Terrence Howard revealed he turned down a chance to play Marvin Gaye in a potential biopic, citing discomfort with portraying the Motown singer’s rumored homosexuality. During a nearly two-hour interview on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, the actor said he would “cut [his] lips off” if required to kiss a man on screen, adding that he couldn’t “fake it” or act in a role he didn’t relate to.

Howard said the conversation stemmed from a meeting at Quincy Jones’ house, where he asked the late producer if Gaye was gay. “Yes,” Jones allegedly replied, according to Howard. Gaye, however, was married twice and never publicly identified as queer. Director Lee Daniels, who worked with Howard on Empire, was reportedly considering a Gaye project at the time, though no such film materialized.

The actor’s comments sparked immediate backlash online. Critics labeled his remarks “deeply problematic” and questioned why platforms continue to give him airtime. Others pointed to his history of domestic violence, including a 2001 assault on ex-wife Lori McCommas, which Howard admitted in a 2015 Rolling Stone interview. Another ex-wife, Michelle Ghent, accused him of abuse in a suit she later dropped.

Maher, during the podcast, said he also wouldn’t want to kiss a man, but pushed back against Howard’s extreme comment. “It does not make me homophobic to not want to kiss a man,” he added, comparing it to gay men not wanting to kiss women.