Iron Man's Terrence Howard Sees Through Your Lies
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ENTERTAINMENT
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The Oscar–nominated actor on government conspiracies and why Jon Favreau owes him a suit of armor in Iron Man 2.
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 In Iron Man, you play James Rhodes [Iron Man's closest friend, and later, a costumed hero himself]. Were you familiar with the background of the comic before you were cast?
My father read it a lot. I looked at it as a kid—stolen issues when I was a kid. I took things from my father's private drawers that I wasn't supposed to read.
Wait…your dad had Iron Man comics in his private stash?
I also bumped into a couple of Hustler magazines. But I didn't really have an understanding of what it meant to be James Rhodes until I spent some time with the United States Air Force.
What did that teach you?
These people have dedicated themselves to service to the country. That's not my nature. So to get out of the "I" mentality, and to step into the "we" mentality was a great deal of work. Rhodey's arc is not about "I want to put on a suit and fight bad guys"—I want to put on the suit to fight the hypocrisy we have created.
 So do you consider yourself a lover or a fighter?
I fight for mine. I've never been one to fight for somebody else. I've never called the police in my life, and never will. Somebody asked me before if I felt I would have made a better Iron Man—I wasn't made for Iron Man. I don't know about being a child of privilege. Robert's [Downey Jr.] been a little closer to it. Rhodey has been a fighter from the very start, so that more so fits my nature. My hands are twisted metacarpals from swinging on people my whole life. I don't love to fight, I love to love. But most of me is a fighter.
The characters of James Rhodes and Tony Stark [Iron Man's alter ego] came out of Vietnam, but do you think they make more sense now?
Oh, definitely. The people in Afghanistan, a lot of the weapons that they gained were from the United States to fight the Communists. Now those same weapons are being used to fight the United States. I don't even know who's in charge—who's on first and what's on second. All I can do is speculate from what's happened in the past, that it's going to happen again. Iran in the late '40s and early '50s had a democratic president removed from office so that they could put a shah in place who would give away 80 to 90 percent of the country's resources to the United States and Britain, and keep 10 percent for himself and the people would suffer. That happened again in Iraq—we pulled a dictator out of power so we could split up his country's resources, essentially. And everything seems to repeat itself. So I think we are… What was the question? [Laughs.]
Whether or not the Iron Man story is more relevant now than it was during Vietnam.
Oh, yeah. [Laughs.] A child can see the relevance.
Do you feel like, "OK, I've done my comic book movie now?"
No, no... I've begun to be a part of something that can make a huge political contribution. A whole social statement that isn't necessarily set up to disrupt the status quo, but to raise awareness that we need some accountability in what we do. [Iron Man's] not just fighting because he had nothing to do; he's trying to rectify what he did wrong. He's not blowing up somebody else's weapons, he's blowing up the weapons that he created. That I wanted to be a part of.
 Themes are one thing, but this also has an unusual cast for a comic book movie: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges… Is that why you signed up?
Not everyone was involved at first. They had started talking to me, but once I heard Robert was involved I was like, "OK, let's start the negotiation. Oh, Jon [Favreau's] directing? OK, let's get this really moving. Gwyneth is coming in? C'mon, will you sign my damn contract already?" Then Jeff Bridges is on board. I'm like, "This is the strangest assortment of actors for essentially an adolescent film." But we see the relevance. And I've heard it said that this may be the best movie that Marvel has produced so far. I'm going to see it again. When I first saw it all that I recognized was the fact that I had been reduced to a sidekick.
So there was a lot more of your character originally?
It kicked my ass. But Jon called me and told me, "Look, everyone took a hit in this movie, but you took the biggest hit. But it was necessary. But it will pay off in the future. Stay with us."
Comics fans know that Rhodes eventually gets his own Iron Man armor called War Machine. Do you have in writing in your sequel contract "I Get My Own Armor?"
No…the audience's response to me saying [in the film], "Next time, baby," that in itself tells that story.
 People assume you want to jump into War Machine in the next movie—but is that true? Is it boring to let the CGI take over?
No. We don't dance to the storyboards. It's a Marvel world, but the actors have a great deal of say in what's going to happen. We bring our sensibilities and try to be true to the comic. I'm absorbing everything I can about the characters. I want to know more about Iron Man than Stan Lee does. I'm going to become a professional comic book reader.
Speaking of which, comic book fans are pretty notorious for being in a constant state of whiny disapproval. Have you been accused of bastardizing anyone's childhood yet?
I saw something that happened when I was shooting Awake. A fan saw Hayden Christensen and screamed out, "You ruined Star Wars!" [Laughs.] I was like, "Wow!" I'm hoping no one says, "You ruined Iron Man!" But I don't think so, because Robert set the bar pretty high. And I'm a pretty competitive son of a bitch. So when you put me in that suit, I've got to outdo what Robert did. He's my boy, but I've got to outdo what he did. And that's going to make for a beautiful collaboration.
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