Terrence Howard received numerous industry award nominations for his role in Hustle & Flow, including an Academy Award nod for Best Actor. Apparently, Howard did not make a lot of money from working on the film.
Last week, Terrence Howard joined WREG’s Alex Coleman on Live at 9 to discuss his career in the entertainment business. The interview included Howard reflecting on starring in Hustle & Flow which hit theaters in 2005.
“I made $12,000 for doing Hustle & Flow,” Howard recalled. “What Paramount did, instead of putting my name as ‘Terrence Howard’ performing the songs, they put ‘performed by Djay.’ Well, they owned Djay. So the performance royalties went to Paramount.”
The 54-year-old Cleveland native also added, “So now, I got to sue Paramount or send them a letter. I’ve got to send them a letter to say, ‘Hey, you guys owe me about 20 years worth of residuals and performance royalties.’”
Terrence Howard played a pimp/rapper named DJay in the Craig Brewer-directed motion picture. The movie’s official soundtrack credits the character of Djay as performing tracks like “Whoop That Trick” and “Hustle & Flow (It Ain’t Over).”
In addition to Howard earning an Oscar nomination for his acting performance, members of Three 6 Mafia won a Best Original Song Acadamy Award for writing “It’s Hard out Here for a Pimp.” Terrence Howard and co-star Taraji P. Henson (Shug) provided vocals for the track.
Hustle & Flow made over $23 million at the global box office. The movie had a reported budget of $2.8 million. Terrence Howard also scored acting nominations from the Black Reel Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards, Golden Globe Awards, NAACP Image Awards and other organizations.
