‘If I kissed some man, I would cut my lips off': Terrence Howard explains why he declined Marvin Gaye biopic
The actor Terrence Howard has said that he declined the role of Marvin Gaye in a film, because he didn't want to kiss another man.
Speaking to Bill Maher on his Club Random podcast, the actor said the 'biggest mistake' of his career was turning down the leading role in a separate biopic of the singer Smokey Robinson – which Robinson had personally asked him to play.
That decision was made because he was already in talks with the director Lee Daniels to play Gaye in a film, but became alarmed when he began to learn of rumours about the Let's Get It On singer's sexuality.
'I was over at Quincy Jones's house,' Howard told Maher, 'and I'm asking Quincy, 'I'm hearing rumours that Marvin was gay' and I'm like, 'Was he gay?' And Quincy's like, 'Yes.''
Howard said that this meant he could no longer star in the film. 'They would've wanted to do that, and I wouldn't have been able to do that.'
Maher clarified: 'You mean you couldn't kiss a guy on screen in a movie?' to which Howard replied: 'No. Because I don't fake it.'
'That would fuck me,' he added. 'I would cut my lips off. If I kissed some man, I would cut my lips off.'
Howard went on to say that 'it does not make me homophobic to not want to kiss a man,' and sought to clarify that he would have felt unable to sufficiently commit to the role.
'I can't play that character 100%. I can't surrender myself to a place that I don't understand.'
Gaye was shot dead by his father in 1984, when the singer was 44. He did not publicly comment on his sexuality, was married twice, and had three children (one by adoption).
He won a Grammy for his 1982 hit Sexual Healing, taken from the album Midnight Love. Other landmark LPs include What's Going On (1971) and Let's Get It On (1973).
Howard, 56, was Oscar-nominated for his role as a pimp in the 2005 film Hustle & Flow and starred for five years in the TV show Empire. He announced his retirement in 2022 but has since appeared in a number of other projects on the big and small screen.
Maher was the target of an essay written by Larry David in the New York Times last week, spoofing his fawning account of a dinner party at the White House with Donald Trump.
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