Taraji P. Henson Says Her First Role Will Always Be “Mom”

Taraji P. Henson might be a Hollywood powerhouse, but before anything else — before the lights, the camera, the lines — she’s a mom.

During a conversation on June 16 with her Straw co-stars Sherri Shepherd and Teyana Taylor, the 54-year-old actress opened up about the invisible role that guides the visible one: motherhood. “I’m a mom first,” she said, “before you see me on camera, before I hit my mark, I’m a mother first, so that comes with everything I do.”

Taraji didn’t just say it — she’s lived it. Over the years, she’s turned down roles and skipped certain scenes because they didn’t sit right with her as a mother. “It’s changed now ‘cause he grown,” she joked, referring to her son, Marcell.

She became a mother while still a college student at Howard University. By the time she packed up her dreams and moved to Los Angeles with just $700 and a 1-year-old on her hip, Taraji had already made the promise that would shape everything. “When I set out on this journey, I said, ‘I’ll never give up because if I give up, what am I teaching my son?’”

And she didn’t. The struggle was real — she admits there were hard days — but her son doesn’t remember the grind. In his words: “He don’t even remember the hard days, he remembers the house with the pool, but I just made a promise to him and when you love that deep and you make promises, you have to keep them.”

Back then, young Marcell had no idea his mom was switching off “Hollywood mode” at the door. And as her career grew, so did Marcell — often appearing beside her at red carpets and premieres. But even now, with her son grown, the fear hasn’t left. In a past interview with The Jess Cagle Interview, Taraji admitted she still worries every day. “He has a really good heart,” she said. “It’s just hard to know that the world can pick him out and turn him into a monster at any given moment.”

That fear is something she says many Black mothers carry. “All parents worry about their kids, but then when you see the news and you see people getting off for killing innocent children with no weapon it’s like, that doesn’t exempt my son,” she shared.