With a starring role and a debut album on the way, Terrence Howard is following his instincts, writes Stuart Husband
KEY POINTS:
Terrence Howard is in an expansive mood. "Got any girlfriends?" he asks his press officer. "Call 'em and bring 'em over. We'll have a party, man." He's come hot foot from the premiere of his latest movie, the comic-book adaptation Iron Man, co-starring Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow. He's still resplendent in his red-carpet outfit, a three-piece bespoke fawn suit that helps accentuate the steady, piercing quality of his hazel eyes. "I get all my clothes made," he says breezily. "Look," he continues, indicating an ornate "ABC" embroidered on his shirt-cuff, "this here's my monogram."
ABC? "Always be comfortable," he grins, shooting the cuff back into place.
Many in Hollywood would argue that the monogram is somewhat ironic. No one doubts the 39-year-old Howard's facility as an actor - he's appeared in more than 20 movies and was Oscar-nominated for his role as Djay in 2005's Hustle & Flow; later that year he was singled out amid the ensemble cast of the Oscar-winning LA race drama Crash.
"Terrence is a class act," says Stephanie Allain, Hustle & Flow's producer. "He's like Denzel Washington, he brings this stillness to all his roles, but he runs very deep."
Over the years, however, that depth has manifested itself as a kind of antic perfectionism that has struck Howard off a few Hollywood Rolodexes and earned him a "difficult" reputation. "Everybody in Hollywood was afraid of Terrence," recalls Craig Brewer, Hustle & Flow's writer-director, on his attempts to cast Howard. "He doesn't suffer fools."
"Terrence is definitely unpredictable," adds the writer-director John Singleton, a longtime - if occasionally exasperated - admirer. "He's crazy, but that's what makes him so good. All the great ones are crazy."
"Damn right I'm difficult," confirms Howard with some alacrity. As if on cue, he immediately takes firm, if good-natured, issue with his room-service cheeseburger: "Man, is that Swiss cheese? I'm so allergic to that, it'll blow up in my stomach and I won't be a nice person to be around. Cheddar would be great, thanks." He swivels back in my direction as the waiter leaves. "I just know what's right, and I'm always vindicated," he continues. "I'm determined not to have someone control me."
In Iron Man, Howard plays Downey Jr's sidekick, US Air Force bigwig Lt Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes. It's hardly a stretch - Howard spends most of his screen time directing a variety of you-cannot-be-serious faces in Downey's general direction. He jumped at the chance to work with Downey Jr, whose reputation has out-flamed Howard's, and whom he speaks of with a fraternal approbation: "His skeletons and demons are hanging out there," he says approvingly.
The soft, folky orchestral jazz that's been playing on the room's CD system suddenly swims into focus; this is Howard's debut album, Me and the Band of Kings, a slow-burning collection of acoustic songs that flaunt their Seventies influences.
He's spoken in previous interviews of being a frustrated musician, but the reason he's waited this long to join the fray isn't that a handful of peers - Will Smith, Jamie Foxx - got there first; it's rather, he says, that it's taken him until now to trust his musical instincts.
Howard has taken a three-week hiatus from his acclaimed Broadway performance as Brick in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, in order to promote the album and movie.
He's proud of the all-black production because some critics have placed him in direct lineage to Brando, the touchstone for anyone with an ability to reinvigorate the sensitive-but-manly brooder archetype.
"I guess I always knew I could handle the stage, but now I can say I've nailed it,' he says evenly. "It's taking a lot out of me, but it's the stuff I need taking out, a lot of pent-up pain and frustration. It's like having an emotional breakdown every night ... But it's cathartic for me." His eyes flick away for a second, and I'm reminded of something that Paul Haggis, the writer-director of Crash, said of Howard: "With Terrence, the nerve endings are so close to the surface and he accesses his feelings so easily. They are not distant memories and, when he pulls on them, it's electric."
Howard's childhood was thorny, to put it mildly. He grew up in the hardscrabble projects of Cleveland; his father, Tyrone, was half black and half white and, says Howard mordantly, hated both about equally. When Howard was three, his father stabbed a man to death and served 11 months in prison. His parents divorced and their various remarriages meant he eventually accumulated 10 siblings. Small wonder, perhaps, that he claims he didn't start speaking until he was almost four. "I knew how to speak," he stresses. "I just didn't. ... But I was watching everything. I was always super-aware."
At 19, Howard relocated to New York, hoping for an acting break. In 1989, a casting director plucked him off a street corner and put him in The Cosby Show, though his part was subsequently cut. Then, following a small but eye-catching role in Mr Holland's Opus, in 1996 he starred in the sitcom Sparks, which led to roles in ensemble movies such as 1999's Best Laid Plans and The Best Man.
"If Iron Man takes off and the music goes well, I guess that, for the rest of my life, all I have to do is stay out of trouble and I'll be fine," says Howard.
The door opens and Howard's cheeseburger is re-presented. He regards the burger balefully, then peels off the cheese. "My instinct says to have this burger plain," he says. "And I always follow my instincts."
LOWDOWN
Who: Terrence Howard, actor and musician
Born: 11 March 1969, Chicago
Key roles: Dead Presidents (1995), Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), Hart's War (2002), Crash (2004), Ray (2004), Hustle & Flow (2005), Four Brothers (2005), The Brave One (2007)
Latest: Iron Man (2008)
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