By Tonisha Johnson

Scene steeler Terrence Howard is taking a different but familiar road in this new film. Howard portrays a pimp who feels like he’s at the end of his rope and is determined to change the game.

The buzz is; this is it for you.

Terrence Howard: Well, it’s like, thank ya’ll very much. I’m very proud of that little boy, that 6 year old boy that believed in himself. I would love to take him to the Oscars and say man, look, this is what your gonna do one day. Because that’s what I felt like when I started this business. It’s nice to see your hard work being received. I feel like an artist who has an opening at a gallery or has 2 paintings at a gallery and people are appreciating the work. So thank you.

Stephanie, you’ve worked with John Singleton on Boyz N the Hood, which was an incredibly eye-opening film. Was it the same movement from that film that made you want to do Hustle & Flow and work with Craig Brewer?

SA: I read the script and I had the same reaction that I had when I’m in the presence of greatness. My heart started beating fast. Literally, I was moved by the words on the page. It was that simple. And then I saw Craig’s “The Poor and Hungry”, which was this $20,000 DV movie which was beautiful and I got him on the phone. That was it.

Terrence; you’re a musician. Does that make the rapping easier?

TH: The musical aspects of it; you understand the structure of a song but with rap, that’s more of a tribal form of communication. That’s a poet style. Not necessarily a musician style. And finding individual pockets and being able to flow with those pockets; that was extremely difficult. I did understand the structure of songs though.

What was your preparation for this role?

TH: Shut up and listen. Honestly, we had 2 years. And Stephanie and I called each other on a constant bases and Craig on a constant bases. I went to Chicago and interviewed about 30 pimps from there and altogether I interviewed about 120 different pimps over 2 and a half years. 78 prostitutes and dealt with rappers for countless countless hours. I tried to learn and understand it in my own way. And just listen to Craig and let Craig dig into me. Then strip off Terrence Howard and allow DJ to be born.

Were you familiar with that type of rap?

TH: No. Not really. I had never even heard of crunk. My love is country music. That’s what I do. And folk oriented.

SA: For the longest time, he tried to convince us that DJay should be a folk artist.

TH: It’s true. I thought he should come and play guitar. The only gift he has is the ability to talk and he speaks in utter moans and gifts of that nature.

What did you learn about pimps while researching for the part?

TH: That most of them have the ability to be politicians or statesmen. And that’s why I think the country is being run the way it is right now.

Did you spend anytime in Memphis preparing for the role?

TH: Yeah. I spent about 6 months. Back and forth; losing my mind. Playing with the state bird. The mosquito.

Your character could be place somewhere between a villain and a hero. How do you see your character?

TH: Well, he’s a human being. All of us rest between those 2 dimensions. We don’t know whether we are going to be good or bad. We do something heroic and that’s beyond the call of duty for what a man should do. And the villain is when you take advantage at some point…I could’ve been a hero to Nola. Could have met her at the truck stop and brought her back home to her family. I could have done the same thing with Shug. I could have done the same thing with Lexus but he was a false shepherd that tried to become a good shepherd. And I think all of us deal with those battles.

Was there any part of the character that you yourself can relate to?

TH: I mean, I went through a midlife crisis, 2-3 years ago. We all do that, you know, trying to rekindle your dreams. And wake up one morning saying this isn’t what I planned when I started out. How did I get here? What did I want to do as a child? And why aren’t I doing it? So, that’s just a common human plight that we’re dealing with. And that’s why I love about Craig. Craig was able to put that deep emotional feeling into a human manifestation that we’re all here talking about now. Follow your dream. That’s what I related to in it. You gotta follow your dream.

Why didn’t you want to do the part?

TH: I didn’t want to be a pimp. I didn’t want to be a rapper. I didn’t want to sell drugs. I just wanted to be a father. When she talked to me, I was looking for the role of a father, a husband; something kind. I just finished doing “Hearts War”. And that’s what I want to be. I owed this to myself because I remembered my dream when I was playing this character. But without somebody looking after my future like Stephanie, it wouldn’t have happened. Cause she could have moved on. Larenz Tate wanted to do it. Morris Chestnut wanted to do it. Lots of people wanted to do it.

You made a reference to the biblical character King Manasseh and DJay. Could you elaborate?

TH: King Manasseh was part of David’s lineage and at the time the Israelites had no business being involved in anything with false religion and false worshiping. He sacrificed his children to the false god Molech and all those things. But then when Manasseh got taken over to Assyria and called out to the true God and then changed his heart and then the true God responded to him. And Manasseh changed his life even though he had to pay for what he did. He lost half of his kingdom and had to pay tribute and all of those things and that was DJay to me. DJay had done some very horrific things against his conscious. And then him sitting there in that church and hearing that song and wishing he could change his name and become someone acceptable again but he knew that it would be a very difficult road. I mean, I could sympathize with him. Why he wants to become something…I think that everyone watching the movie, when they heard that song was like ‘wow, I wish in my heart, I could erase some of the bad things I’ve done’. And that’s DJay now. I think now he’s…I think I was able to help him find his way back home and hopefully somebody might help me find mine.

Was it the time spent on this film that made it different from other independent films you’ve done?

TH: Some independent filmmakers do it for the sake, oh well, I guess I’m bored. I need to do something. This one, we we’re willing to pay. I was willing to pay, after I was interested in it to keep this thing going. At one point, me and Anthony Anderson was like we’ll put some money in it to try and make this thing happen. And John was like...no, no, no, no. Cause John wanted to own the whole damn thing. (lol). But it was the amount of heart that everybody put into it. Stephanie went and sold her house to keep everybody afloat. And when I couldn’t hold on anymore, Stephanie was like, ‘do you need me to send you some money’? ‘I will send you some money but please don’t let go of this. Hold on.” Everybody cared so much. And it’s all sweat equity in this project.

What was the challenge off of bringing Terrence, getting this film done independently and then Sundance?

SA: What was the challenge? Well, when you believe in something as we all did. And it feels like Summer Stock. It just felt like we were all coming together…to do something together to put on this show. Come hell or high water we we’re gonna get it done. After being rejected for four years, several times, at all the studios, and having them tell us to make it without Terrance and just sobering on that by the time we got to Sundance and our movie was together and I actually saw it for the first time, and the audience was electric and we knew we had a response that we all believed in, forget it. It was like Cinderella at the ball. That’s what it was like. It was amazing. And it continues to be because sitting here and feeling the love from the movie, it’s been powerful, because it really forces what the movie is about which is, if you trust your creative instinct, you can change your life. No matter who you are, whether you’re a pimp in Memphis or a Hollywood producer or a hot hot actor who hasn’t yet had his huge break; its happened to all of us on the movie. And that’s what’s really gratifying.

TH: What’s funny is, even thought…as passionate as they were about me, I cared about them. And I knew what a hard time Craig was having and what a hard time Stephanie was having…and to watch 5, 10 million dollars walk away…You know, I called Stephanie three times and said I can’t do this anymore. Once I called her and got her answering machine and I said umm, I’m sorry Stephanie, I think you need to go and do this with Larenz Tate. And I’m not gonna be…

SA: I saved it.

TH: I didn’t talk to her for about a week.

SA: I never called him back either. I’m not going to respond to him.

People who know are aware that you are an under appreciated actor. Can you talk about that?

TH: I never got into this to be appreciated by anybody. I’ve been an outcast and a misfit my entire life. And it felt right to me. If I knew everyone had liked what I was doing, I’d felt like I was doing the wrong thing because my nature is rebellion. And I got into my own way in a lot of ways, but I wanted to establish my own mode and my own act. My own say. It’s too early in the morning for me to really be speaking, without profanity. I wanted to do my own thing. This is my mountain. I’m not coming under anybody else’s banner. My name is Terrance Howard not Denzel. I can’t take the steps that Denzel’ made. I’m not Morgan Freeman. I’m not Jaime Foxx. I’m not Marlon Brandow. I’m just this little boy from Cleveland that will not be beat. Your not going to be beat me down. I’ll wait. If it happens at 60, then 60s the right time. But Stephanie kept me from hurting myself because I really didn’t want to do this project. And I would be sitting by right now, watching all of this happen to somebody else.

Your character had a ton of cursing in it.

TH: I added all them cursin’ in there. All them niggers. There were only 2 niggers in the script. After being down there for 6 months. And listening to the conversations, I thought I would be irresponsible to not represent the conversations that truly take place in Memphis. I was not trying to make some waterdown, tickle your ear, version of Memphis. I wanted to do a documentary. I wanted to tell the true story of what takes place down there so somebody can understand, I’m not watering jack down for somebody with some weak conscious. And I’m so thankful that Craig allowed that to stay in there. Even though I think its reprehensible. I still think if your displaying that part of life and willing to expose it; then expose it exactly as it is.



Can you talk about working with Taryn Manning and Taraji Henson? Did you have a lot of fun working with them?

TH: Their sexy as all shit. Taraji, I thought was going to steal the movie. And in my opinion she has the best performance. She should be up for Academy Award for best actress in this.

What was the most uncomfortable scene?

SA: When he had to knock Lexus down. Two awful days.

TH: I didn’t want to do it. There was some talk on the set that I should throw her down the stairs.

SA: John was pro being violent. We were going to get the stunt woman from Cat woman to play the part, so…

TH: I could throw her down the stairs. I was like, I can’t do this.

SA: And Stephanie looked me in the eye and said you can’t do this.

TH: I said, you know I can’t do that.

SA: But the scene was real in that movie. The negativity had to be moved from that house. So he could create. We all knew that had to happen. And the final of putting the baby out…and that sweet little baby was so unhappy.

TH: That was the hardest part. I loved that baby. Even thought that wasn’t my child. I loved that baby. And I wasn’t trying to make some sympathetic pimp. I was trying to make somebody from all the people that I had talked too. Like in Crash; as horrible as Matt Dillian’ character was to me…you saw how loving he was to his father. You find out that there is good in all of us and you’ve got to display both of that.