit because it’s a Lee Daniels film, but it’s also a Netflix film.'” Daniels feels he “sold out a little bit because we’re not in the world of cinema. We’re in the world of clicks where, if they’re not invested in the first 5 or 10 minutes, they’ll turn that s— off.”

New Netflix horror film The Deliverance reunites Daniels and star Mo’Nique years after a bitter falling out divided the Oscar-winning Precious star and her director. She held nothing back in her criticisms of Daniels in the ensuing years, but now, after their reconciliation, appears opposite Andra Day, Glenn Close, and Aunjanue Ellis.