Terrence Howard

Interview By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

While there are plenty of enormously talented African American actors, very few of them have managed to transcend fairly niche fare as effectively as Terrence Howard. His critical notice in films like Crash and Ray and his nomination for a Best Actor Oscar in Hustle & Flow has led him to a diverse array of roles in films like Pride, The Brave One, and August Rush.

Now, Howard tackles what is arguably indicative of just how far he's come in Hollywood. It's a role as Jim Rhodes in the film adaptation of the Marvel comic book Iron Man.

When asked about how he reacted to playing a role in such a huge film, the 39 year old claims he was ecstatic at the numerous potential fringe benefits that would come with playing a big role in a big budget comic book film.

'Aware that my character would become more machine, yeah, of course,' Terrence replied, 'That's why I took it. I was more so thinking, 'How much are y'all going to pay me'' 'Cause I saw some people do X - Men and come up! They came up, they came up, they don't have to worry about a day of work the rest of their life.'

'They're able to go do a million independent films and well, you know. I know all y'all get is $100,000 for this entire budget of the film,' he continues, 'You know what, I'll do it for free. Just pay for my room and board and I'll do the movie. I would love to be able to do that. Films like Iron Man, it allows you to do that.'

However, what excited the actor the most was sharing the screen with an equally illuminating array of co-stars, which includes Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jeff Bridges. Terrence spoke of often how impressed he was by his co-stars' level of skill.

'When they have a stellar cast like that, I got to learn from Robert Downey Jr., I got to learn from Jeff Bridges,' he recalls, 'I got to just sit there and admire the poise and the control Gwyneth has. Bam! She's so quick to absorb new information. How' I mean we would rewrite the script and have two pages of dialogue and she would look at it literally one time, go up there and deliver it!'

'Robert would look at it and go, 'OK',' get the main point and jumps to something else immediately,' Howard adds, 'You know, immediately, he was able to jump into a whole 'nother world and create something else that's right along the lines of it. Myself and Jeff, I mean, I like to prepare the stuff that I'm going to do. You know, I spend the night trying to work it out and make it right and I think Jeff does the same thing, because he's a stage actor. So it was difficult. Some of the quick adjustments, trying to stay with everything.'

For most actors, taking on a role in a comic book film adaptation is a risk, because of not only its pulpy roots, but it's potential pigeonholing that could result from its success as a tent-pole franchise. When asked about if he felt acting in a superhero film limited him in anyway, Howard asserts that the undertaking only adds to his range as a performer.

'Every single one has a different effect on you,' Terrence claims, 'Doing a play every night, the audience is different. The audience, some will laugh right here, and others they'll applaud. When one other person comes in and you get used to waiting for their applause, we're used to waiting for the laugh. Sometimes, you'll tie into a giggle or a chuckle or a silence and all of a sudden, there's laughter and you're used to there being silence there or that is your transition and you got to use something else. And you end up floating a lot. There's a lot of floating, emotional floating going on.'

One particular aspect that the actor found intriguing about Jim Rhodes is the unique relationship with Tim Stark, the real persona of Iron Man, and how oppositely paralleled their worlds are.

'Both of them have been indoctrinated according to a specific dogma,' he notes, 'Rhody, through his father and grandfather and the years they spent in the military. You know, honor service to country above everything else. Tony, service to self, which is above everything else, which he learned from his father, which in turn, he learned from his father. And the class of the two worlds between having service to others and having people serve you. That right there, where we stand is the seeds from there, two apples rolling down from a hill.'

However, Howard also notes that as seemingly disparate the worlds of Rhody and Tony are, there's ultimately an undercurrent of commonality between the two men over the course of the film.

'Tony seems to be in the league, but because Tony has it, the grass is cut where Tony has traveled, but the pavement I've gone across is concrete now, because it's been trotted down by soldiers for many years,' Terrence explains, 'So when we take root and we're both trying to grow in the same space, eventually, because we're so close to each other, we're going to intertwine. And we've all seen those trees when it's two trees growing right next to each other and they intertwine and become one beautiful, beautiful tree.

'That will happen, but initially, the roots battle each other, but we share the same sunlight, the same food, and ultimately, Tony gets a burst of light that I've never seen before,' he continues, 'He recognizes the need to take care of humanity as a whole and not service the country or borders. We have a responsibility with the human race and eventually that will determine the changed Rhodes thinking. Rhodes will come on board with shield and everything else, if we stay true to the comics, and I think that Stan Lee is smarter than most people would recognize. And I'm a little more of a visionary and a humanitarian than people could imagine.'

Much of Terrence's ability to play such divergent roles can be attributed to the one-world philosophy he embraces. He stresses the importance of this as he recounts an incident that during a trip to England.

'I was leaving, trying to get into London, and they stopped me for a period of time because my numbers on my passport didn't match the numbers that they sent ahead,' Howard recalls, 'And I was sitting there looking at the hypocrisy of me having to show papers to walk into a country when I wasn't born in the United States, I was born in the North American continent, which is connected to every other continent and just separated by a little puddle of water.'

'How in the hell are you going to tell me I'm going to need a passport to come into my backyard'' he adds, 'Who said it was your country' It's our country. We're one people. We separated and became different. When did you start breathing air different from mine or eating grass' Who set this garbage up' When are we going to be Pangaea again' I don't understand that.'

However, Terrence is quick to note that he believes that what ultimately drives him as an actor most is something far simpler.

'Music, music, more than anything, but looking for a greater truth,' he says, 'Music crosses everything. I sit up and play a melody and people don't even know the words. I was listening to this Portuguese singer. I had no idea what he was saying, but I felt what he was saying. I had my eyes closed. I was listening more than my girlfriend was listening to him and my heart was with him.'

'It was the most beautiful experience that I've had,' Howard continues, 'And that's what music does. I wish I was blind and couldn't see the differences between me and everybody else and just heard everybody else's, you know. I wish everybody could lose their sight for a period of time and see how beautiful the world truly is, but the problem is we see it a little too much.'

Seeing as there are so few black superheroes in a time when the outlook for African American youth and urban America as a whole is bleaker than it's ever been, we asked the actor whether he believes the urban community as a whole could benefit from an 'Urbanman'.

'Nah, we need a Dollarman first,' Terrence replies, 'We got to get a Dollarman first, then War Machine will become his own sensible of Urbanman, but we're in so much trouble inside the urban community. We've hurt ourselves with the music that we've pushed out. We completely speak about violence more than we speak about anything else. It's no longer about love and brotherhood, it's about violence. So we've got a whole lot of regrouping to do. I think Barack Obama is Urbanman and hopefully, he will be successful.'

Terrence says he ultimately believes that part of the key to mending some of the many cultural and racial divides in the world is to understand that all human beings are ultimately one and the same. In a profession now more often known for egomania and image, it's this perspective that may shed light on how actors like Terrence Howard may sometimes have a better understanding of the complicated world we live in than our politicians.

'What I've enjoyed about it is that it more so laid claim to creation more so than any evolutionary growth or anything like that,' Howard says, 'Because we have two common ancestors, first an Adam, second a Noah and Noah's children, which the information seems to support more than anything else. That it doesn't need to go back 50,000 years or 100,000 years. 5,000 years ago, we all share a very common DNA and the small differences in people in how we think more than anything else.'

'And what we choose to think beyond the physical adaptations to allow us to take in more sun or block more sun, nostrils to get larger, let more heat out, or how smaller to keep the heat in,' he adds, 'All the little things necessary, we never stop being human, but we make adaptations. I just want us to be one people again. That's what drives me.'