Lee Daniels Made 'Star' For 'White People To Feel Good About Being White'

Lee Daniels believes casting a white woman as the main character in his new series, “Star,” is going to help ease the racial tensions in America. 

In an interview with EBONY published Wednesday, Lee said he wants to “explore race in a way that we haven’t seen it before on a network series” with the new Fox show.

To achieve that, Daniels cast actress Jude Demorest to play the titular character, Star, a young woman who embarks upon a music career after a tough life in foster care. The series also stars Queen Latifah, Lenny Kravitz, and Naomi Campbell. 

“We are in a very dangerous state right now in our country and I wanted white people to feel good about being white because right now, there’s a lot of hatred going on,” Daniels told EBONY.

The director and “Empire” creator said that he believes the show will will open up frank conversation about race. “I think we’ve gotten too politically correct with primetime,” Daniels added. “We’re just not in your face anymore. You can go to cable for that.”

Some black people on social media aren’t so convinced by Daniels’ approach, though: