Toe to Toe With Terrence Howard

Terrence Howard has a way with imagery that can make you say “Huh?” Take his recently released debut album Shine Through It, which he describes as “my monster.”

“You gotta take Karen Carpenter, take The Dramatics, take a little bit of Dan Fogelberg, Richie Havens, add them all together and add a touch of David Bowie and you kinda get the picture,” says the eccentric Hustle & Flow star, who burned the song “It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp” into everybody’s brains.

And when Howard talks about Fighting — his new teen street-fighting film with Channing Tatum (Coach Carter), directed and co-written by Dito Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) — the imagery machine goes back to work as he describes how everybody involved with the film more or less conned the studio into making something more than mere entertainment. Watch the trailer now.

“I think they thought we were going to make The Fast and the Furious,” Howard says at a round-table interview in New York City, “but we made something closer to Fight Club and something a little more like Midnight Cowboy. It’s extremely engaging and emotional because Dito [Montiel] don’t play. He don’t do what everyone else wants him to.

“It’s actual street fighting,” Howard continues, “but it’s like taking Midnight Cowboy, taking that script or screenplay, and instead of my character as Ratso Rizzo, trying to sell him as a prostitute, he’s trying to set him up with street fights.”

Tatum plays Shawn MacArthur, a New York street kid working the pavement selling knockoff goods to eke out a living. Estranged from his family and directionless, he comes under the influence of veteran street fighter and coach Harvey Boarden (Howard), who sets him up with fights that get dirtier and dirtier, both in execution and in mob involvement.

“Channing gave it all as an actor,” says Howard. “He was unbelievable, willing to work 25-hour days of punishment.”

The film caps a busy year for Howard, one that saw him win raves on Broadway for his portrayal of Brick in an African-Americanized version of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, release his long-awaited album, and of course, take his turn in Iron Man as Tony Stark’s military attaché and best friend Col. James Rhodes — a character who, in the comic book canon, becomes a human engine of destruction called War Machine when he tries on the Iron Man armour and it scrambles his brains.

Unfortunately, Howard won’t get to experience that plot development. Subsequent to our interview, the filmmakers announced that he will be replaced by Don Cheadle in the Iron Man sequel. There have been reports that money was at issue, which Howard has denied. (Fans even conducted an online petition begging Marvel to give Howard his role back). As we talked, however, Howard was already an unhappy camper, what with the hit he’d taken in the editing room.

“[Director] Jon Favreau called me early on and said that I took the biggest hit in the cutting room. He wanted me to understand that because they needed to establish me for the ‘War Machine’ aspects and the relationship with Tony and the friendship. They needed that, but they also needed time to give to Obadiah [villain Jeff Bridges] and time to Pepper [Gwyneth Paltrow] and time to the development of the suit. So he said, ‘You took a big hit.’ I said, ‘You turned me into Robin?’ He said, ‘No. I turned you into Robin’s little brother.’”

Not that the blindsiding over Iron Man has left Howard without several prospects. He’s been developing a biographical drama about Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American on the U.S. Supreme Court. Currently, he’s at odds with the producers over whether it should be a theatrical release or a cable movie. “The script is right. They wanted to do it on HBO or something, and I love HBO, but Thurgood Marshall deserves a worldwide audience.”

There’s Factor X, “still in the script stage,” which would team him with Eric Bana as the investigators who nabbed a real-life serial killer who terrorized Kansas from the ’70s to the ’90s. He’s also spending part of 2009 touring in support of his album.

And, Iron Man notwithstanding, there may yet be more Marvel superhero action in Terrence Howard’s future. Luke Cage, a movie based on one of the first African-American superheroes, would feature Tyrese Gibson as the title character and Howard as the villain Diamondback. Talks about the project have been ongoing for a couple of years, with Howard apparently having “creative differences” with director John Singleton.

Asked if he’s still doing Luke Cage, Howard asks “Is John Singleton still doing it?” Informed that Singleton had been making noises about bowing out, Howard laughs and says, “Well then, maybe.”

5 weird things about Terrence Howard:

• When Howard was two, a man accused his family of budding in line to see Santa at a Cleveland department store. It sparked a fight, during which Howard’s father stabbed the man, who later died. The incident was dubbed the Santa Line Slaying. Howard’s father spent 11 months in jail for manslaughter.

• He told Elle he won’t date a woman unless she uses baby wipes, in addition to toilet paper, after going to the bathroom, saying, “It’s just unclean.” He also says he will no longer have sex unless he’s married, but admits to breaking that rule from time to time.

• After divorcing his wife of 14 years, Lori McCommas, in 2003, he tried desperately to get her back, buying a house two blocks away from her, doing her yard work, etc. She threatened him with a restraining order before remarrying him in 2005. They’ve since re-separated. The song “No. 1 Fan” off Howard’s debut album is about stalking his ex-wife while she dates other men.

• Says he would like to live as a Jehovah’s Witness (ex-wife Lori McCommas, born Jewish, is a Witness and is raising their three kids as Witnesses), but told NPR he’s currently too selfish, saying, “If it wasn’t for the smoking of cigarettes and all...I would be a Witness.”

• Has a degree in chemical engineering from New York’s Pratt Institute (he studied while trying to break into acting) and has said he’d like to go back to school to earn his doctorate in physics.

-Marni Weisz