Lee Daniels’s Personal ‘Dark Years’ Inspiration For Benjamin Bratt’s ‘Star’ Character

Multi-hyphenate producer-director-writer Lee Daniels has had nothing but success in the world of television lately, but success didn’t come to him quickly. He’s found an outlet to discuss those “dark years” on his new Fox series Star, specifically with the character Benjamin Bratt portrays, Jahil Rivera, who is a dreamer with more than a slight cocaine problem. Daniels had a rough beginning in his early Hollywood days — he was homeless, he lived in a church and had “big dreams, but not knowing exactly what it was that I wanted to do,” as he puts it.

Daniels’s previous smash hit for Fox, Empire, allowed him to explore what the toll his meteoric rise has taken on him, but it’s “the dark years” that he wants to go back to on Star. And this prospect is very intriguing for a daring actor like Benjamin Bratt, who says he’s done with “middle of the road” projects and wants to instead focus on dramatic challenges. “To have Lee as a personal touchstone for who [Jahil] is, it’s not really any pressure that I feel, it’s actually a source of inspiration for me, because Lee is such an eclectic, interesting, curious, compelling person, and as an artist he really likes to push the boundaries when it comes to storytelling. So that’s exciting energy to be around, in part because it’s a little bit dangerous,” Bratt leans forward, perhaps inspired by Daniels’s creative energy, “But that’s what I live for nowadays. That’s what’s going to get me up in the morning and excitedly go to work.”

Star airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Fox.

Watch Ryan Murphy discuss Finding a Focal Point in a Hurricane for ‘American Crime Story’ Season Two…

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or leave your comments below.