Rumer Willis Mixes Music, Acting on 'Empire'

When Rumer Willis’ Tory Ash debuted in Empire’s midseason premiere, it didn’t take long for her troubled past to surface.

Introduced as Jamal’s (Jussie Smollett) newest and closest confidant rehab, both Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) and Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) quickly began discussing her Heroin-induced meltdown that led to her stripping naked at Fenway Park before she was later found in a coma in a seedy motel.

“She was a big star, brilliant too,” Cookie said. “But that heroin knocked her ass right out of the sky.”

It’s a story that is unfortunately rings all too familiar in the music business, with heroin overdoses claiming the lives of Dee Dee Ramone, Sid Vicious and Janis Joplin, among many others. However, Willis says it was a much more recent figure that drew her to the recurring part.

“I was on tour, and I had a layover day in New York. My agents had reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, there’s this role on Empire to do this Amy Winehouse-type rock star,” Willis tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I was like, ‘I don’t need to see anything else. I’m going in. I don’t care if I’m tired.’”

Read the rest of this article at The Hollywood Reporter.