In case you missed it, a clip from Terrence Howard‘s interview on Straight Talk with host Daphne Phaneē has gone viral for several reasons.
Once viewers got past the initial surprise of seeing the Hustle & Flow actor in the gray ’70s-style suit and orange feathered wig, they learned the details of his lawsuit with the Creative Arts Agency.
The 55-year-old actor expressed his gripes with the entertainment industry for misusing his image and discrepancies over trademark details.
“I had an issue at Fox and Disney because…the image that you see of us on Empire, profile, that came from a still shot from Hustle & Flow,” Howard said. “They took that, flipped that, and put it on everything. They took the trademark of it, sold it around the world, didn’t ask my permission…That image is worth $100 million, at least for how much money that they made from it. We got a forensic photographer to find the actual frame.”
He then began to detail how former talent agency CAA was also on his list for doing bad business.
“CAA, they represented me. They also represented some of the people from Big Bang Theory. They also did the deal with Fox. My show was with Fox, the people from Big Bang was with Fox. We had 28 million viewers. They had 11 million viewers. They were getting $2 million, damn near $3 million an episode. Those white kids, they had no name recognition, no Oscar nominations, none of that. We have 28 million viewers, and these jokers are paying me $325,000 an episode.”
He continued, stating that he would regularly question his agents about his pay, to no avail. Howard claimed that he later found his CAA representatives were “incentivized” to keep his pay low.
“They owe me over $120 million based on what would’ve been paid to white counterparts, so now I’m in the process of suing them,” Howard said.
Howard alleged that when he asked the agency about his backpay, they sent him a check for a disrespectful amount.
“They sent me a check for $666….666 exactly…So I was like, ‘y’all trying to threaten me? This is a threat right here. And y’all think I’m scared? Y’all think I’m going to be quiet? Because I wonder what you’re doing to every other Black artist.'”
Howard began his quest to get what he felt he owed in 2023. In October, Blavity covered when the actor initially filed his lawsuit against 20th Century Fox Television. The actor accused the network of not paying him adequately for his six seasons on the hit show Empire and alleged that the studio is guilty of using his logo from 2005’s Hustle & Flow for Empire.
Per court documents acquired by The Hollywood Reporter, the actor claims “the studio did not give him a good answer when he questioned how they decided on a logo for Empire when he did not participate in a photoshoot.”
In November, the actor doubled down on his issues with the network by revealing that he only made $12,000 from the Oscar-winning film and was owed royalties.
“What Paramount did, instead of putting my name as ‘Terrence Howard’ performing the songs, they put ‘performed by Djay.’ Well, they owned Djay,” he told WREG Memphis.
Howard then began fighting for the royalties from the performances that went toward the network 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.
