Empire’s Ta’Rhonda Jones on How the Show Has Changed Her Life: “I Can See the Skyscrapers Now”

Before she was Porsha on Empire, Ta’Rhonda Jones, 27, was a determined girl from Chicago’s South Side working at a nursing home. Here’s what happened next.

I’m the fourth of eight kids brought up by our grandmother. We didn’t have much, but I was always a hustler. At 22 I was a manager of a shoe store and a butcher, and I thought, I want to better myself. I’ll go work in the kitchen at a hospital. I went to all these hospitals in Chicago, and everyone said, “We would love to hire you, but you don’t have enough experience.” I tried nursing homes. Same thing. At the very last one, when the supervisor said, “I would love to hire you, but—” I cut her off: But I don’t have enough experience? That’s what you’re trying to tell me? I was pretty much in tears—I didn’t want to be in a standstill position. The lady was leaving and then turned around and said, “You know what? I’m going to give you a chance.” I worked there for four years and got promoted to the assistant director of nutritional services. I loved it. Life was still hard: In April 2014 my cousin, who was really like a younger brother, had been gunned down on the Chicago streets and killed, but as a family we all pulled through. About four months after that, my older brother called out of the blue saying he’d heard from a friend that Terrence Howard was looking for female rappers in their twenties. I had done some rapping, but I had mostly given up on it. I told him, “Whatever, give me the number.”

I called and went to this audition, where they had me read a few lines, then asked me to come back the next day. On the third day I went in again and said the same lines in front of a guy. I did not know the guy was [Empire producer] Lee Daniels, and I was still waiting to rap for Terrence Howard. Afterward I thought, Let me look up what I’m auditioning for. I saw all those names: Lee Daniels, Taraji, Terrence, Danny Strong. I’m like, Oh my God, this is big. This is huge. Two days later I got a call offering me the role of Porsha.

But that same day I also got a call from a hospital offering me a great position—I’d been job-hunting, wanting more money. Coming from where I come from, a lot of people are not successful at all, and I didn’t know what to do. The hospital would bring me stability. Acting—who knows? I said, “Lord Jesus, I need a sign.” Right then—I mean not a second later—there was a beep. I had kept a watch of my late cousin’s in my jewelry basket; the noise was the alarm on his watch going off. It had never done that before. I broke down, and then I just said, “Ty, suck it up. You don’t cry. That’s not what we do.” So I took it as a sign to take the acting job, and I quit the nursing home—I can’t even tell you how petrified I was. But my older brother had always told me, “You’re the one who is going to get us out of this hellhole.”

Now I’m filming season two of the show. I can honestly say I’m not that different; a big glass of wine and Scrabble with my friends, and I’m still good for the night. But my life is definitely different. Before Empire I had never been on a plane. I’d never even been outside of Chicago! (When I flew first class for the first time, they came by with those hot towels, and it was so dark I thought it was a hot-ass marshmallow and was getting ready to put it in my mouth.) And thanks to the show, I live in a condo in Chicago on the seventh floor. I got outta the ‘hood! I can see the skyscrapers now.

When I was starting out, people always told me, “You wouldn’t, you shouldn’t, you couldn’t.” I’m still proving I can, I will, and I am.