Lee Daniels thinks women are "smarter than men".

Lee Daniels

Lee Daniels

The 56-year-old director has been praised for his ability to give strong voices to the women in his works - such as Taraji P. Henson's role of convicted criminal Cookie Lyon in television series 'Empire' - and has revealed he writes women in the way he does because he thinks "women are far more complicated".

Speaking on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert', the 'Precious' director said: "They (women) are smarter than men.

"I just think women are far more complicated, and I find that they are really interesting and fascinating to write for. So yeah, so most of my work comes from crazy Cookie's and such, you know."

And 'The Paperboy' producer is set to continue the theme of strong women into his next project 'Star', which sees Queen Latifah take on the role of Carlotta Brown, the owner of a beauty salon who is the surrogate mother to three girls trying to achieve musical stardom.

Previously, Lee stated that he wrote 'Star' with the intention of reversing television stereotypes, by making "the black girl to be rich".

He said: "It's not just about the girls finding family. We're talking about race.

"At the time, (Donald) Trump was not president. But I knew we were at civil war. I wanted this girl in this girl group to be white. I wanted her to have a sister who was half-black. And I wanted the black girl to be rich. And then I wanted them to tear each other apart because you know there are no girl groups.

"The reason that there are no girl groups is that they only last a couple of years."

'Star' is set to premiere on Fox on Wednesday (14.12.16).

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