Demonising Terrence Howard because of his domestic abuse record is racist. So says Empire creator Lee Daniels.
Daniels rushed to the defence of his star actor, saying that Howard “ain't done nothing different than Marlon Brando or Sean Penn, and all of a sudden he's some f***in' demon”. Howard plays Lucious Lyon in Empire.
And Daniels thinks the harsh treatment Howard is getting from the media is down to the fact that he is African-American.
“That's a sign of the time, of race, of where we are right now in America,” he said.
Howard himself has previously said that he took on the Empire role as public sentiment started to turn against him.
“Since they see me as a bad guy, I'm gonna play a bad guy,” he defiantly told Rolling Stone magazine.
But Howard’s conduct towards women means his “bad guy” image goes beyond a mere perception.
He admitted to hitting his first wife Lori McCommas in front of their children, claiming she provoked him.
“She was talking to me real strong, and I lost my mind and slapped her in front of the kids,” he admitted.
“Her lawyer said it was a closed fist, but even slapping her was wrong.”
Howard’s relationship with McCommas was tumultuous to say the least. He married her in 1989, got divorced in 2003, remarried her in 2005 and divorced again in 2007.
Howard’s second wife, Michelle Ghent won a restraining order against him, claiming that he had been abusive.
After they rekindled their relationship in 2013, Ghent claimed he had hit and tried to strangle her during a holiday in Costa Rica.
Howard maintained it was all an accident.
“She was trying to Mace me,” he told Rolling Stone.
“You can't see anything so all you can do is try to bat somebody away, and I think that something caught her. But I wasn't trying to hit her.”
A former girlfriend claimed that, in 2012, Howard had punched her and thrown her to the ground after she accused him of giving her herpes. May Seng Yang eventually settled with Howard out of court.
In 2005, Howard pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after attacking a man and a woman in a restaurant. Howard was accused of starting the confrontation by cutting into a queue, but the star maintained that he had acted in self-defence.
The case has disturbing echoes of an incident that occured when Howard was a two-year-old boy.
In 1971, the young Howard was waiting in line at a department store with his father, pregnant mother and siblings, to see Santa.
In an incident that came to be known as “The Santa Line Slaying”, another man picked a fight with Howard’s father, accusing him of jumping the queue. A scuffle ensued and Howard’s father stabbed the man to death with a nail file.
“I was standing next to my father, watching,” said Howard.
“Then stuff happened so quickly – blood was on the coats, on our jackets – and then my dad's on a table and then my dad is gone to prison.”
Tyrone Howard pleaded self-defence and served 11 months in prison on manslaughter charges.
Entertainment Reporter