Taraji P. Henson “swallowed her ego” before her audition for The Color Purple.

Despite her Oscar and Emmy nominations and director Blitz Bazawule wanting her for the part, the Empire star still had to audition for the role of Shug Avery instead of being given the character.

Although she found the news a bitter pill to swallow, Henson gave her audition everything she could.

“With (Bazawule’s) coaching, I swallowed my ego and went in. I had the perfect dress on,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “It was very of the period. It was frilly and it moved a lot and had hardware on it, so it had a shine, it was very Shug Avery. I had this stole that I wore and put flowers in my hair and put my hair up with the red lips and everything. And I walked into the room and Blitz was like, ‘Oh s**t!'”

She added, “I know whatever I did, I left it in that room. That’s all you can do at the end of the day.”

The 53-year-old wasn’t certain she had the role when she left the audition room, but she later found out on a call from Oprah Winfrey, the film’s producer, that the decision to cast her as Shug was “unanimous”.

The former talk show host, who starred in the previous Color Purple movie in 1985, explained to the outlet that she had no doubts about Henson’s acting talent but the team needed to be convinced of her singing skills.

“I mean, I loved Taraji and watched her on Empire and all the things, but none of us knew Taraji could sing. And yes, she can,” she praised.

The movie musical is in U.S. cinemas now.

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