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Hey Terrence,
let’s talk about that shower scene. Was
it you running across there naked?
Terrence Howard: No. That was
a stand in. I am much more, well endowed
than that. It was a very cold shower.
Was it easy to
ease into it?
Terrence Howard: I didn’t
ease into it. I just saw my friend Jim
Sheridan sitting there, struggling for
two hours, trying to shoot a scene that
he wanted. And we tried to do it with
the coverings and all that and it was
not apart of his vision. It was hurting
him. And I saw him sitting at the
monitor just rubbing his head. So I went
to Jim and said can we do one more. And
he said I don’t know if it’s going to
make a difference. I said you know
what…I took my draws off. And I turned
to 50 and I said…this is us. This is who
we are. He’s like nigga fuck you…lol. I
am not there…they ain’t gonna put a
poster of you up. They gonna freeze
frame, put a poster of me up and say
look at 50s bitch ass! I was like man
just try it. Jim really needs it. He
said fuck it. Took his draws off and
jumped right in. then the other three
people in the scene…they did it too.
Then you saw Jim getting live. He was
all live and I was happy.
You’ve worked
for quite a few years. 20 to be exact,
but only till recently with the success
of Crash, Hustle & Flow and now this
have you really gotten the recognition.
Well, can you see the sudden change?
Terrence Howard: Well, the
difference is was…before…I was warring
against the entire world. I was just
warring against it and I just would not
surrender to the director, you know. And
then in this year, when Kathy Bates told
me in 1997 at Sundance was you got to
trust your director. It took 6, 7 years
for that to sink in. So, I lent myself
to that this year and look at what a
difference it made. I stop doing
Terrence Howard impersonations.
Are you following your instinct?
Terrence Howard: No. You’ve
got to surrender and trust the
director’s instinct. Because your
instinct is ...”he who isolates himself
will seek out his own selfish longing.
And against all practical wisdom he will
break forth.” That was me…before. So
when I learned to surrender to what they
wanted. Then I saw knew characters
created. But before they were all just
reflections of me.
I would have to
disagree with that Terrence. You’ve
always been a huge scene stealer. People
would remember who you are.
Terrence Howard: But I
couldn’t be used by a director for more
than one scene. Because I was too
difficult to work with it. You don’t
know what your talking about…I would
tell them.
So you were
difficult?
Terrence Howard: I was very
difficult.
Did you set out
to do that purposely?
Terrence Howard: No. I
thought these people were idiots. They
didn’t know what they were doing. And
Jeffrey Wright has to sit me down and
tell me, you are your own worst enemy
because you refuse to get out of your
own way.
Is Crash the
first movie that you did that in?
Terrence Howard. Paul just
looked at me and said you know
Terrence…umm, what I need you to bring
in this movie. I can’t ask you to bring.
Cause I don’t know what it is. But I’ll
get it along the way. Just trust me
along the way ok. I promise you I will
not lead you wrong. And if you never
work again, you can come and live in my
house. This is what he told me. And
Craig Brewer would come over to you like
this and say…I think you can do it. I
think you can do it. He’s such a pimp.
Honestly. And Jim would be like, hey you
that’s a bunch of crap man. I can’t do
it. I can’t do it. What do you think?
What do you want to try? And all these
people. For him to ask me what do I want
to try after having a year of learning
to surrender? I was like a little kid. I
want to try this. Well, try it like this
and do this with it. And then add this
on it. And he allowed you to bring your
own clay. You bring the clay and then
he’d mold it into his city. But it was
my clay that I brought in and he let me
play with my clay.
What do you
know of this culture that is being
implicated in this movie?
Terrence Howard: As a young
black male, I’ve grown up in that same
type of environment. Fortunately for
myself I had my father, who had a rule
that we could not play with anybody from
the neighborhood. If he was home, we
could be in the front yard and stay
inside the gate. But none of our friends
could come inside the gate. Nobody could
loiter the gate. So people would come
and talk to you for like a minute over
the gate and then walk. But when he
wasn’t home we had to be inside. And
when the street lights were coming on,
we had to be in the house. We couldn’t
be walking in the house. My father
believed in corporal punishment. We got
whipped. And for me I watched it. And he
would say, you may hate me now, but I
promise you, you’ll be able to hate me
when your 40 instead of loving me when
your 17.
And you agree with that now?
Terrence Howard: Yes. I raise
my kids the same way.
Rap isn’t your
music. Has Hustle & Flow and this film
changed that for you?
Terrence Howard: I don’t
believe that music should be violent.
Cause it touches such a central place
inside of us that is delicate. And it
should never have guns, and knives, and
swords and bats in the inner most place
of your heart and mind because we behave
accordingly. There are elements of rap
that I still like, like back in the day
music like De La Soul and A Tribe Called
Quest and Public Enemy. These people
talked about a positive image. And Nas
today. And Kanye West today. But the
other elements of it, I still stay away
from it. Curtis Jackson, the person,
I’ve met; he has such a positive
message. Mr. Hyde, 50 Cent, he’s real.
He’s very real. But he’s been created in
order to survive that environment that
he’s grew up in. once he’s made it
through everything he’s had to make it
through, you’ll see a change in his
music. But he’s still dealing with the
post traumatic stress of 50 Cent.
Is it important
for you to do that also in your films?
To bring positive ness?
Terrence Howard: Well, you
have to. There’s a good side to
everybody. I try to show both the good
and the bad. And in each character I
don’t try to water down the truth, even
though I don’t like using the word
nigger in Hustle & Flow it wasn’t in the
script one time but you heard it in
almost every sentence. Why? Because the
time that I spent down there, everybody
I heard used it. So I would be remised
not to put it in there. And fortunately
in this film, this character hated that
word. So I could express my ideas with
it. But even in Hustle & Flow, DJay had
a strength about him that was
encouraging. Crash you had a similar
strength. There was a guy with some
dignity but he had lost his integrity.
He was so busy trying to hold on to the
facade of dignity.
Your character in this film doesn’t
start off as being a killer. I am really
surprised at how the character proves
that theory wrong?
Terrence Howard: Bama was
crazy. What was beautiful about Bama was
he came from a guy named Country. A
friend of 50s. And 50 said he was a man
that didn’t yell or anything like that.
He was very soft spoken. And he would
tell you in a second that you hurt his
feelings. And if you did not apologize
for hurting his feelings he would shoot
you.
Did you meet
Country?
Terrence Howard: No. He was
incarcerated. This was a benefit for the
rest of us.
Which the buzz
from Hustle & Flow and Crash there is
lots of Oscar talk?
Terrence Howard: You hear all
the Oscar talk as a result you get
people who think you might get nominated
and want to attach you to their film,
cause if you get nominated then that
gives press to their film. But I also
got some scripts from people who believe
what I can do. Like you know to play
Thurgood Marshall from New line and to
play Joe Louis. Those good
opportunities, those 2 opportunities; my
life has changed in regards to that. But
I know it’s only changed because I
learned to listen to a director. Now at
the moment that I stop listening, it
will revert back to the other way.
Will you do those films?
Terrence Howard: Yes.
Do you feel
vindicated now that you’ve learned to
listen to the directors and now you’ve
gotten a reward for it?
Terrence Howard: It
encourages you. First time you try
something it’s a mistake, do it again,
if it works the second time, it’s a
trick, third time it’s a method. Then it
becomes a principal and a way of life.
And your reward is from the principle
because now you can use that strategy.
How come we
don’t hear more stories like this; about
the African American community? We
always hear about mothers raising
children, grandmothers but never the
fathers. And yet you seem to have your
hand in it all?
Terrence Howard: Well, the
best way to control a people is to take
away their leader. And the father is the
leader of the family. And for 400 years,
what happened with African Americans,
they were…the children grew up without
having a father. The Willy Lynch
syndrome. And that is still…now that has
become so engrained into us, like in
Crash, my character felt still unable to
defend his wife and his family in view
of the great threat of losing his life.
Until men begin to take responsibility
and know that they only way your going
to separate me from my children is by
killing me. And I think that the people
that have survived throughout slavery
were female. Because the men in my
family all must have lost their lives
trying to stand up for what they
believe.
You’ve worked with
other singers as actors before. How do
you rate 50 Cent?
Terrence Howard: I think he’s
brilliant. His willingness to try
something new. Now, is he still
struggling at it…he’s still working it
out. But damn it, I’m still working it
out.
Did you have
any reservations about working with a
rap artist, in regards to the rumors and
gang shootings around him?
Terrence Howard: Naw. I think
I got more enemies than him. I thought
he was wearing a bullet proof vest
because of me.
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