Taraji P. Henson may be increasingly popular because of her role as Cookie Lyon on Fox's "Empire," but she may also be overshadowed by the famous TV character.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Henson joked about Cookie taking over her life during a recent forum on the issue of diversity within the industry.

"I hate that b***h," she said. "She's stolen my identity. My friends don't want to talk to me unless it's about Cookie."

The 44-year-old stars in the role alongside Terrence Howard, who plays her husband and ruthless record label owner Lucious Lyon, in the Lee Daniels co-created drama. Even given her longtime working relationship with Howard ("Hustle & Flow" and "Four Brothers"), Henson admits she was a bit hesitant about taking the role in the very beginning.

"Cookie scared the hell out of me," she said. "Just before I got the role, I'd said, 'F- it all, I'm going back to theater.' I felt lazy and like I needed to sharpen the tools. So I did theater at The Pasadena Playhouse. Then my manager said, 'You have to read this script.' I'm like, 'Hip-hop? Oh my God, what are they trying to do? Fox is going to pick this up? This isn't HBO?'"

Henson added she now sees Cookie as a bigger than life character, one you either choose to embrace or not. As for the show as a whole, she is proud of the way it's made people talk about topics that can be scary. Henson believes art is supposed to inspire people in this way.

As much as anyone, Henson insists she looks at her character and listens to some of her one-liners and sees her father.

She recalls that he was also someone you either loved or loathed, but he always spoke his mind.

"The one line I said in the show about someone's hair smelling like 'goat a--' was his," Henson said. "Once I didn't wash my hair for two weeks because it kept the curl better when it was dirty. We were on a public bus, and he grabbed my head and asked, 'Why does your head smell like goat a--?' in front of everybody. I learned the lesson. I washed my hair. Thanks, Dad."