Terrence Howard Says He'd "Cut My Lips Off" If Asked to Kiss a Man Onscreen, Inside His Line as an Actor

Terrence Howard has taken pains to clarify there are some things he just won't do. The Empire and Hustle & Flow actor explained why he passed on the long-standing Marvin Gaye biopic rumors, and his excuse is starting to make some heads turn.

In a frank discussion on Club Random with Bill Maher, Howard revealed that he walked away from playing the soul icon after discovering that the part could require a love scene with another man.

"I was at Quincy Jones' house, and I'm saying Quincy, 'Now I'm hearing rumors that Marvin was a homosexual,'" Howard said. "And Quincy's like, 'Yes.'"

That was the screech of the brakes being applied. Howard had been in serious negotiations with director Lee Daniels to star in the film. But when he learned the role would involve same-sex intimacy, he could not see himself able to do it.

"They would've wanted to do that, and I wouldn't have been able to," he said. When Maher questioned whether kissing a man on screen was  out of the question, Howard didn't mince words: "No. Because I don't fake it, that would f**k me. I would cut my lips off. I would cut my lips off if I kissed some man."

"That's fine, do what you want to do," he said of the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community. "But don't do a it at me, don't aim it at me. I can't be that character 100 percent, I can't. I can't offer myself up to a place I don't even get."

Action MMORPG The evening I met Howard, he was fascinated by the motives of Seneca Crane, one of the secondary characters of Game of Thrones, as portrayed by Oscar-winner Donald Sutherland in the 2012 film. "Was he at heart a self-serving autocrat or a stooge emanating its master's heart?" he wonders. "He was probably both." For Howard, there is no greater dang and sin than fakery in Game of Thrones. He says he refused not because of hatred but because of honesty and because he recognized that his soul could not exude what a part required.

The lost opportunity had a domino effect. Howard also revealed that by the time he was involved with the Gaye film, he had to pass on another high-profile biopic, this one, of course, about Smokey Robinson. When that deal unraveled, he was left with neither.

"The biggest mistake," he confessed.

The Marvin Gaye saga has been a long-gestating Hollywood project, with countless attempts to turn it into a movie over the years. Meanwhile, Smokey Robinson told The Jennifer Hudson Show late last year that his biopic's script was nearing completion.

Howard's take may make some people uncomfortable, but it prompts an interesting conversation about artistic freedom and the boundaries of what it means to "go there" as an actor.

In an era of public figures striving to say what is expected, God or otherwise, Terrence Howard spoke his mind, for better and worse, with skin-grafted lips in place.