Celebrate Taraji P. Henson's Incredible Career With These Little-Known Facts

Taraji told Us Magazine that the popular movie-turned-TV-series inspired her to pursue a dramatic career. Taraji said, "When I saw Fame, I knew I needed to act."

Taraji explained to Glamour how motherhood has been a constant priority for her, and how everything worked out perfectly. "Even if I had 5 a.m. calls, I'd get up and cook him pancakes, eggs, and sausage and leave it in the microwave for him all wrapped up. The crazy thing is that my career really grew as he was growing. When I was first starting out, no one knew who I was, so that gave me time to go to all of his games and PTA meetings."

Taraji was willing to do anything to make ends meet during her college years. A Vogue profile on the actress revealed she was working in the Pentagon by day, and at night she was a singing-dancing waitress on a dinner cruise, the Spirit of Washington. Get it, girl.

In Us Magazine's piece, she revealed that her college nickname was Cookie. What are the chances?!

Before she really committed to acting, Taraji attended Howard University. She told Vanity Fair that she wanted to major in electrical engineering, but after she failed a couple pre-calculus classes, she had to reconsider.

Taraji said to Glamour, "I love to cook and look for recipes all the time." She also revealed that she has a special chili recipe that Mary J. Blige is obsessed with: "Every time Mary J. Blige comes to town, she requests it. She'll say, 'Taraji, are you going to make that chili?' And when she's out of town, she'll ask me to freeze a bag and her assistant will come pick it up!" That's legit.

The best part is Taraji had previously called Mary her "go-to sushi pal" in her feature with Us Magazine. Sounds like these two are great friends.

At the 2009 Oscars, Taraji temporarily lost a piece of her stunning diamond necklace — it slipped off at some point during the night. Taraji made everyone stop dead in their tracks — Meryl Streep included — so she could retrieve the piece.

Sometime last year, Jussie took a video of Taraji snoozing on the Empire set. Since then, the two have declared a no-holds-barred prank war with hilarious results.

In a 2015 Rolling Stone piece on Terrence Howard, we got a little backstory about how Empire came together. The article quotes Taraji: "They came to me, and I said, 'The only person I'll do it with is Terrence.' Cookie and Lucious sometimes hate and love each other in the same scene. There's an unspoken connection that you can't fake. My boy Terrence and I have that. So I said to Lee, 'If you can make it happen with Terrence, call me back.'"

For further fun reference, Terrence and Taraji go back to 2005, when they acted together in Hustle & Flow.

An interview with W Magazine revealed that Taraji auditioned to be in Precious, but not for the role she wanted. "Lee wanted me for the thin, pretty teacher in Precious . . . And I was like, 'Well, I want to play Precious — because that's the role in this piece.' Lee thought I was nuts. I was like, 'Look, they turned Charlize Theron into a monster! I could be this girl!' When I think about that now, it was such a Cookie move.”

Taraji actually thought it was a joke when she was asked to read for the part of Queenie in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. "I didn't take it seriously . . . I mean, they had Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt — why would they want me? I thought it was a runaround, and I decided to hold an epic garage sale that day instead. I had mannequins. I had glasses with wig heads. I had champagne ready. And then my agent called and said, 'Shut that garage door! Fincher wants to see you.'" For the record, she snagged the role and a best supporting actress Oscar nomination to boot.