Courtney Love admits she was “in shock” over landing her role on new TV show Empire.
The programme, which centres on a family of outrageous hip hop moguls, debuted on January 7 and is already a huge hit.
Courtney portrays rock star Elle Dallas in Empire and her guest appearance came as a complete surprise.
“I’d heard from multiple people that [executive producer] Lee Daniels wanted to work with me, but I thought, ‘Oh, yeah. This is nonsense.’,” she recalled to People magazine. “And then I had dinner with a [mutual] friend who really bugged me to call Lee. I thought, ‘That’s so rude! He doesn’t even know me.’ [Eventually] I texted him, ‘Hi Lee, this is Courtney Love. How are you doing? XO.’ And about two minutes later I get a call from him, ‘I have a part for you.’ I was, like, in shock.”
Courtney, who is well-known for her raw, sultry rock ‘n’ roll vocals, became famous after her grunge band Hole hit it big in the 1990s.
Her character Elle Dallas was altered tremendously to suit her singing style.
“It was originally going to be kind of a Whitney Houston kind of character. I was going to be R&B white royalty, but I am no R&B singer,” Courtney said. “Lee had wanted to me to do a Patti LaBelle song and I sang it for about five people at Fox. I think they are still cringing about it. I don't have that Christina Aguilera or Mariah Carey voice. That's not the kind of singer I am. So, we changed it to be more appropriate for my voice, which is rock.”
Empire, which stars Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, is currently airing on Fox and has already been renewed for a second season.
