Actor Terrence Howard said he rejected a role in a Marvin Gaye biopic because Marvin was a bisexual, and Terrence didn’t want to kiss a man.
The “Empire” veteran opened up to Club Random host Bill Maher about the “biggest mistake” he ever made in his career. Howard said Motown legend Smokey Robinson invited him to dinner years ago because “he wanted me to play his life” in a movie.
Howard said he regrets turning Robinson down, because he was already in “conversation with Lee Daniels about playing Marvin Gaye” in a biopic.
Bill Maher agreed, telling Howard, “You would’ve been perfect as Marvin Gaye, and that is a story that needs to be told.”
However, Howard turned down the role after he learned that Marvin lived a same-sex lifestyle.
“I was over at Quincy Jones’ house and I’m asking Quincy, ‘I’m hearing rumors that Marvin was gay’ and I’m like, ‘Was he gay?,'” Howard recalled. “And Quincy’s like, ‘Yes.'”
Howard said the turning point came when he learned he might have to kiss a man in the biopic.
“They would’ve wanted to do that, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that,” he said.
“You mean you couldn’t kiss a guy on screen in a movie?” Maher asked, to which Howard replied, “No. Because I don’t fake it.”
“I couldn’t kiss a man either,” Maher agreed.
Howard continued: “That would f— me. I would cut my lips off. If I kissed some man, I would cut my lips off.”
Maher quickly clarified that he understands Howard’s hesitancy. He added, “It does not make me homophobic to not want to kiss a man.”
“I can’t play that character 100 percent,” Howard added. “I can’t surrender myself to a place that I don’t understand.”
Howard’s statements drew angry comments on social media.
One person wrote: “He really isn’t in a position to turn down many roles. His career seems to have gone AWOL.”
Another person wrote: “This should make the actresses who’ve kissed him while acting very uncomfortable.”
A third person commented: “What a sad loser, imagine being so insecure that you couldn’t even do your job because of your intensely fragile masculinity.”
Marvin Gaye was actually bisexual. He was married twice to Anna Gordy for 10 years and Janis Hunter for 5 years. He was the father of three children: Marvin III (by adoption); daughter Nona and son Frankie with Janis. Marvin III was the biological son of Anna’s niece, Denise Gordy, who was 16 at the time she gave birth.
Gaye died tragically when his father shot him during a dispute in 1984. He was 44.
In a 2018 interview with Vulture magazine, music legend Quincy Jones said Gaye was one of many celebrities who slept with movie icon Marvin Brando.
“Brando used to go cha-cha dancing with us. He could dance his ass off. He was the most charming motherf—er you ever met,” Jones said. “He’d f— anything. Anything! He’d f— a mailbox. James Baldwin. Richard Pryor. Marvin Gaye.”
