During a recent interview with The Film Stage, Lee Daniels admitted that working as the co-creator of “Empire” was his worst experience.

The filmmaker expressed his discomfort with remaining in the same creative lane. Reflecting on his time working on “Empire,” he recalled being initially intrigued by the challenge of answering to executives, as he was curious about what that experience would be like. “All my friends, they get notes and shit,” he explained. “And I’m like, ‘What is that like?!’ You know what I mean? Because every film of mine had been independent. All my shit is independent. You know, my first movie was developed with drug money — “Monster’s Ball.” We won the first Black woman an Oscar. Every one of my films has been independently financed where I’m able to … do my thing, and nobody is in my head.”

Daniels continued, “There’s so many filmmakers and writers that I respect that have to answer to people. So I only did Empire just so I could see what that experience was like.” When asked what the experience was like, he said, “Horrible! Absolutely the worst experience.”

The Philly native said that the sole benefit of co-creating the hit Fox series was the opportunity it provided to fund his children’s college education. “F**king that money, money, money!” he said. “I was able to put my kids through college and s**t. So that in itself was worth it.”

“I didn’t understand what we were doing when I made Empire. I really didn’t. I was too busy about Cookie’s hat and the music hat I was trying to get to realize that I was shifting, literally the culture,” he added.

Daniels acknowledged, however, that there “wouldn’t have been a ‘Black Panther,’ that there wouldn’t have been an ‘Insecure.’ There wouldn’t have been a ‘Black-ish’” without the show. “All of that s**t happened because I did what I did. I was bold enough to say I don’t give a f**k about these notes that they’re giving me. I’m going to fucking do what I want to do because I don’t need you,” he said.

“Empire,” which starred Taraji P. Henson, Terrance Howard, Jussie Smollett, Bryshere Y. Gray, and more, received eight Emmy nominations and became among the highest-rated Fox shows. It ended in 2020 after six seasons.