Fans have found a new favorite in Empire’s “Cookie Lyons” and continue to debate over who the feisty character is based off of, but after Hip Hop icon Foxy Brown recently revealed that she linked up with the show’s creator Lee Daniels and may be appearing on an upcoming episode it became even more evident that the role was heavily influenced by the controversial MC. Back in the day the short-tempered Brown was known for causing chaos at the Def Jam offices and being quite a handful for execs, OG fans quickly seen the similarities.
Lee Daniels recently shared with TMZ that Empire and the character of “Lucious Lyons” was actually influenced by his affinity for Joe Kennedy and the TV series ‘Dynasty’, not Diddy as many have speculated. Speaking with Vogue Magazine Taraji P Henson had this to say…
VOGUE: Is she (Cookie) influenced by Foxy Brown?
TARAJI: “Certainly, that’s where a lot of her style comes from—Salt-N-Pepa, all of that. That era of hip-hop was her heyday, those are the women that she identifies with.”
TARAJI: “I’ve been hearing about this thing in Hollywood called the “Empire effect”. A lot of pilots are going back to the drawing board, saying, How can we switch this up, make it more realistic. On TV things are tied up so neat, but we are going to shake up television. Because people love this girl.”
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