Saying you’d want to mutilate your own face after kissing a man sounds like textbook homophobia to us — but actor Terrence Howard apparently has other ideas.
The Empire actor recently went viral for his comments on Bill Maher‘s podcast Club Random, where he shared why he felt he “could not” play Marvin Gaye in a biopic.
“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 said. “And Quincy’s like, ‘Yes.’”
That’s why, Howard went on, he passed on the role: he couldn’t play Gaye if it meant playing gay. “They would’ve wanted to do that, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that,” he said. “Because I don’t fake it.”
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“That would f*ck me,” Howard added. “I would cut my lips off. If I kissed some man, I would cut my lips off.”
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Despite how it sounds, Howard defended his comment. “It does not make me homophobic to not want to kiss a man,” he said.
“I can’t play that character 100 percent,” Howard went on. “I can’t surrender myself to a place that I don’t understand.”
Howard may not think his comments are homophobic, but the internet disagrees. Folks across social media noted that his comfort with voicing homophobic ideas, like that kissing a man is grounds for cutting his own lips off, is a concerning indicator for modern America’s constant shift to the right. “Been a minute since Hollywood did this flavor of homophobia in public,” reads one viral post.
Somehow, this isn’t even the first time this month that Howard spouted his regressive views on a podcast. Early in April, Howard appeared on The PBD Podcast, where he explained to right-wing host Patrick Bet-David why he’d never take a gay part.
“When you approach a real man about his masculinity, you’re gonna get a real reaction back,” he said. “I’ve lost business because I don’t bend over in that way. I don’t compromise. I don’t play gay roles. I don’t kiss a man. I don’t do that sh*t. Because a man card means everything.”
Are we seriously concerned about “man cards” in the big year of 2025? Hopefully, Howard is in the minority in Hollywood when it comes to anti-gay attitudes.
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