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Howard's Hustle: A_P: Were you first drawn to acting in high school? TH: No, I didn't do nothing in high school. I crashed an audition in New York. I went and I said I'm going to be an actor, and I moved to New York. I was pretty good at talking you know. I conned my way into college. I had a 1.6 grade point average, and I went to the admissions office at Pratt Institute and I told them that my transcripts were coming from LA right now and can we get the process going, how can I get extra funding? So they sent me to the HEOP office and when the office asked me where's my transcripts, I said the admissions office had them but, 'Can we get it going? What else do I need to do?' They told me I could go down and get on welfare and I can get a supplemental student loan. I started crashing auditions, made a lying resume. Said I had 20 jobs, I was a member of SAG, EXTRA, AFTER, whatever. And I started crashing auditions. A_P: What was your first break there? TH: I crashed an audition for The Cosby Show. A_P: And you got hired immediately? TH: Six months later. A_P: How much did you make for that "Cosby" episode? TH: Nineteen hundred dollars for one week. A_P: Was it that one episode that started your career? TH: No, I got into an argument with Bill Cosby. And so the casting director wasn't kind with me anymore so I had to start the whole process over again. A_P: What did you get into an argument with Bill Cosby about? TH: I thought he was responsible for them cutting down my part in the show and I didn't realize it wasn't him. A_P: You used a friend of your uncle's for inspiration in your characterization of Djay.. TH: My uncle had a friend named Tweety Bird, that he loved a lot, that was a pimp. I loved Tweety Bird and I wanted to portray Tweety Bird and give him an opportunity because Tweety Bird died 10 years ago. Tweety Bird would come by and give me 20 dollars when I didn't have any money in the house. Tweety Bird would take me around, and when it was too cold he would let me come stay at his house. You know, and I'm watching him with the women going around and watching this world. So DJay was an opportunity for me to give Tweety Bird a thank you. Because Tweety Bird was kind to me. I'd be sitting up crying, and Tweety Bird would be like, 'Stop crying like a little bitch; you gotta be a man.' So that became where that came from. A_P: Have you done any other movies since shooting Crash? TH: I did Crash, then Lackawanna Blues, then Their Eyes Were Watching God. And then I did Four Brothers (directed by John Singleton), My Life in Idlewilde, Get Rich Or Die Tryin (directed by Jim Sheridan). A_P: What are you looking for in your next role? TH: For the next three roles I need to be supporting because there's so much work involved in preparing for a starring role. I need that amount of time now. The next starring role can't be somebody as emotionally decapitated as my character was in Hustle & Flow. I need now to be on the other side so I can invite my family in. So I've got to seek that out. A_P: What do you think when people call you the next Denzel and maybe an Oscar nomination? TH: I'm appreciative. I love what Denzel has done, but there's only one D in my name and that's in my middle name. My name's Terrence and I kind of don't want to fill Denzel's shoes. I just want to do what Terrence is supposed to be doing. A_P: What do you hope your performance as Djay accomplishes? TH: That maybe I'll give some hope to the rest of the world, that people may see this 20 years from now, the way I watched Rocky, and say, “Oh my God, I can get up and do it.” The way I watched Midnight Cowboy and said, “Somebody that means nothing can become something.”
New
York-based film critic Cole Smithey has reviewed over one thousand films
and interviewed such important directors as John Singleton, Paul Schrader
and Steven Spielberg, and such notable actors as Robert Downey Jr., Adrien
Brody, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. |
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