Terrence Howard might have earned critical success with Hustle & Flow, but he alleges that he didn’t make much money.
While talking about his latest movie, Showdown at the Grand, Howard told WREG Memphis that he only made $12,000.
“What Paramount did, instead of putting my name as ‘Terrence Howard’ performing the songs, they put ‘performed by Djay.’ Well, they owned Djay,” he said. He added that the royalties from the performances go toward Paramount instead of him.
“So now, I’ve got to send them a letter to say, ‘Hey, you guys owe me about 20 years’ worth of residuals and performance royalties,” he said. Howard also added that at the time of signing onto the film, he was simply trying to pay his rent.
Not only that, but he said that Fox also misused his image from Hustle & Flow as the logo for the series Empire and monetized it without Howard’s consent.
“SAG [Screen Actors Guild] didn’t do anything to help me,” he said. “They waited nine months until the statute of limitations went out.”
Howard’s woes regarding his likeness echoes what SAG-AFTRA actors strike, which ended recently, was about. Actors were fighting for the rights to their likenesses and performances. The added existential worry was about studios using likenesses without consent with the use of AI. Actors also fought for better wages and better working conditions overall.