Dead Man Down star and former Oscar nominee Terrence Howard used a crude choice of words while describing his experience shooting love scenes with Oprah Winfrey for the upcoming Lee Daniels film The Butler.
“To be able to make out with Oprah…to have love scenes with her and those ‘tig ol’ bitties,'” Howard said with a giggle during a promotional interview for his new film.
“I mean she’s just a lovely, voluptuous woman so being able to a… she’s very, very beautiful. And that was wonderful,” he added.
These are just the latest provocative comments from the Hustle & Flow star, who has recently floated the possibility of his premature retirement from acting.
“I have greater things I can contribute to the world of science than an actor,” the 43-year-old told theGrio. “I had a conversation with Sidney Poitier. I asked him, ‘Why aren’t you going to do another movie?’ And he said, ‘I’m not going to do another impersonation of myself. I might have ten years left in my life, and I don’t want to waste it doing something I’ve already done before.’ If I can’t learn from a character, if I’m just going in and taking from a bag of tricks and choices for a character, I don’t want to do it. It’s pointless for me because I have to grow as a human being, and I don’t want the safe road.”
He has also cited his inability to reprise his Iron Man role in its sequels with “killing” his career.
The Butler is a biopic about the legendary Eugene Allen who served eight different U.S. presidents from the 1950s through the 1980s. The all-star cast includes Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr., John Cusack, Jane Fonda and Forest Whitaker in the lead role.
Winfrey reportedly stars as Whitaker’s wife in the film, her first big screen role since 1998’s Toni Morrison adaptation Beloved.
The highly-anticipated film is due in theaters later this year.
Do you think Howard’s remarks were in bad taste or just tongue in cheek?