*Terrence Howard donned a bizarre wig during a recent interview on the podcast Straight Talk with Daphne Phaneē to discuss his ongoing lawsuit against the Hollywood agency CAA.
The actor is pursuing legal action because he was not adequately paid for his work on all six seasons of the Fox drama “Empire.”
“This is a man who was the lead actor to, once again, one of the most successful television shows in network history where Fox was making over $125 million a year in just ad revenue alone. This man was being underpaid time and time again,” Howard’s attorney, James Bryant, with the Cochran Law Firm, said previously.
We reported earlier that Howard’s attorneys claim CAA convinced the performer that his salary was fair for his acting work on the show. Howard alleges his “white counterparts” from the network were paid more than him. In December, he announced he was suing the agency over his salary.
Howard appeared on the Straight Talk podcast to discuss the lawsuit while in costume for the new limited series “Fight Night.”
“I had an issue at Fox and Disney because…the image that you see of us on Empire, profile, that came from a still shot from Hustle & Flow,” Howard said during the interview, Complex reports. “They took that, flipped that, and put it on everything. They took the trademark of it, sold it around the world, didn’t ask my permission…That image is worth $100 million at least for how much money that they made from it.”
Howard believes he deserved a comparable amount per episode of “Empire” as the cast of “The Big Bang Theory.”
“CAA, they represented me. They also represented some of the people from Big Bang Theory. They also did the deal with Fox,” he continued. “My show was with Fox, the people from Big Bang was with Fox. We had 28 million viewers. They had 11 million viewers. They were getting $2 million, damn near $3 million an episode. Those white kids, they had no name recognition, no Oscar nominations, none of that.”
Howard said he earned $325,000 an episode of “Empire.”
“Every year I’m asking my agents what’s going on… I didn’t know [about the] packaging deal, my agents were incentivized to keep my pay low so… They owe me over $120 million based on what would have been paid to white counterparts.”
CAA allegedly responded by sending him a check for $666.
“So I was like, ‘Oh, y’all trying to threaten me.’ This is a threat,” he said. “Y’all think I’m scared? Y’all think I’m going to be quiet about this? Because I wonder what you’re doing to every other Black artist.”
Watch Terrence Howard’s podcast interview via the YouTube clip above.
READ MORE: Terrence Howard Sues CAA for Fraud Over ‘Empire’ Role | WATCH
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