Taraji P. Henson said in a recent interview that her grandmother Patsie Ballard recently turned 102
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“She was born in 1924. It just blows my mind,” said the Oscar nominee
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Ballard, she added, will be coming to see Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Henson’s Broadway debut
Taraji P. Hensonis opening up about a special family member: grandmother Patsie Ballard, who is 102 years old.
The actress had nothing but praise for Ballard, her motherBernice Gordon’s mother, in a new interview withVultureabout Henson’sBroadway debutin August Wilson’sJoe Turner’s Come and Gone.
“She just turned 102, and she’s coming to see the play,” Henson, 55, revealed. “She was born in 1924. It just blows my mind.”
She added, “Think about where they come from.” People in her grandmother’s position, born that long ago, “weren’t allowed to dream.”
When Henson would stay with her grandparents in North Carolina during summers as a kid, she continued, Ballard “allowed me to dream and create and come up with all these different characters and trust my instrument and sing that song in the mirror.”
It was that freedom that led theOscarandEmmynominee to explore the creativity that would lead to a thriving acting career. “I had nobody to play with,” Henson said of her summers staying with her mom’s parents. “That’s why I could play all these characters. Because all I had was time.”
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So, themother of oneadded, when she earned her Academy Awardnominationin 2009 for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, “I had to bring her to the Oscars.” Ballard and Gordon joined Henson at that year’s ceremony, making it a special family affair.
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InJoe Turner’s Come and Gone, now playing at New York’s Barrymore Theatre, Henson plays Bertha Holly oppositeCedric the Entertaineras Seth Holly. Directed byDebbie Allen, the play’s story follows Herald Loomis (played by Joshua Boone), a man determined to reunite with his lost wife after years of forced labor. The five-timeTony Award-nominated production opened April 25 for a limited run through July 26.
Speaking in April toThe New York Post'sAlexamagazine, Henson said she comes “from a line of incredible mothers,” adding that Ballard, upon turning 102, was “mad because we had to have her stop driving.”
After leading Tyler Perry's movieStrawlast year, Henson includes the drama'Tis So Sweetamong her upcoming screen projects.
Tickets forJoe Turner's Come and Goneare now on sale.
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