Taraji P. Henson is spilling another “Empire” secret: what really happens while she’s filming those hot sex scenes with Terrence Howard.

On Lee Daniels’ famous hip-hop drama series, the actors play divorced couple Lucious and Cookie Lyon, and the plot for the first season called for the actors to shoot love scenes together.

The 44-year-old sat down with Angie Martinez and revealed how Cookie keeps things calm between the sheets for the sake of her filming partner.

Henson revealed that Howard “hates” shooting sex scenes with her, owing to their friendship of over a decade.

“He’s like one of my coolest male friends in life,” she shared. “[So] he hates that. Because you have to keep them, the boys, you have to keep them professional. They can’t help if they get aroused. Every time we laid there, he kept talking to his male member, ‘Don’t do that! No, don’t! Taraji’s gonna punch me!’ So then I said, ‘You know, I will sock you in the throat.'”

“And then he goes ‘Ok, I’m going to keep my pants on. So I said let me help you. So every time he would get on top of me I would say ‘Daddy, why are you on top of me. Where is mommy? Why is the door closed.?’”

“He would be like, ‘Oh no!’ But it worked,” she explained.

“I would be like, ‘Why are you touching me, Daddy?’ And he was like, ‘Aw, no, that is twisted.’ But guess what? We got through the scene real quick.”

Empire has captivated audiences since its launch in January (15), and Henson claims that fans of the show, which concluded its first season on Wednesday (18Mar15), swarm her anytime she’s out and about in New York City.

She says, “Cookie’s stolen my life… It’s crazy ’cause I’ve been here. It goes to show all my hard work has paid off. I’m no longer Taraji… I’m Cookie. It’s overwhelming.”