Taraji P. Henson Thought She Had No Chance Getting Cast in ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’

Actor Taraji P. Henson collaborated with Oscar-winner Brad Pitt for the David Fincher film Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But she figured she’d be the last person Fincher would cast in the picture.

Taraji P. Henson was surprised she ended up being cast in David Fincher’s film

David Fincher and Brad Pitt were already very familiar with each other by the time Benjamin Button came around. But working with the two was a completely different experience for the Empire star. According to an interview from Black Film, Henson acquired the role thanks to a mutual acquaintance.

“Laray Mayfield, who brilliantly cast Benjamin Button. She had seen my performance in Hustleand Flow and actually called David Fincher from the theater and telling him she found Queenie, the part that I play,” Henson said. “This was two years before the film was greenlit, packaged and put together. I’m still promoting Hustle and Flow which was still in theaters and two years later I get the call to go in for the audition of this film. At the audition, I was thinking that big movies tend to go for big names and that they wouldn’t be interested in me. I take all of my auditions seriously, but I didn’t think I had a shot in hell, but it worked out.”

The character she played, Queenie, would end up raising Pitt’s Benjamin Button as he aged backwards. Henson commended everyone involved, including the film’s writer Eric Roth, for writing Queenie as an African American.

“It was very bold for Eric Roth to choose to make Queenie an African-American woman who was the surrogate mother to Benjamin Button – a white character – which would have been very unusual at the time with what was happening in the country with race,” Henson once said in an interview with Hollywood Chicago. “It was a bold choice for David Fincher, too, as it was something very different from what we’re used to seeing him direct. It was even a very bold choice for Brad Pitt in that it’s a not-so-glamorous role for him (even though some how he pulls it off.”

Taraji P. Henson felt she was paid unfairly for ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’

Although Henson enjoyed her time on Benjamin Button to an extent, she aired a few grievances she had behind the scenes not too long ago. In an interview with Variety, Henson revealed that she wasn’t paid as much as her other co-stars. Which she believed was commentary on a bigger issue in the film industry.

“I want to make this very clear – I’m not saying that Brad or Cate shouldn’t have gotten what they got,” Henson said. “They put asses in seats, so give them their money. They deserve it. I’m not saying they shouldn’t get what they’re getting. I was just asking for half a million – that’s all. That’s it. When I was doing Benjamin Button, I wasn’t worth a million yet. My audience was still getting to know me. We thought we were asking for what was fair for me, at the time.”

Henson asserted during the interview that she knew getting the pay she wanted would be difficult. She wasn’t asking for much, but the amount she was offered to do the movie was well below her expectations.

“I asked for half a million. That’s it,” she said. “And they gave me $100,000. Does that make sense? I’m number three on the call sheet. Does that make sense to you? All I was asking was $500,000 – that’s all we were asking for.”

Despite her star-power having grown since then, Henson still felt shortchanged and undervalued by the film industry.

“If I work with Brad again, I’m still not going to ask for what he’s getting. I don’t open movies like he does, so I can’t expect to get what he’s getting,” Henson said. “But if I’m working with someone who’s my partner and we are equal, and you want to pay him more than me, I have a problem. I have a problem, and I will speak up. But I can’t go up against Brad. How long has he been doing this? Longer than me, and let’s give it to him – that man opens films. He opens films so give him his money.”