Howard on past violence allegations: 'I've grown so much'
"Empire" star responds to allegations of past violence during news conference for his new show, hours after the network's entertainment chief said she'd only learned of them last month.
The top brass at Fox may not have seemed as prepared as I'd expected for my question Saturday about the problematic past of Terrence Howard, the star of their new hit "Empire," but by the time the actor himself met with reporters late in the day, he appeared more than ready.
So when another reporter offered him the opportunity to respond to issues of what he referred to as Howard's "legal background," the actor quipped, "You mean me as a lawyer?"
He then got more serious.
"What's wonderful about life — there's this book by Eckhart Tolle called 'The Power of Now,' and it explains all of these solutions to a lot of life's bigger problems. I mean, a lot of the things that I got involved with in my younger days, in my earlier days, was a product of my environment, the problem of not knowing how to deal with frustration, the problem of not knowing who Terrence Howard is.
"You know, now I'm married with a new wife, with a brand-new baby. I've grown so much from anything that's happened in the past. And this present moment, to have a show that's being held as a beautiful, breakthrough piece, having a wonderful opportunity to have this cast, I don't think they took any of that stuff [from his past] into consideration," said Howard, who's won good reviews as music mogul Lucious Lyon, a homophobic father of three with a violent streak and a secret illness.
Lee Daniels, the show's co-creator, then said of Howard, "He has been front and center, taking bullets for all of us. I'm so proud to be working with him."
Another reporter then asked Howard what he would say to critics who think that celebrities, including Bill Cosby and Woody Allen, have sometimes gotten a pass when it comes to allegations against them, and he cited reports of Howard's multiple arrests and allegations of violence against women.
"The only person who can really make the judgment is the judge in court or God at the end of the day," Howard replied
. "You leave it to them. And so once you look at what the judges have said, there's been no criminal charges ever filed against that person or anything like that, so you have to go by what the judge is saying," he said.
"But you got to give people a chance to grow from anything that happens. Because remember, Jesus was nailed to the stake on allegations of him being a blasphemer. I don't think that was always true. So we've learned from that lesson."