Taraji P. Henson embodies a woman on the edge in Tyler Perry’s Straw. Starring as Janiyah, a single working mom stressed out to her limits as she tries to put food on the table for her daughter and get her to school on time, she faces eviction, child social services, police brutality and a work robbery all before lunchtime. While we might scold Perry for putting yet another Black woman through an unfathomable amount of peril, Henson makes Jayinah so emotionally wrought, you keep watching while gripping the arm of your couch.

“He knows the levels of emotion that I can get to,” Henson told EBONY of the reason why Perry cast her in the role. “He says a lot of times that I show him things that he didn’t see as a director or writer, which only enhances what he’s written.”

Henson dives down to

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