When Lee Daniels was offered a second series by Fox following the massive success of Empire, he decided to tackle the music industry from a totally different perspective with current celebrity-driven drama Star.
In this Throwback Thursday clip, Daniels, alongside Naomi Campbell, shares with journalist Francesca Amiker that he feels his decision to make Star so diverse was ahead of the curve.
“Dreamgirls inspired me … The Supremes, TLC, but then I started thinking about what was really going on today. I start thinking to myself, ‘Why did I put this White girl and plop her in the center of this Black environment? Why did I make her sister half-Black? Why did I make the Black girl … the entitled, rich one?’”
“I saw where we were going in America before we got there … we were all concerned about our sons getting shot. I know that something was happening in America that has now happened, and I think I was ahead of the curve on that.”
Check out the clip above.
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Born and raised in Compton, California, Jessica Bennett began her career as an intern at The Oakland Post, and later, The Source Magazine. She went on to write for respected hip hop publications such as DJ Booth and Hip Hop DX before becoming the Urban Editor of pop culture website, Wetpaint.com. She joined Ebony as the Entertainment Editor August 2017. Bennett has interviewed such names as Vanessa Williams, Spike Lee, Tyra Banks, Forest Whitaker, Magic & Cookie Johnson and several others.