Terrence Howard says he’s ready to hang up his hat…for real this time.
The Oscar-nominated actor announced his decision during a red carpet event for The Best Man: The Final Chapters, an upcoming Hulu series in which he reprises his role as Quentin Spivey. Howard told Entertainment Tonight that the show will serve as his swan song, as he plans to formally retire.
“This is the end for me. I don’t know if it’s the end for the rest of them,” he said. “I retired two years ago, for the most part. I was done. … I asked Sidney Poitier 10 years ago, does he want to do any more work, and he said, ‘Why would I spend my last 10 years doing an impersonation of myself?’ And that’s what I’ve gotten to.”
Howard made similar comments back in 2019, claiming he would step away from acting after the conclusion of Fox’s hit series Empire. However, the 53-year-old has appeared in multiple projects, including the 2021 drama Triumph, 2022’s The Walk, and the aforementioned The Best Man series, which premieres Dec. 22 on Peacock.
“I’ve gotten to the point where now I’ve given the very best that I have as an actor,” Howard continued, before praising the younger generation of talent. “Now I’m enjoying watching other new talent come around, and I don’t want to do an impersonation of myself. … Yes, there’s some better actors out there that can do things that I was never able to do. So I want to applaud them, I want to be excited about what they do.”
Howard began his acting career in the early 1990s, landing small-screen roles in All My Children and The Jacksons: An American Dream miniseries. The Chicago native would go on to appear in critically acclaimed films like Dead Presidents, Crash, Iron Man, and Hustle & Flow. The latter of which earned him a Best Actor nomination at the 78th annual Academy Awards.