- Terrance Howard appeared on the Sunday, April 27 episode of the Club Random podcast, where he discussed his career regrets with host Bill Maher
- Howard noted that he turned down an offer to play Smokey Robinson as he was in talks about a Marvin Gaye biopic
- The actor did not end up portraying Gaye either, as he felt uncomfortable with director Lee Daniels’ plans to explore the late singer’s sexuality
Terrence Howard is discussing his biggest career regrets.
Howard, 56, spoke to Club Random podcast host Bill Maher about previous offers to step into the roles of two Motown greats on the Sunday, April 27 episode. The Empire alum claimed Smokey Robinson invited him to dinner years ago because “he wanted me to play his life” in a film.
The actor explained that turning down the role of Robinson was his biggest regret. Howard claims to have only turned down the opportunity to play Robinson because he was already in early talks with Lee Daniels to portray Marvin Gaye in another biopic.
Maher, 69, jumped in to express that Howard made the right choice, claiming that Gaye’s life story is “much more interesting.” He added, “You would’ve been perfect as Marvin Gaye, and that is a story that needs to be told.”
However, Howard didn’t actually play either of the acclaimed musicians, largely because he chose to step back from playing Gaye upon discovering Daniels’ plan to explore questions around the late singer’s sexuality. “I was over at Quincy Jones’ house and I’m asking Quincy, ‘I’m hearing rumors that Marvin was gay’ and I’m like, ‘Was he gay?,'” Howard recalled. “And Quincy’s like, ‘Yes.'”
“They would’ve wanted to do that, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that,” he said of portraying Gaye’s life as an allegedly gay man.
“You mean you couldn’t kiss a guy on screen in a movie?” Maher asked, to which Howard replied, “No. Because I don’t fake it.”
“I couldn’t kiss a man either,” Maher agreed.
Howard took it further, adding, “That would f— me. I would cut my lips off. If I kissed some man, I would cut my lips off.”
The actor went on to claim that “It does not make me homophobic to not want to kiss a man.”
“I can’t play that character 100 percent,” Howard said. “I can’t surrender myself to a place that I don’t understand.”
Gaye never explicitly confirmed or denied his sexuality during his lifetime. The two-time Grammy winner was married to Anna Gordy for 10 years and to Janis Hunter for five years. In a 2018 interview with Vulture, the late Quincy Jones appeared to confirm that Gaye once had a relationship with Hollywood star Marlon Brando.
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“Brando used to go cha-cha dancing with us. He could dance his ass off. He was the most charming motherf—er you ever met,” Jones said. “He’d f— anything. Anything! He’d f— a mailbox. James Baldwin. Richard Pryor. Marvin Gaye.”
When the interviewer asked how Jones knew that they slept together, he said of Brando, “Come on, man. He did not give a f—!”
Howard most recently starred in Crescent City in 2024.
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