Terrence Howard talks about watching his father murder a man, curing his own Bell's palsy, how Robert Downey Jr. stole $100m from him, and the new form of math he invented proving 1 x 1 = 2 - in bizarre new interview

• Terrence Howard is opening up about his childhood and career in a bizarre new interview with Rolling Stone
• Howard's earliest memory is of being in the womb, and his mother was driving to abort him when she hit a stoplight which she saw as a sign 
• The Empire star recalls watching his father murder a man when he was two-years-old as they waited to see Santa at a Cleveland department store  
• He also talks about how he cured his Bell's palsy as a teenager by shocking his face with wires he attached to a fuse box 
• Howard spends much of the interview describing Terryology, the new form of math he has created that proves 1 x 1 = 2
• His Hollywood career and its ups and downs are also discussed, including how Taraji P. Henson fought to get him on Empire
• Howard talks about being fired from Iron Man as well, saying Robert Downey Jr. stole $100m in franchise pay from him by not supporting him

By Chris Spargo For Dailymail.com

Published: 19:17 EST, 14 September 2015 | Updated: 23:25 EST, 14 September 2015

Terrence Howard is opening up about his life in a bizarre new interview.

The Empire star talks about everything from the early tragedy he suffered at just two-years-old watching his father murder a man while they waited in line to see Santa at a local department store to the new form of mathematics he has invented that he is certain will finally prove that 1 x 1 = 2 .

He also details how Hollywood turned their back to him after what he claims were false reports of his difficult on-set behavior and how he believes Robert Downey Jr. stole $100million from him with the Iron Man franchise.

Scroll down for video 

Revealing: Terrence Howard (above with friend and Empire costar Taraji P. Henson in June) is opening up about his childhood and career in a bizarre new interview with Rolling Stone

Tragedy: The Empire star recalls watching his father Tyrone murder a man when he was two-years-old as they waited to see Santa at a Cleveland department store (Tyrone being led to jail following his conviction above)

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Howard appears less excited to talk about his new hit show Empire and more excited to detail his days off when he works on his new form of mathematics - Terryology. 

The actor spends up to 17 hours a day when he is not working cutting objects out of plastic and binding them together into shapes held together with cooper wire or magnets to help prove his theory.

There are also crystals on some of the pieces as well as LED lights. 

'Since I was a child of three or four, I was always wondering, you know, why does a bubble take the shape of a ball? Why not a triangle or a square?' he says. 

'I figured it out. If Pythagoras was here to see it, he would lose his mind. Einstein, too! Tesla!'

Howard says he began professing his belief in Terryology while at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where he was studying chemical engineering, and eventually dropped out after a professor refused to agree with him.

'How can it equal one?' he asked the professor of the 1 x 1 equation. 

'If one times one equals one that means that two is of no value because one times itself has no effect. 

'One times one equals two because the square root of four is two, so what's the square root of two? Should be one, but we're told it's two, and that cannot be.'

Howard's work has had some early success in that he has successfully obtained patents for some of the objects he makes to prove Terryology.

'I was not trying to make this when I made it, I was just trying to find the four forces, so I took four planes and put them together where they fit naturally, an equilateral triangle, and it created a circle, a triangle and a square, and from there everything else was created just following my hands leading to a good place,' Howard explains of how he came to make his creations. 

'This is the last century that our children will ever have been taught that one times one is one. They won't have to grow up in ignorance,' Howard adds. 

'Twenty years from now, they'll know that one times one equals two. We're about to show a new truth. The true universal math. 

'And the proof is in these pieces. I have created the pieces that make up the motion of the universe. 

'We work on them about 17 hours a day. She cuts and puts on the crystals. I do the main work of soldering them together. They tell the truth from within.'

Drama: Howard talks about being fired from Iron Man as well, saying Robert Downey Jr. (above with Howard in April 2008) stole $100m in franchise pay from him by not supporting him

Back in the game: Howard's role on Empire (above with costars Bryshere Gray, Trai Byers, Jussie Smollett and Henson) has revitalized his career 

The 'she' Howard speaks of is Mira Pak, a former model and restaurateur who married the actor in 2013 just three weeks after the two met in Los Angeles.

Pak says in the interview that she was out to lunch when Howard approached and told her how beautiful she was - while she was sitting with another man.

'That's very bold of you,' Pak says she told Howard at the time.

Howard replied; 'Well, only a tiger can approach a tiger.'

The relationship is a complicated one however, with it being revealed in August that Pak separated from Howard in mid-2014 and filed for divorce this past March while pregnant with the couple's son.

Qirin Howard was born in May, and in July Pak was granted a divorce.

The interview took place after the divorce but before news of it broke, and Howard refers to Pak as his wife throughout while frequently speaking about the love they share.

He says at one point while looking at Pak; 'When you meet your one, it's completely balanced. I don't have any greater authority than she does. It's the only thing that really works.'

Pak seems a bit more conflicted about her relationship with Howard.

She says the two have 'an amazing connection,' but that his character traits can be difficult to deal with at times.

'He's so selfish. But, you know, he didn't have much of a childhood. It was difficult for him being picked on and bullied all the time, she explains.

'We don't have a normal life. In our two years together, I've only gone to restaurants with him two or three times. We've never been to the supermarket together. We've never been to the movies. 

'I've never gotten a gift from him. Never, never.'

Then there is that other thing that seems to be a big part of life with Howard - Terryology.

'I help him, cutting, drawing and putting things together. I've developed a slight form of agoraphobia lately. I never go out. I have no friends here,' she says of building the plastic creations. 

'I feel like Rapunzel, you know, stuck in a penthouse with my baby.' 

Back together?: Howard and third wife Pak (above at the Empire premiere in NYC last week) still live together and may have reconciled despite divorcing in July

Past wive: Howard was previously married to Lori McCommas from 1989 to 2003 and again from 2005 to 2007 (left) and then Michelle Ghent (right) for just over a year from 2011 to 2012

Pak is Howard's third wife, with the actor having been previously married to Lori McCommas and Michelle Ghent.

Howard and McComas married in 1989, and the couple has three children - daughters Aubrey and Heaven, and son Hunter.

The two divorced in 2003 but remarried again in 2005, a sign perhaps that Howard and Pak could be heading back to the altar in the future.

The pair divorced again in 2007, and soon after it was revealed that Howard had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after a 2001 incident in which he 'punched [McComas] twice with a closed fist' according to the police report.

'She was talking to me real strong, and I lost my mind and slapped her in front of the kids,' Howard says during the interview when asked to explain his version of events. 

'Her lawyer said it was a closed fist, but even slapping her was wrong.'

Howard went on to marry Michelle Ghent in January 2010, but she filed for divorce a little over a year into their union in February 2011 and later took out a restraining order against Howard claiming the actor had been physically abusive.

A judge granted that order after Ghent alleged he had caused her injuries, stalked her and threatened her on multiple occasions.

The two later got back together however - a common occurrence in Howard's relationships it would seem - but things ended again some time in 2013 around the time Ghent claims in a lawsuit she filed just this past July that Howard attacked her.

Ghent alleged in court papers obtained by TMZ at the time that while the two were on vacation in Costa Rica, Howard began strangling her following a argument, and then threatened to kill her before mule kicking her.

Howard addresses this incident as well in the interview, saying; 'She was trying to Mace me, and you can't see anything so all you can do is try to bat somebody away, and I think that something caught her. But I wasn't trying to hit her.'  

The pair's divorce is once again in the spotlight with a judge ruling just last month that Howard's alimony payments to Ghent will now be reduced after it was revealed she had blackmailed the actor.

Howard even plays one of the phone conversations between the two that he had taped during the interview with Rolling Stone, despite saying just moments earlier; 'I don't talk about my ex-wife because I don't talk about negative things.

The 'Blackmail CD' as Howard refers to it lasts 13 minutes and on it Ghent can be heard threatening to sell damning videos of Howard to the tabloids that show him dancing naked and having phone sex.

'You're a fuc*ing sociopath. Everybody should know it. I'm so sick of the sh*t that you've put me through,' Ghent tells Howard at one point.

The tape is the same one that was played for the judge at trial.

'I mean, does that sound like somebody afraid of me?' asks Howard.

Later, after the conversation is over, he leans towards the computer and hisses; 'You fuc*ing bitch. Shut the fu*k up! Shut the fu*k up!' 

Family man: Howard with his son Hunter at the Academy Awards in 2006 (left) and with newborn Qirin in June (right)

Other woman have also accused Howard of assault;  a Continental Airlines flight attendant in 2000 (the charges were eventually dropped),  a Philadelphia woman who said she and her boyfriend were punched by Howard as they were waiting in line a restaurant (Howard claimed it was in self-defense), and former girlfriend May Seng Yang who wrote in a statement to police that Howard choked her and punched her in the eye before throwing her to the ground after she accused him of giving her herpes (Howard filed assault charges against Yang and they both eventually dropped their cases, settling in civil court).

The role Howard's difficult childhood might play in these alleged incidents is hard to tell, especially after witnessing a murder when he was just two-years-old at the hands of his father Tyrone Howard. 

Tyrone, his pregnant wife Anita and their three children were waiting to see Santa Claus at at Higbee's department store in Cleveland when an argument began between Tyrone and another man in line with his family, Jack Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick and others claimed Tyrone had been cutting the line with his family and made a comment to the man.

Accounts vary as to what happened next, but eyewitnesses all said that Fitzpatrick at one point pinned Tyrone to the wall and began kneeing him in the groin.

Tyrone at that point pulled out a nail file and stabbed the man to death, fleeing the scene immediately after and leaving his family behind.

'I was standing next to my father, watching,' Howard recalls. 

'Then stuff happened so quickly — blood was on the coats, on our jackets — and then my dad's on a table and then my dad is gone to prison.' 

Tyrone later turned himself in and was charged with second-degree murder in what became known around the country as The Santa Line Slaying.

The jury ultimately found him guilty of manslaughter following his plea of self-defense and he served 11 months in prison, with his wife divorcing him when he was released and moving with the children to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

Howard split his time between Los Angeles and Cleveland as a child, and says his father later imparted on him the importance of acting like a man. 

He says he was told by Tyronne; 'Never take the vertebrae out of your back or the bass out of your throat. I ain't raisin' sheep. I raised men. Stay a man.' 

It is difficult being a man these days according to Howard, and a struggle to succeed. 

'Being a man comes with a curse because it's not a society made for men to flourish anymore. Everything is androgynous, you know? The more successful men now are the effeminate,' he says. 

Little is said of Anita, who Howard claims was on her way to have him aborted when she learned she was pregnant again at the age of just 15 - until his life was saved by a traffic signal.

'She'd already had my older brother and was headed to the abortion clinic with my uncle, when they stopped at a red light and she was like, "No, this would not be happening if he wasn't meant to be here,'" says Howard. 

The story was likely shared with Howard by a family member even though he also reveals that his memory goes back shockingly far.

'I remember being in the womb, found comfort there, and have been aware since that moment,' says the actor. 

Assaukt: Howard in his mugshot following an August 200 incident with a female flight attendant in Cleveland

Trouble: Howard in his mugshot following his 2001 arrest for domestic assault against first wife McCommas

Another hurdle Howard was forced to face in his younger years was learning in high school that he had developed Bell's palsy.

Howard says that the right side of his face became completely paralyzed and doctors told him there was a 95% chance he would not regain movement.

It was so bad in fact that he was forced to tape his right eye shut at night in order to go to sleep. 

That is when he says he removed the wires from his father's electric razor and attached them to the fuse box in the basement and his face hoping something might happen.

'I did that every day for five months and then I felt the slightest little twitch inside,' says Howard, who eventually had an almost full recovery.

This moment is even more remarkable given how important the movement of Howard's face is for his career, which began with bit parts in the 90s before he exploded onto the scene in 1999 with his performance in The Best Man.

It was his back-to-back performances in the critically acclaimed films Crash and Hustle & Flow however that suddenly landed Howard on the Hollywood A-list, especially the latter for which he received an Oscar nomination.  

Soon after he was cast in Iron Man, a role for which he received a salary of $3.5million - more than even the film's star Robert Downey Jr.

He claims that the studio did not want to cast Downey in the interview and that he fought for the actor, saying he would take $1million off of his own fee after producers grew concerned given Downey's past struggle with drugs.

'Robert was so thankful and dadadadada,' says Howard of his costar's reaction.

When it was time to make Iron Man 2 however, Howard says producers at Marvel - who claim Howard had nothing to do with the casting of Downey - called and told him that his role and salary were both being reduced.

Howard was reportedly set to receive $5million for his work on the second picture. 

His agent responded by telling the studio 'fu*k you' according to Howard, and the next day Don Cheadle was cast to replace him in the franchise.

'And so I called Robby and was like, "Look, man . . ." Leaving messages with his assistants, called him at least 17 times that day and 21 the next and finally left a message saying, "Look, man, I need the help that I gave you,"' says Howard. 

'Never heard from him. And guess who got the millions I was supposed to get? He got the whole franchise, so I've actually given him $100 million, which ends up being a $100 million loss for me from me trying to look after somebody, but, you know, to this day I would do the same thing. It's just my nature.' 

Old friends: Howard and Henson first became close working on the 2005 film Hustle & Flow (above)

Back at it: Henson says that she tole the producers of Empire she was only interested in taking the role of Cookie if they cast Howard 

Work was hard to come by after that for Howard, who saw his salary decrease drastically over the following years until he landed Empire.

The role of Lucious Lyon has put Howard back in the spotlight in a big way, with the breakout Fox hit the becoming not only the most watched show of the past television season but one of the biggest ratings hits in the past 10 years.

And much like he says he went to bat for Downey, he owes his most recent success to a costar - Taraji P. Henson. 

The producers and creator Lee Daniels wanted Wesley Snipes for the role, but Henson - the first choice for the role of Lucious' ex-wife Cookie - said she would only take the role if her old friend was cast opposite her.

'They came to me, and I said, "The only person I'll do it with is Terrence,"' says Henson. 

'Cookie and Lucious sometimes hate and love each other in the same scene. There's an unspoken connection that you can't fake. My boy Terrence and I have that. So I said to Lee, 'If you can make it happen with Terrence, call me back."'

Howard joined the cast soon after, and is enjoying his new role as the sometimes supportive and sometimes villainous music executive, who at the end of this past season was sent off to jail for murder.

He says that public opinion of him is one of the reasons he took the role.

'Since they see me as a bad guy, I'm gonna play a bad guy,' says Howard. 

He also claims this role may mark the end of his career as an actor.

'I'm just trying to pay my bills,' he says of his new job. 

'I'm looking forward to this show running its course. If I make a decent amount of money from it, I'll retire.' 

That might take a while however, as until this point Howard's paychecks have been held by the studio for ex-wife Ghent's alimony payments.

That will likely change given the judge's ruling in Howard's favor last month when he contested the amount he was paying, and in the meantime he says Pak has been supporting him and paying the rent on their apartment in Chicago while he films Empire.

It is an interesting arrangement for a recently divorced couple though the two do share a new child - and Terryology. 

Comments (398)

Share what you think

• Newest
• Oldest
• Best rated
• Worst rated

 View all

The comments below have not been moderated.

 View all

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Add your comment

Enter your comment

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Submit Comment Clear

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now