News

Check out our Interview with Terrence Howard!

How are you doing?

TH: I’m tired. Been on a diet. Started a diet again a couple days ago. The no carb thing is starting to take a hold on me.”

So. why are you doing that, Terrence?

TH: I’m doing IRON MAN and that military uniform don’t hide no secrets.

What’s your character in IRON MAN?

TH: James Rhodes, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Airforce, that liaisons between Starks Enterprise and the military for acquisitions.

So…you’re trying to get down to what?

TH: Nah. I just gotta get rid of these non-love handles (he grabs a minimal amount of skin on his side).

Is there a recurring theme to the characters that you choose?

TH: I don’t know man. I stopped really trying to choose everything I do. It’s like when you go and shop just for yourself…if you bought just the gifts you want for yourself, you’d find a recurring theme. We’re narcissistic and we do the things we’re most comfortable doing. So with this film, this is something that was more brought to me. Because me, I prefer bad guys …that’s just my nature. I prefer exploring the darker side of humanity a little more. It was nice to have this brought to me and to sit up with Jim Ellis. There’s this genuine human kindness. Like in the Bible, it describes the true God as being long-suffering and that means that …not willing to give up hope until the purpose has been accomplished. Refusal to give up hope and that’s what you see in Jim’s eyes. And I was always wondering where that came from. Because you know that Jim… we took liberties in the film … Jim was married at the time. He had a mentally-handicapped son. He was a math teacher at school, so he had the responsibility of 34 students. But everyday at five in the morning, he took his mentally-handicapped son to the pool and worked with him for years and worked with the kids that were disenfranchised by their parents or by society. He gave something wonderful. He gave his time. All of us have a few gifts and why not share that. I was moved by talking with him and conversations with him and I wanted to steal some of that for myself. I wanted to understand that generous spirit.

Did this movie mean more because of it being set in Philly?

TH: The Philly connection to me was..I just wanted to be home. That’s how it was sold to me. We’re going to shoot it in Philly and you can be home with your kids. I’m in… what is it about. (Laughs)

But it was shot in New Orleans, wasn’t it?

TH: Yeah, that was the kicker. They sent us to New Orleans (laughs). I was upset about that, but once we got there I talked with Ray Nagin and he said with the greatest of earnestness and sincerity, ‘thank you for bringing this down here. Because we need it.” And it was only 15 million dollars that was brought into the city. But it was like we bought a breath of hope back into the city when all they had was devastation. And something that was interesting, I guess a happy accident… in a tragic way. What Katrina did to New Orleans was comparable to the social devastation that came from the lack of local government supporting the inner city in Philadelphia in the 70s. And we’re still reeling from that. We have the highest per capita murder rate in the country. Because of mismanagement. We’ve already had 63 murders this year and it’s only been two months.

Did you tour some of the areas, the devastation in New Orleans?

TH: I looked at some of that stuff. A lot of it I didn’t even want to see. You don’t even need to tour down there. You get off at the airport and start driving into the city, and you see it right away. And I couldn’t understand…I mean there’s still downed light poles and there’s still hundreds of cars underneath the freeway that are abandoned, that were waterlogged. Why didn’t they fix this yet? I mean, remove the trash. I guess there’s still trying to find homes for people. So, no ..I didn’t want to see that stuff. You can see it in the peoples’ faces ..you just do.

Are you a swimmer?

TH: I am now. (laughs) After 4,000 yards per day. Yeah, I’ve paid my dues. I can say I’m a swimmer, even if I never get in the water again.

So you weren’t before this?

TH: Nah. I used to swim. I used to think I was swimming, until a little girl told me …and I used this line in the movie … ‘you swim like a wounded animal’. (laughs)

So a new found respect for swimming as a sport?

TH: Yeah and for staying in shape cuz she also told me I was fat. (laughs)

Who was this little girl?

TH: I don’t know. She was 15 and was just dustin’ everybody. Every time I’d come out of the water to get some air to breathe. She would just look at me (gives a disapproving judgmental stare and then laughs). Then you try to flip turn and half drown. You have to blow out in the turn and you have to end up in a seated position up against the wall and squeeze in your biceps. And she said, ‘you gotta squeeze your biceps, but you gotta grow some first.’ (laughs) She was rough, but she could swim. She could swim non stop. She could do anything. There was a six year old that could to the breast stroke back and forth with ease. I gained a whole new respect for the sport.

How extensive was your training?

TH: Three months at 4,000 yards per day. They didn’t let up. And on top of that, I had another monster by the name of Darrell Foster that Will Smith lent to me. He got him in shape for ALI. He was evil. (laughs) No carbs, no sugar, no salt. Three miles in the morning and three miles in the evening and at least an hour of lifting every day..no matter what. Even if we got off at 12 at night. The good thing about him, he ran every mile with you. He did every set with you. Iron sharpens iron. To this day, all of us are one camp. Will’s camp, cuz everyone in Will’s camp gets up and runs with him every morning and lifts with him or they’re not part of his camp anymore. So me, being a part of… I’m using Will’s hairdresser now. A guy by the name of Pierce. Will told Pierce that he’s an extension of him and a connection to me and to make sure that I’m on the same regiment. So we all …it’s everyday, how much did you lift? How much did you run? And that’s the beautiful thing about it. You know you want to be a narcissistic lazy ass… you can’t do that when you have people shouting ‘iron sharpens iron’ and that’s how Jim Ellis is. It’s all about making better people by building a better mind.

How long have you guys been doing that?

TH: For a year. I had my daughter, my 12 year old daughter, had to run the five miles with us. She made it about two. It was like you’d come inside the gym…when I’m in New York, I’d work out with him. When we’re in L.A., I work out with him. It’s like fifteen people. Men and women all on the treads making their runs. Or out on the beach, making their run. And it’s just a beautiful thing.

Do you consider yourself an underdog?

TH: (pauses) Um… I guess I try to be an underdog. You know it’s hard now. Cuz you go places now and people smile at you and they cheer you on and I’m so used to the days when I had to do everything on my own.

So you can still hold onto that for the roles?

TH: Yeah. My strength comes from trying to prove to myself. You know when people say you can do it, you don’t try as hard to do it. When you just don’t believe you can do it. Like this morning, I was up running and I made it to four miles and I wanted to quit, so I made myself run the extra mile. If I want to quit at five, any that thought comes into my head to quit, I always force myself to do an extra mile. So that’s why my acting is like …I’d love to take on something that I think I can’t accomplish, that I’d make a fool of myself trying to accomplish it. And sooner or later, you get it.

I read somewhere that you write lyrics for other musicians?

TH: I write for myself. I’m selfish (laughs).

You have aspirations for a music career?

TH: Yeah, I have an album coming out with Sony. It’s kind of an urban folk with Spanish influence guitar. More in the line of Jim Croce and …who’s that guy that sings (singing) ‘Morning…Morning…” Richie Havens. Yeah mix them together and ..it’s kinda nice. It’s pretty to me, whether anyone else likes it or not (laughs)

Any musicians in particular that you’d like to work with?

TH: I want to work with Corrine Bailey Rae. And Will.i.am ..we’re going to do some stuff together. And I was talking to Wyclef, we’re going to put a song together. And Anthony Hamilton wants to do something with me.

You play piano and guitar, right?

TH: Yeah. Cello, clarinet, bass. Can’t play the drums. I still don’t have the rhythm for the drums.

How is that?

TH: (laughs) I don’t know. I can dance. Something about and I realized that I’m just a little bit offbeat. It’s my nature. Considering when I was in school, as a kid, they wanted to put me in Special Ed classes cuz they thought I was slow. And I guess I am. Because I’m a little more contemplative. I don’t move immediately, but when I do I move purposely. But it takes me awhile before I’m sure of what’s going on. I guess that’s what was happening in school ..in my first few years of it. My mother was kind about it. She said you’re in a special class, because you’re smarter than everybody. Then I saw all the dummies next to me (laughs).

When did you get out of that special class?

TH: They gave me a course called, “Think”, when I was in the third grade in those special classes. And it taught us inductive and deductive reasoning. And I found that that was my gift. My ability to reason. I have insight – that ability to look into a situation beyond the obvious and discern its outcome. That was my gift. To this day… my grandmother has it. She’s brilliant. She had a stroke about six months ago and that was the thing that killed her the most. I was talking to her and she was like, ‘Baby, it’s gone. It’s all gone. It’s all gone.’ It was her ability to utilize her resources and her experience and to come out with some type of logical conclusion. She didn’t have that anymore. She no longer had that train of thought.

She knew she didn’t have it, which is pretty amazing

TH: That’s the thing… once you’re able to fly and you go to leap and you hit the ground. That’s frightening.

Doing a movie called PRIDE… what do you want young African Americans to come away with from this film?

TH: You have to remember where we come from. You know we’re stuck in a mentality that we come from slaves. We start to think that beginning of black people is in slavery. We forget that we were a free people before slavery. And it’s remembering where we come from …not just what we’ve gone through. Where we’ve come from. And does the ending suit the beginning? Has it been a worthwhile journey if this is all we’ve gotten to. We have to have pride in our beginning in order to see the finish. And that’s what I want them to recognize. The term pride… we started off with the movie, with the title ‘PDR’ – Philadelphia Department of Recreation. And they had us chanting that. And I took some liberties and said you know that does not represent the Philadelphia Department of Recreation. It represents pride, determination and resilience. And it caught on, cuz that’s what we need. We have to remember that we have to have the determination to accomplish anything. And we have to be resilient like that grass. You can step on that grass a thousand times. You can have a herd of buffalo go across it. But guess what… it will pop right back up and it never quits. And that’s what we’re supposed to be. And that’s what the movie represents. That water represents opposition and you move that water away from you. When you swim..half of us in this room would do the same thing. We cross our arms when we swim and pull the water, but we’re X-ing out our way. But what you have to do is gently persuade the water around you. You kinda swim more on your side, switching sides. And the water moves around you. So the opposition moves around you and that’s what we need. The children need to learn that. They have to be able to persuade the opposition around you, you cannot fight that body of water. You just can’t.

So you changed the name of the movie?

TH: I didn’t know they were going to make it Pride, I thought it was still going to say PDR. But I wanted the message to be pride, determination and resilience. They took their own creative license and said, ‘okay, it’s going to be called Pride now.” I was happy that I was on the same line of thought.

PRIDE is in theaters March 23rd
Check out our PRIDE feature!