This 'Empire' Actress Says She Won't Be Going to Church Anymore Now That She's Famous
Ta'Rhonda Jones says she got a sign from Jesus Christ before landing the role of Cookie Lyons' assistant on FOX's breakout series "Empire" in 2014, and now her level of fame makes it difficult for her to worship in church.
"The preacher will say, 'Y'all give it up for the girl from 'Empire,' so I take the back door to exit," she told The New York Post. "The bad part is that people that did me wrong in the past now try to reach out to me like we are friends."
When Jones, 27, initially auditioned for the show, she was going through a tough time trying to transition from a job at a nursing home to a possible hospital job. When the opportunity to join the cast of "Empire" came along, she prayed for a sign.
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"When I was going to quit my job, I didn't know which job to take. I had gotten a job offer from a hospital and I got the role on 'Empire,' but I didn't know which one to take," she recalled at a premiere event for the show. "I said, 'Lord Jesus, I've never acted before, but if this role is for me, I need a sign and I need it now.'"
Jones' sign appeared in the form of a watch that once belonged to her dead brother.
"Now what people don't know is my brother was killed in April; he was shot down. I keep a watch of his and when I said, 'I need a sign and I need it now,' the watch went off and I'm here today because I went with that sign," she said at the "Empire" event.
"I kept saying, 'What is that noise?' … It never dawned on me that it was that sign because I just broke down in tears. And then maybe 10 minutes later I'm like, 'Um, Jesus I'm waiting on my sign,' and then it dawned on me that was my sign, and so I took the role and the rest is history."
The budding actress was first interested in becoming an aspiring rapper and had no idea that she was auditioning for the show. At first, she thought she was going to try out for actor Terrence Howard's record label.
Unbeknownst to Jones, she walked into an audition for the soon-to-be hit show "Empire."
"I was like, 'What? Where's Terrence Howard? I'm trying to get on his label,'" she said at the season two premiere event for the show, according to E! reports. "I didn't know what was going on ... "
Although she is new to the world of acting, Jones is no stranger to hard work. In a recent Glamour article, she spoke about the numerous jobs she's had before her first big break into the world of entertainment.
"My mother and grandmother taught me that no matter the obstacles, you got to keep it moving. You got to keep pushing. I moved out when I was 18 and started working at Jewel-Osco, a grocery store we have here, for $6.50 an hour. I moved up into the meat department, setting up the fish case, then I moved up to fish cutter. Meat wrapper. Then I became a butcher," she told Glamour.
"I took on a second job at City Sports as an assistant manager. I worked at a summer camp. I was doing hair on the side. I was literally working from sunup to sundown. I felt so tired, and I was so young — I didn't get to enjoy my money. But I was just trying to get it by any means necessary. There was no sleep for me."
FOX's "Empire" airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
