Taraji P. Henson joined Stacy L. Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, at the Cannes Film Festival for a Kering Women in Motion Talk in which the Oscar nominee spoke honestly about course-correcting her priorities in Hollywood. Henson recently took a month off from work and relocated to Bali after feeling “discouraged” by the film and TV industry machine. “I was just frustrated and it was making me bitter, and I’m not a bitter person,” Henson said, nodding to continued struggles in Hollywood over the lack of prominent roles, pay and awards recognition for women of color. “I made a promise to myself if I ever got there then it’s time to walk away. I’m not serving myself or the audience or the characters I play. Thank god I did that. I came back refreshed and with a new perspective.

“Sometimes in the industry you make it about the trophies and the awards and that’s never why I got into it,” Henson added. “I came into this to change lives. The arts saved me. I was a little Black girl in the hood in D.C. during the crack epidemic. I’m supposed to be a statistic. I wasn’t supposed to make it out but I did.”