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Terrence Howard came to the set of Iron Man on his day off just to talk to visiting press. He was having so much fun, he couldn't keep it all to himself. We didn't get to see him in full military costume, but all his descriptions of military training and operations showed he knew his stuff.

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Crave Online: What's the coolest thing you get to do in this movie?

Terrence Howard: One day when we were up in Lone Pine, the freeway, I don't remember, the 14 freeway was blocked because there's all this wind coming down. So they blocked it off. I've got to be on set. Set is about 20 miles away. I know we've got the Department of Defense working with us. There's an Air Force base nearby. So I'm like, "I'm not going to make it to work for the next two hours." And I called them, and I was like calling the Air Force and tell them to send a helicopter for me. They sent it. I got to arrive on set with this huge [helicopter]. Wwe landed on top of a sand dune. That was the coolest thing.

Crave Online: When you stepped out, did you have sunglasses and looking cool?

Terrence Howard: I had the whole thing. I had the whole thing. They saluted as they flew off.

Crave Online: Have you done any big action stunt fights so far?

Terrence Howard: We did a few things, but a lot of it I can't say about.

Crave Online: How about the M50?

Terrence Howard: Oh, that was great. I got to shoot that M50, man. I had some fun with the Air Force. The Air Force took me out on some of their real training stuff and let me play.

Crave Online: What's your character arc in the first movie?

Terrence Howard: See, I think it's pretty much a three picture arc, so we're right in the very beginning of that, of him having to consider perhaps there is a different way. Even though my character starts off in complete disgust of how Tony lives his life, then he realizes perhaps there is a different way to live one's life. So that's where we are now. We are in the debates of who's way of life is the right way. Is it the military and the strict disciplinarian way? Or is it being an independent acting and behaving individual. That's where it's at.

Crave Online: What attracted you to this role?

Terrence Howard: War Machine, the whole idea of being able to play a superhero so to speak. Being able to go up in jets, because the Department of Defense took me up in a T38 and a F16. All those ideas, that was it for me.

Crave Online: Were you a fan of the comic book?

Terrence Howard: It was funny. I called my father and I asked him, because he used to be a big Iron Man fanatic and he loved the War Machine aspect of it. I asked him. I said, "When you were reading it, when you were younger, did you have any idea that inside your loins would be the one putting that on?"

Crave Online: Have you been able to get your dad out here?

Terrence Howard: No, I just got my mom out here. My dad, he wanted me to buy him a boat so I told him to go build my house. Finish my house, he'll get his boat, then he can come out here.

Crave Online: How'd your mom like it?

Terrence Howard: She loved it because she always thought Robert Downey Jr. reminded her of my brother. She went up to him and hugged him like he was her son.

Crave Online: How early on were you attached to the film?

Terrence Howard: About a year before they got it started. I got a great manager, Victoria Fredericks who was all over this a long time before. Me and Avi Arad had spoken at Mike Medavoy's party, one of the parties he throws. He smiled at me like we were going to work together. Then about six months later, it all happened. I was taken by surprise by it. I'm still in shock by it.

Crave Online: Did you tell your manager to look out for Iron Man?

Terrence Howard: No, she was like, "I've got something I'm working on." So for like a year and a half, she had been pursuing it because she knew that they planned on doing it. So I was lucky.

Crave Online: Had you worked with Downey before? How close are you now?

Terrence Howard: No. I love him. I love him. My first film I ever saw him in was Weird Science, which I watched 400,000 times. So when I saw him, that's all I wanted to talk to him about. I mean, he had heard all those questions before but to find that he was a fan of mine and I told him that the reason that I really wanted to do this movie, especially once I found he was doing it, was I wanted to work with him because I wanted to learn from him. I mean, he's brilliant. Every day he rewrites his script. Every single day. We've got great writers but every day he will sit there and spend the first hour and a half making it perfect, making it better. He has this light, jovial nature about him that floats everywhere and floats everywhere. Therefore when he focuses in on something, it's powerful. It's magical. He's really probably one of the best actors I've ever worked with in my life. I look forward to learning a little more from him as we [go along].

Crave Online: So what have you learned from him?

Terrence Howard: Nothing looks so unnatural as an attempt to look natural. You start off, when you're on the outskirts of the business and way over there, you're able to do whatever you want to do because nobody's really checking on you. But to get welcomed inside and then everyone expects so much from you, like for me personally, the last film I did I was so busy trying to be the good actor and not ruffle anything, that I don't think I did the service that I was supposed to do to it because as an artist, you're not supposed to fit. An artist is supposed to stand apart and have a different point of view. What I've noticed about Robert, Robert is just himself. He has no other point of view except his own. He believes in it whole heartedly and you've got to win him over with convincing argument. To have that type of backbone in a business where they remove your backbone slowly and surely, after he's been through so much, I love him for that. That's what I'm learning from him.

Crave Online: What's your take on improvising versus scripted atmosphere?

Terrence Howard: Well, you've got to think, Jon Favreau as an actor, he's an improvisational actor. So he brings those sensibilities to his directorial work. He trusts what the actors are going to, what they're going to do. There's one particular scene that just blows my mind in this movie where we were having a press conference and Robert just decided to tell the entire press to sit down on the floor. 400 people. After we had already lit it to shoot it with them standing. It was brilliant. Jon went with it. We relit and it just took the scene to a whole nother place. I didn't know that Jeff didn't like improvisation because Jeff is freakin' brilliant.

Crave Online: It sounds like you're improvising the whole movie.

Terrence Howard: No, what we'll do is we'll start off in the morning and talk through what's there. And we look around the room and say, "Who believes it?" And if we don't believe it, then we'll start having the conversation, "What would you say?" Sitting there and we have that conversation of what we would say and they have a little Dictaphone like this sitting around, another one that's like this. We're all listening too. The next thing you'll know, they'll come back an hour later and have written out everything that we were able to put into it. So it starts off with the structure, but then we let the plant grow and then we trim it down and it's perfect. It ends up being absolutely perfect. But Robert is the king of improvisation because every single take, he will adjust a word or a phrase that just gets a little more closer to home. His light just gets brighter and brighter and brighter. I mean, everyone is sitting there watching him like he is a mad genius.

Crave Online: What kind of physical training have you done?

Terrence Howard: Robert and his competitive ass, I almost tore my shoulder trying to keep up with him. Here I'm 40-50 pounds heavier than him, so I'm lifting and I put up, push up about 225, knock it out 10 times. Robert wants to go and do 235, and he did it. So I'm going to push it up to 245. I took him out running and gave him some nice cramps while we were in Lone Pine. He couldn't walk for a couple days. That was really nice.

Crave Online: Are you still doing five miles a day?

Terrence Howard: I'm doing six now, but I found the best way to do it is not to do it straight. Do a mile and a half, that's running for 15 minutes, rest for an hour, do another mile and a half, so you got the first three. Then in the evening, same thing. You can sprint it and it doesn't hurt your legs or anything like that. It's great now. I actually was able to pull off 100 pushups without stopping, without resting. We all do that, we all try to do it. I got to I can do 100 pushups without resting now, so I'm all right.

Crave Online: Is this the best shape you've ever been in?

Terrence Howard: Oh, yeah. I got titties. I don't need my girlfriend no more.

Crave Online: Do we see the birth of War Machine in the first movie?

Terrence Howard:You read the comic book? If you read the comic book then you kind of know what happens, but you still have to wait because you all ain't taking away my next two movies. You're not taking my job. I like y'all, but man.

Crave Online: Are we getting closer to the Academy recognizing comic book movies?

Terrence Howard: Well, when you look at the stuff that Robert does in this movie, I mean at the end of every take, someone is applauding. Someone is applauding and I'm not talking about, "Good job." I'm talking about [claps]. He's brilliant. He is brilliant, so if anybody ever gets an academy nomination for a comic book, I think Robert might be one.

Crave Online: Have you started thinking about next projects?

Terrence Howard: Well, I just finished up my album and I've written my own movie called Hold on Tight which I'm about to go into preproduction on. There's a lot of stuff that's offered out there, but all these are safe jobs. They're the safe things to keep me there and you stop being an artist. You go from being an artist to a celebrated artist to just a celebrity.

Crave Online: What's Hold on Tight?

Terrence Howard: When I was doing the film Hustle and Flow, I wrote a song beyond the other rap songs that I didn't want to put my name on. I should have because I would have had an Oscar, but I wrote a song called Hold on Tight. Then I wrote a movie around it. That's the basis of it, a father and daughter that's been apart and he's a songwriter. She's spending the summer with him and learning how to write songs herself. It's really an honest movie. An honest movie.

Crave Online: Are you thinking of directing it?

Terrence Howard: Yeah, I'm directing it.

Crave Online: So that's next?

Terrence Howard: Yes.

Crave Online: Do you have a cast?

Terrence Howard: I'm in it. I'm in it. I've got a lot of friends that say they want to be in it. They kind of encouraged me to do it so we'll see. We'll see who signs the paper.

Crave Online: Is it easier to get financing now that you're well known and an Oscar nominee?

Terrence Howard: It's great but they'll give me the money to direct it, they'll give me the money to star in it, but they want to make sure that they can tie me into a couple of their projects later on down the line. There's always these attachments to it, but the best thing that happened with this movie is it's a company called Apollo Diamond. They contacted me after they found out I was doing the movie. They said they had a way. They're growing diamonds, I don't know if any of you guys are aware of them. Look up Apollodiamond.com. That's the best thing that happened because they didn't go public so I was able to jump in and get a great investment too.

Crave Online: What is the deal with your album?

Terrence Howard: It's incredible. It really is. It's the best thing I've ever accomplished in my life. I wrote and produced everything on it and if you guys get some time, I'll let you all come by the car and listen to a couple of the tracks. I know you've got some other people to do in here but I'm going to be here for a little bit.

Crave Online: Does it have any collaborations?

Terrence Howard: No, I just wanted to do it myself, because you've got to. I want to throw the first punch. If I get knocked out, then somebody else jump in and help me.

Crave Online: How do you describe the music?

Terrence Howard: It's cinematic sound. That's the only way. You come out to the car and you'll hear it.