What’s happening?
Terrence Howard says he turned down taking part in Marvin Gaye in a Lee Daniels-directed biopic after being instructed that the late singer was homosexual.
The “Iron Man” star, 56, shared the revelation on Sunday’s episode of Invoice Maher’s “Club Random” podcast.
The dialog turned to Gaye after Howard confessed the “biggest mistake” of his profession was not portraying Smokey Robinson in a film in regards to the Motown icon.
Although Robinson, 85, requested Howard to play him, the actor mentioned he was within the midst of a “conversation with Lee Daniels about playing Marvin Gaye.”
Maher, 69, argued that the narrative of the “Sexual Healing” hitmaker’s life was “much more interesting” than Robinson’s, and that Howard “would’ve been perfect as Marvin Gaye, and that is a story that needs to be told.”
Nonetheless, Howard — who starred on Daniels’ TV sequence “Empire” — grew chilly on Daniels’ biopic after a dialog with legendary document producer Quincy Jones.
“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 asking Jones, who handed away in November.
“And Quincy’s like, ‘Yes.’”
Howard then determined he “could not” star in Daniels’ film.
“They would’ve wanted to do that, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that,” he mentioned of portraying a homosexual particular person.
Maher interjected, “You mean you couldn’t kiss a guy on screen in a movie?”
Howard replied, “No. Because I don’t fake it.”
The “Real Time” host mentioned he “couldn’t kiss a man either.”
Howard continued, “That would f—k me. I would cut my lips off. If I kissed some man, I would cut my lips off.”
Maher laughed off the hyperbole of Howard’s comment.
“I would not do that. It does not make me homophobic to not want to kiss a man,” the previous “Politically Incorrect” MC mentioned.
“Do what you love to do but don’t aim it at me. And I can’t play that character 100 percent. I can’t surrender myself to a place that I don’t understand,” Howard went on.
Throughout his transient life, Gaye didn’t come out as both homosexual or bisexual, and there are scant few accounts claiming he shared sexual or romantic relationships with different males.
Jones, nevertheless, did suggest that the “Let’s Get It On” singer had a dalliance with Marlon Brando.
“He was the most charming motherf—ker you ever met,” Jones mentioned of the “Godfather” star in a 2018 interview with Vulture.
“He’d f—k anything. Anything! He’d f—k a mailbox. James Baldwin. Richard Pryor. Marvin Gaye,” he added.
