Lee Daniels, the creator of the Fox series Empire, recalled his experience bringing the show to life and says that he did not enjoy it one bit.
“I don’t like staying in the same lane just as a creative. 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 said of the show which ran for six seasons. “All of my friends, they get notes and sh-t. And I’m like, ‘What is that like?!’ You know what I mean? Because every film of mine had been independent,” he told The Film Stage.
Daniels added, “there’s so many filmmakers and writers that I respect that have to answer to people,” but went on to add that it was “Horrible. Absolutely the worst experience … Horrible! But guess what? F-cking that money, money, money! I was able to put my kids through college and sh-t,” he continued. “So that in itself was worth it.”
The show came to an end shortly after one of the stars, Jussie Smollett, was arrested for faking a hate crime against himself. Smollett went to trial and was found guilty.
On March 10, 2022, Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in county jail and ordered to pay $120,106 in restitution for the overtime Chicago police officers spent investigating his false reports.
