Lee Daniels Says Like Jamal Lyon, His Own Father Placed Him in a Trashcan

In an interview with CBS News, Lee reveals that his own father actually put him in a trashcan after discovering Lee in his mother’s heels.

CBS News writes:

An even earlier formative experience in Daniels’ life helped inspire his hit series “Empire.”  Rocca asked, “Is it exactly what happened, that your father took you when you came down wearing your mother’s high heels and put you in a trashcan?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think your father was just reacting to effeminacy? Or do you think your father was reacting to, ‘Uh-oh, I know what this means for him later on’?”

“Both,” Daniels replied. “Because I think that he as a man was embarrassed to have a gay [son]. I had no questions, I had no problems rather, letting him know, ‘This is how I felt’ at an early age. I was very outspoken. I owned who it was that I was.”

Daniels’ father was a Philadelphia police officer.

“I think that he felt — no, I know that he felt that being an African-American man was hard enough, especially in those times. But to be gay on top of that was just a suicide note. And he reminded me of that repeatedly.”

How? “Verbally. Physically. He was embarrassed and ashamed. I think in hindsight, he was just more concerned about my future. And so I think that in some strange way his telling me that I was nothing inspired me to be something.”

When Daniels was 15, his father was killed during a holdup. His mother — with five children to support — convinced a neighbor to help her eldest son attend an elite suburban high school.

Daniels said, “I remember going into that environment and being the only black person, and feeling love and feeling like there was absolutely no racism at all for me.”