Daniels pushes through fear
Empire, Star creator begins new season with crossover episodes
ATLANTA — Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels says he’s consumed by fear each time he films a new scene.
Even after Daniels found meteoric success through films such as
and along with his popular TV series he still worries that his work won’t live up to people’s lofty expectations.
“Right before I yell ‘action’ in whatever I’m doing, I am as scared as a nine-year-old child,” the producer-director-writer says. “All of my past has given me the courage and confidence on whatever I’m going to do next, because I have to challenge myself. But I’m still scared.”
Daniels expects to experience the same anxiety before his shows
and premiere back to back tonight on Fox. The two music dramas will combine their storylines in their two-hour separate episode season premiere with some characters from each show appearing in the other.
Daniels said he originally felt nervous after Fox executives approached him with the idea of doing the crossover of the shows, which both delve into the drama-filled environment of the music industry.
“With that 9 o’clock (ET) time slot, I feel like all eyes are on me. In Hollywood, they build you up to tear you down. So, it’s a little terrifying,” he says. “But I think without risk, without throwing the dice up against the wall ... You have to go (for it). Otherwise, what’s the point of life?”
kicks off its fourth season after Terrence Howard’s character Lucious Lyon has awakened from a coma with amnesia. The series stars Golden Globe winner Taraji P. Henson as Lyon’s ex-wife, Cookie, who along with their three sons is fighting for a share of the family entertainment company.
On in its second season, three young women are looking for a fresh start in Atlanta in hopes of becoming music stars as an allgirl group. The series stars Jude Demoerest (Star), Brittany O’Grady (Star’s sister Simone) and Ryan Destiny (Alexandra).
Queen Latifah, who plays Carlotta Brown, the girls’ surrogate mother, is calling the premiere of both shows “Lee Daniels Night.” She’s known Daniels for nearly 10 years, and believes he’s capable of successfully meshing both shows together.
“He’s particularly qualified to do this,” she said. “He has a skill, a talent. He’s able to bring people to life and bring stories to life and characters to life that you might not see. He can do that like nobody else, and he should. He’s not afraid to tackle any subject. He has a signature. He has a lane.”
Daniels has explored homophobia in the African-American community through and tells the story of a transgender woman on He feels the best way to enlighten viewers on these topics is through music, but there has been some backlash for the gay storylines on Some of the criticism has come from social media and even Daniels’ brother, who told him, “We are black men and we should be perceived in a certain way, because the world is already against us.”
Daniels, who is gay, said he found the comments hurtful but felt he needed to push forward.
The action-packed White House drama returns for a second season Wednesday night on CTV and ABC.
At times, the nightmarish scenarios unfolding last season on
made the Donald Trump presidency seem as dull and predictable as an episode of
Things got off to an explosive start on the series when terrorists attacked and destroyed the U.S. Capitol during a State of the Union address, killing the man who was then president, the vice-president and all of his top advisers. Mirroring actual U.S. emergency succession policy, the “designated survivor,” Kirkman — at the time the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development — was kept away from the address. He was hastily sworn in as president and had to immediately deal with mutinous military leaders, rebellious governors and the threat of more attacks.
When the series resumes, a new opening sequence features an animated, time-lapse rendering of the Capitol’s iconic dome being restored to its full, flag-waving glory.
“They must have had a lot of people working on that, don’t you think?” Sutherland joked.
It’s a quick way to show that the shot-in-Toronto series has moved on.
“The circumstance in which he became president was so large that it really did take a season to properly deal with that,” he said.
Season 2 will deal more with throwing a man who has no ambitions to be president into the toughest job in the world.
“Will it corrupt him? Will he actually fix a lot of the problems? That’s now what we’re focused on more than anything,” Sutherland said in a recent interview.
Returning characters include Natascha McElhone
as Kirkman’s wife, Alex. Kal Penn and Maggie Q also star.
Given the real U.S. president’s fixation with television, it would be reasonable to assume Sutherland has received a tweet or two from the White House. Not so, he said.
“I think he’s probably a bit busy with the news channels, but no, certainly I have not heard from him,” Sutherland said. “And the truth is, we’re witnessing one of the most bizarre times in American political history.”
Sutherland said creator and executive producer David Guggenheim and the other showrunners and writers make no effort to weave real events into
storylines. Still, coincidences do occur. “We have an episode down the line that begins with the bringing down of a confederate statue in the South,” Sutherland said. “And that was written seven months before the events in South Carolina. So sometimes someone’s imagination will occasionally collide with an event that actually happens.”
Kirkman is asked in Wednesday’s episode what he wants out of his presidency. His answer seems tailor-made for the times: To restore faith in government.
“That is an incredible challenge,” said Sutherland, the grandson of one of Canada’s most admired politicians, Tommy Douglas. “Have we ever had a time when people believed in their government?”
His biggest thrill lately was hearing that his famous father, Donald Sutherland, will receive an honourary Oscar at the next Academy Awards.
“I think his work in films — everything from to to
to — he’s been such a support system for everybody I know,” he said.
“I mean, in my opinion, and it’s kind of selfish, but I think he’s not only one of the most prolific actors in the English language, but I think he’s also really one of the most important.”