Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress, Howard UniversityAlumna Taraji P. Henson is the latest recipient of a star that was unveiled Monday on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an honor that she calls “surreal.”
Getting a star on the Walk of Fame “really confirms that in spite of the circumstances in your life whether you were born into them or they just happened along the way, it doesn’t matter because with God, all things are possible,” Henson told City News Service.
“I want to say to all of the little brown babies all over the world, ‘Look at me and see you.’ I was a single mom, raised by a single mom and lived in the hood,” the 48-year-old actress said. “I never focused on my circumstances. I focused on my dream and looked at God. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a journey through history and today my legacy will be forever etched in the history of Hollywood. I’ve worked so hard for this. It’s surreal.”
Henson recalled walking along the Walk of Fame “and seeing all the phenomenal names and daydreaming about what they must have felt like on that day.”
“You would always see them on TV on their hands and knees with cameras flashing and people hoping to get a glimpse of them and maybe an autograph,” she said. “One day, I literally kneeled down and put my hands inside of Bette Davis’ star. I’ve always admired her talent, then I got up, brushed off my jeans and said, ‘One day my name will be cemented in this town. I grabbed my son’s hand and as I walked away I could feel it, one day.”
Henson’s star is on the same block — although on the opposite side of the street — from the star Davis received for her motion picture work. It is a block away — and on the same side of the street — as the star Davis received for her television work.
Davis’ stars were among the initial 1,558 when the Walk of Fame was completed in 1961. Henson’s star is the 2,655th.
Henson — whose latest film, “What Men Want,” is set for release on Feb. 8 — will be joined bt John Singleton and Mary J. Blige at the 11:30 a.m. ceremony in front of the Eastown apartment complex in the 6200 block of Sunset Boulevard.
Singleton directed Henson in the 2001 coming-of-age hood film “Baby Boy,” the 2005 crime drama “Four Brothers” and a 2015 episode of her Fox hip-hop drama “Empire,” and was among the producers of “Hustle & Flow,” the 2005 film where Henson gave her breakthrough performance as a pregnant friendly prostitute. Henson also provided the vocals for the film’s Oscar-winning Three 6 Mafia track, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.”
Blige appeared with Henson in the 2009 Tyler Perry-directed romantic musical comedy-drama “I Can Do Bad All by Myself” and sang on her 2015 Fox variety special “Taraji and Terrence’s White Hot Holidays.”
