‘Empire’ Guest Star Adam Rodriguez Talks Laz and Cookie’s Relationship, Working With Taraji P. Henson Again and More

Laz (Adam Rodriguez) and Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) spiced things up in last night’s episode of Empire.

The concert promoter and the head of Lyon Dynasty had been flirting since their first business meeting and it all boiled over into an intense closing love scene. Rodriguez and Henson are no strangers to falling in love onscreen, having co-starred in Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself in 2009, and the two have remained friends since. “We don’t talk everyday or anything like that, but we just got along so well and genuinely cared for each other as people,” Rodriguez recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “I was just super excited to do it. The fact that she’s having the kind of success that she’s having on that show made me even more excited to do it…”

Rodriguez spoke with the site about his time on Empire, including what it was like to work with Henson again, what’s ahead for Laz and Cookie’s relationship and more.

On what it was like to work with Taraji P. Henson again

“It was like seeing an old friend. I was just really happy to see her and it was like we didn’t skip a beat. We jumped right in with jokes and teasing each other, and just having some laughs and hopefully making some entertaining television.”

On what attracts Laz and Cookie to one another

“When people meet, you know instantaneously if there’s a vibe when you meet somebody. However long it takes for that to manifest into something, or whether or not it ever does is another story, but I think you know right away. When you look at them in that first scene, you felt that chemistry – that was palpable. Laz helping Cookie out when there were people breaking into her office trying to steal stuff from her, he comes to her defense and the two have these guns and look at each other, and realize, “Oh, you’re that type of person too? OK. Alright.” Laz is somebody who is willing to protect Cookie. Cookie does all of the protecting for her sons, she’s even protected Lucious by going to jail for him for all those years. She’s a protector and I think that sometimes the people that play that role in life, when they find someone that makes them feel safe, as safe as they want to make other people feel, they’re instantly drawn to that, and I think Cookie sees that in Laz.”

On how the pair will balance business and pleasure

“That does become the challenge, and that’s what I was hinting at earlier. You see it all the time. Some people choose personal lives. Some people choose professional lives as the thing that matters most to them. They are going to be in the process of juggling that and figuring out what matters most. But in the meantime, they do have a common goal and that is growing Lyon Dynasty and getting that job done. They might have different ideas of how to best do that, but they do have that common goal”.

If you caught last night’s crazy episode of Empire, let us know what you thought in the comments below!

Photo Credit: FOX