‘Empire’ star Terrence Howard thanks Fox network for not paying attention to past abuse allegations. Read more on the story below!
Terrence Howard, 44, was asked by TV writers if the many alleged incidents from his past had come up, when he was asked to sign off on the role for music mogul Lucious Lyon in the Fox TV drama ‘Empire.’ Howard responded back by saying, ‘no…and I’m so thankful to Fox for not paying attention to those issues. I’ve grown so much from anything that happened in the past. I’m married with a brand new wife and a brand new baby.’ According to the network’s top entertainment executives, they didn’t even know about the abuse allegations against Howard. Howard was accused of six violence cases or allegations between 2000 and 2013. Two of the incidents involved his ex-wife Michelle Ghent according to a 2013 Gawker report. In 2001, Howard was guilty once to disorderly conduct. He said that he had anger issues and they came from having a very hard upbringing and “not knowing how to deal with frustration.” The abuse allegations have not led to any criminal convictions.
“The only ones who can make a judgment are a judge in the courtroom or God…so you have to go by what a judge is saying…Jesus was nailed to the cross for being a blasphemer, and that was not true,” he said. Howard appeared in his breakthrough film “Mr. Holland’s Opus” in 1995 and he won many award nominations for “Crash” in 2004 and he was nominated for an Oscar for the 2005 movie “Hustle & Flow.” One of the reasons he signed up for the role in “Empire,” his first TV series, was so that he could keep working with the show’s creator/writer Lee Daniels, who he worked with in his role for the 2013 movie “The Butler.” Howard defended Daniels by saying, “He’s been taking bullets for all of us.” Fox CEOs and Entertainment Chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman were asked if they had concerns about signing Howard. Walden said, “The network executives who interacted with him had nothing but a great experience…so, no, it just didn’t come into the conversation.” Fox had no concerns because the show was well under way before they heard of the allegations. Howard will also appear in the Fox drama “Wayward Pines” in the summer.
