‘Empire’s Co-Creator Reveals His Past Struggle with Crack Cocaine, Skipping Film School

Lee Daniels is a major hit in Hollywood. Ever since, The Butler, the director has turned the TV industry upside down with Empire. 

Now, in a recent interview with Indiewire.com, Lee Daniels shared details about working in Hollywood. For example, Lee Daniels never went to film school.

“My experience as a filmmaker started on the sets when I was managing actors. Because I hadn’t gone to film school, I had to hustle. I managed actors in theater,” Daniels explained. “I studied ADs and I studied costumers and production designers, so I wasn’t technical with the camera, that seemed like Saturn to me, but I understood the human condition and I understood people. So that was a key. I also understood writing. So I think I learned on the way. My film school was really on the ground, with managing actors, studying great directors and then hiring directors who I was able to tell exactly what I wanted.”

In addition, Daniels reveals that getting cast on a movie or TV show of his is not a walk in the park. In fact, he argues that he pushes his actors extremely hard. “So I’m really hard on my actors, I have a terrible reputation for demanding the best from them. Because I’m hard on myself.”

But, one of the most surprising parts of the interview was the fact that he was once a crack addict.

His first movie was Monster’s Ball, the same movie that allowed for Halle Berry to win an Academy Award. Instead of attending the Academy Awards, the director was in a “dark place”.

“My first movie was ‘Monster’s Ball’ and Halle Berry won the Academy Award. And because I was still in a darker place, I was at the Chateau Marmont and I was watching her on the TV, I was crying,” Daniels said. “Then she called me and she said, ‘Big daddy, big daddy, are you coming to the Vanity Fair party?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be there,’ and I picked up my crack pipe, I was there with a prostitute, I think, and I realized I didn’t deserve to be there.”

Whoa.

Lee Daniels also went on to explain the new series Star, a brand new show about a group of aspiring Atlanta singers interested in joining the music industry.

Daniels starts out by explaining the inspiration behind Star:

“I just wanted to do a musical. I did ‘Empire,’ but then wanted to not repeat myself, so I got this girl, the lead girl who plays Star and she’s white trash and she looks like Anna Nicole Smith and she has a voice like Amy Winehouse,” Daniels explained. “She’s that chick that you can really trust, she’s that bitch.”

Daniels continues by explaining that what he plans to do with the new series, Star.

“So it’s her and her half-sister who is black and they’re in foster care homes, they were ripped apart from their mother. But they sing and they have a dream,” he continued. “They reunite with another black girl who’s this daughter of a billionaire, but she doesn’t want any of his money. Her dad is like Lenny Kravitz had Oprah’s money. But she wants to do it on her own. So these three girls go on a road trip.”

He explains that surviving a heart attack, the HIV crisis, and making it in Hollywood makes him feel as though he is a survivor and keeps him working so hard. “I don’t get it, I really don’t get it.

So much so that I went out and did drugs to figure out why I didn’t get it. And then had a heart attack and kept going because I didn’t understand.”

You can read the full interview with Lee Daniels here.

Recent Lee Daniels news:

• ‘Empire’s Lee Daniels F-Bombs Emmy Voters

• Fox’s ‘Empire’ Spinoff, ‘Star’ Open Casting Call for Lead Roles

• Fox’s ‘Empire’ Season 2 Extras Casting Call for a Gay Club Scene in Chicago

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