Terrence Howard has shared that he believes threatening Joel Silver on a previous film project caused him to be booted from the Iron Man franchise.
On the Thursday (March 5) episode of PBD Podcast, the Empire actor recalled a tense conversation he had with the producer during the promotional tour for his 2007 film, The Brave One, which starred Howard, Jodie Foster, a young Zoë Kravitz and more.
While promoting the psychological thriller at Venice Film Festival at the time of its release, a reporter asked Howard why his name on the film’s poster wasn’t placed next to Foster’s, which prompted him to have a heated conversation with Silver.
"So, I started making calls as if that was my right, and it wasn't. And then Joel Silver came and and had a conversation with me. He's like, 'The reason your name isn't above the titles is because you're not the star of this thing. It's Jodie,'" Howard recalled Silver saying (around the 1:21:00 mark in the clip below).
"'And if you win, if you get nominated for an Oscar, it's going to be for supporting actor. It's not going to be for best actor.'" And I was like, 'Okay, thank you for telling me that. Now I understand. But you have to remember I'm a man just like you. And if you ever talk to me in that way again, I'mma knock your teeth out your mouth.'"
Howard then pointed out that Silver’s production partner on The Brave One was Susan Downey, who was an executive producer on 2010’s Iron Man 2.
"Then maybe eight months later, I lose Iron Man," he said. “And I’m sure that all of those things played their part."
Howard starred as James Rhodes in the first Iron Man but was later replaced by Don Cheadle in the MCU franchise. Howard’s departure from Iron Man was previously believed to be because of a pay dispute.
Elsewhere during his PBD Podcast interview, Howard shared that two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington once advised him to stop "blowing" his acting opportunities.
"I had a meeting with Denzel once, and he told me, 'Look at your hands, man. You're always like this. Your fist all baldled up,'" Howard recalled. "He told me, 'And all these producers want to do is they try to open your hand and so they can put money in it, but you won't do it. You keep your hands all tight like this and you're blowing it.'"