Chart-Topping Facts About Empire
Empire has quickly captured the hearts of millions of viewers. The plot had us gripped from the get-go, we can’t stop playing the show’s soundtrack and we’ve even grown attached to the hip-hopera’s awesome characters. But do you know where the name “Cookie” comes from? Or who Jamal Lyon’s character is based on? Check out these Empire facts that all fans of the show need to know.
Empire Facts
27. If at first you don't succeed, Trai Again.
Andre Lyon (Trai Byers) and Boo Boo Kitty (Grace Gealey) are a couple in real life. In fact, they actually got married last year. We can’t imagine these two characters hooking up on the show, but they sure do make a cute couple in real life.
26. Thats rough...
Jamal’s character is based on Lee Daniel’s (the creator of the show) life. In the show, Lucious shoved 5-year-old Jamal in a trash can for wearing his mother’s heels. That actually happened to Lee Daniels. “
When I was 5, my earliest memory was walking down the stairs in my mother’s red high heel shoes, and my dad—he’s a cop—is down playing cards with the boys and it was not pretty—at all,” Daniels told EBONY. “
He put me in a trash can and he said that I would never be nothing."
25. Get your hand outa that jar
Taraji’s Empire name was inspired from her college days. She told US Weekly that her nickname back in the day was Cookie, something only her friends would call her.
