Taraji P. Henson has finally revealed why she left CBS’ Person of Interest, the show in which her character, NYPD Detective Joss Carter was shot and killed.

At the time of her character’s demise, many fans reacted out of anger to seeing yet another Black woman get removed from a popular TV show. However, during a recent Variety Actors on Actors conversation with Ellen Pompeo, she revealed that she left the show because she was not creatively satisfied.

“I had to leave a show before, and it was the most money I’d ever seen in my life, and I was so miserable. It was stealing my joy. I just remember praying to God: ‘God, I’m not happy creatively.'”

“The next day, I called the producer. He got it. And I walked away, not even knowing where I was going. I ended up doing a play in Pasadena. I didn’t care about who was coming to the theater, executives or casting directors. It was about Taraji falling back in love with this craft.”

Even though she never named the show she left, TV Line wrote that two weeks after she was killed off on Person of Interest, she starred in the Pasadena Playhouse’s world premiere of Above the Fold.

She also said that she had to be wooed to do Empire. “I wouldn’t read the script. I was done with television.”

Empire is set to wrap its sixth and final season next year.

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Photo: CBS

Person of Interest

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