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.

Tyler Perry, Taraji P. Henson at Tyler Perry's "Straw" New York screening.

“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.”

Tyler Perry’s STRAW | Official Trailer | Netflix

 

Henson dives down to her rawest: disheveled and distraught, she makes the viewer at home physically feel her pain. “When you portray another human, it is not about you.

It’s about breathing real life into this person so that someone who may be going through the same thing or know someone like this can see themselves or see that person in a real way,” she shared.

“That’s how art can change life. So, I take what I do very seriously. Sometimes I call it a possession, in a way. You are allowing that character to use your vessel to tell a story.”

Tyler Perry's Straw' Review: Taraji P. Henson Plays a Woman Well Past the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

The intersection between Janiyah and Henson may seem blurred, as the actress totally understands being pushed to your limits. “Oh, yeah, absolutely,” she exclaimed with a laugh. “But thank God I have had an amazing support system, sister, circle group, that they always talk me off the edge.”

And that’s her advice for others who know a woman on the edge. “See them, let them know that you see them and be there for them,” she declared.

“As Black women, we’re always thought of as strong, but we’re not buildings. We have vulnerabilities, we’re soft, we’re a lot of things. Strong is something that we have, and resilience, but don’t just see us as some superhero. We are human. We cut and we bleed just like everybody else.”