‘Empire’ Actor Andre Royo on Thirsty and Lucious’ Mutual ‘Respect’

Andre Royo’s seedy-but-effective character Thirsty proved exactly what lengths he was willing to go through for Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard), in the latest episode of Empire.

The lawyer was right there to help his client Lucious, while he and his family dug up a body in the middle of the night. After breaking out his handy corpse detection system, the lawyer then took it a step further and planted the body in the car of unsuspecting prosecutor Roxanne Ford (Tyra Ferrell) to send a clear message. We told you! Seedy…but effective.

Royo recently chatted with The Hollywood Reporter about why the untrustworthy lawyer and the Lyon patriarch seem have such an understanding of one another.

“There’s a real level of respect that Lucious has for Thirsty because we both came up from the streets,” said Rojo. “We both came up with these ideas that we were not supposed to make it, or not supposed to make it at this level. I think that admiration and respect – it shows between me and Lucious. Lucious hasn’t had anybody outside of his family that he could look eye to eye with and know that there’s a certain connection that they share that’s from the streets of hard knocks.”

In Thirsty’s short time on the show, he’s already helped Lucious get out of jail and relocate a body, so fans can only wonder what’s ahead for the unlikely duo.

“I know that with a character like Mr. Lucious Lyon, getting him out of jail is a lot easier than keeping him out of my jail. My job is keeping him at the Empire,” hints Rojo.

See what Thirsty and the Lyon family are up to in new episodes of Empire, Wednesdays at 9pm on FOX.

Photo Credit: Chuck Hodes/FOX