Bryshere the Greatest: In Season 2, ‘Empire’s’ Youngest Son Takes Center Stage

The most intense moment in Bryshere Yazz Gray’s young acting career was when he took aim at the man who made him — and actually cocked the trigger. “It’s when I pull the gun out on Lucious,” says Gray, shaking his head as he recalls the scene in Empire, a snippet of which is teased in the trailer for the second part
of Season 2. Gray’s Hakeem Lyon points a piece at his father, played by Terrence Howard. While it was a highly charged moment on screen, the drama lasted far longer for the 22-year-old Gray. “It’s 2 o’clock in the morning. Closed set under a bridge. Terrence is at his mark. But I’m crying because I’m getting in character — just sitting down on the edge of the lake, crying and getting deep into character,” says Gray, who adopted a form of method acting Howard taught him. “It’s not like they just go ‘action’ and ‘cut’ — you have to stay in it. If you lose it, they’ll see.” So the tears kept coming, and so did the tension. According to Gray, it’s just a taste of what fans can expect when the show returns to Fox on March 30

“It’s like The Godfather now,” Gray says of the Lucious-Hakeem dynamic. “Disobedient son that wants to be the heir, but the son wants to be like him so much.” It’s clear that Gray, who plays Hakeem, the youngest, most cocksure son in the Lyon clan, with both arrogance and affection, is excited by the next phase of the hit series — in part because he’s written and performs on four singles in the coming half season. “It’s 12 hours on the set, then straight to the studio with Timbaland,” he says, clapping his hands and rubbing them together in eager anticipation. “We’re trying to get those cuts popping. Rock with us, y’all! Rock with us!


It’s a few hours before the Grammys, and this Beverly Hills hotel — not one of the famed spots — is playing host to working musicians, the kind who tote their own guitar cases to waiting Ubers. And that’s just fine with Gray, who has just come from a recording session in the studio he recently had built in his Calabasas condo. But as we settle in by the diminutive rooftop pool, which can scarcely accommodate a lone swimmer, it’s clear this MC turned actor turned ascendant star is going to be too big for this venue very soon — if he isn’t already.