That Trash Can Scene From ‘Empire?’ It Actually Happened To Lee Daniels

The “Empire” series premiere was an over-the-top good time. It was so dramatic and salacious, it’s hard to believe that any of this can be the least bit realistic. At least that’s what the shows 9.8 million viewers thought when Terrence Howard‘s character, Lucious, grew angry because his son walked around in his mother’s heels. He literally folded him up and discarded him.

Well, this situation really happened to the show’s creator, Lee Daniels. In an interview with Larry King, he described the first moment he realized he was gay when he was five.

My dad was playing cards one Sunday with his cop friends and I put on my mother’s red pumps and walked down the stairs. And he said, ‘What’s going on?! What’s happening?’ And then I got beat, he beat me severely for it. He beat me really bad.