Lee Daniels clarifies calling “Empire” 'the worst experience,' says it was a 'nightmare' that became 'great'

The writer-director explains that he struggled with the transition from independent filmmaking to being inundated with studio notes.

Lee Daniels is walking back his comments about having "the worst experience" while making the hit Fox drama, Empire.

The acclaimed filmmaker recently joined Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM radio show, where he clarified that his issues with the project were not about the show itself, but the experience of working under strict studio supervision.

“What I meant was, the worst experience because all of my films have been independently financed,” Daniels explained. “It was the first time that I was taking notes from anybody.”

The writer-director, who earned two Academy Award nominations prior to co-creating the Fox series with Danny Strong, said, "You have to understand, no one gave me notes to do anything” and added that the experience was ultimately quite “jarring.”

Related: Taraji P. Henson won't settle for abrupt Empire series finale: 'This will haunt me'

That said, the Precious director said that "things really changed" over the course of the show's six season run.

“You have to understand, when Empire was around, there weren't any Black writers in any rooms. There weren't any Black directors on television,” Daniels said. “There wasn't Black Panther, there wasn't Insecure, there wasn't any of that. So we were learning as we were growing.”

He continued, “There were all these rules and Black people were not able to be employed creatively because the system was not for us, so it was a bit of a struggle. I think that I had a great experience with them and they really understood that things had to change.”

After debuting in 2015, the musical melodrama about a hip-hop mogul and his family’s fight for control of the company was critically praised and became one of the most-watched series on the network.

Overall, Daniels concluded, “It was challenging for me. It was a nightmare in the beginning, but then it was great.”

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The filmmaker’s conversation with Cohen comes weeks after Daniels told The Film Stage that his experience with Empire was “horrible.”

He said at the time, "But guess what? F---ing that money, money, money! I was able to put my kids through college and s---."

Related: Lee Daniels and Mo'Nique to reunite for new movie after finally squashing Precious beef

Empire concluded in 2019, in the wake of star Jussie Smollett staging a hate crime and filing a false police report. The series also starred Taraji P. Henson (who won a Golden Globe for her role as Cookie), Terrence Howard, Trai Byers, Bryshere Y. Gray, Grace Byers, and Gabourey Sidibe.

In 2020, Daniels was slated to stick with the network for an Empire spinoff centering Henson’s fan-favorite character, but the actress revealed last year that the project eventually fell through.

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