Terrence “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” Howard Says He’s Retiring From Acting —Again!

TheRoot.com, By Candace McDuffie, Posted December 19th 2022

Terrance Howard, the Hollywood legend, also “retired” two years ago. Is this time for real?

In a recent interview, beloved actor Terrence Howard claimed that he was done with Hollywood.The man who starred in iconic films like Hustle & Flow and The Best Man—which is now evolved into a Peacock series called “The Best Man: The Final Chapters”—says his time as an actor is up.

“This is the end for me. This is the end for me. I don’t know if it’s the end for the rest of them,” Howard told Entertainment Tonightat “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” premiere. “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. I’ve gotten to the point where now I’ve given the very best that I have as an actor. Now I’m enjoying watching other new talent come around, and I don’t want to do an impersonation of myself.”

Two years ago, Howard expressed a similar sentiment to ET on the red carpet at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards. “I’ve been playing pretend for forever. [There’s] no need to play pretend anymore,” he stated. The “Empire” star also quipped that he needed to exit in order to “to get to what I’m supposed to be. You know? It’s a good thing. I’ve done my time.”

It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for Howard and his esteemed career. However, he remains adamant that he will sit on the sidelines as he applauds his fellow actors he helped paved the way for.

“Yes, there’s some better actors out there that can do things that I was never able to do,” he remarked. “So, I want to applaud them, I want to be excited about what they do.”