CAA Slammed By Terrence Howard For Alleged Lowballed ‘Empire’ Paycheck; “This Was Racism,” Actor’s Lawyer Claims As Suit Looms

Dominic Patten
·3 min read
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‘It’s time for change,” former Empire star Terrence Howard said today announcing he is suing CAA over allegedly screwing him financially over the hip hop soap’s blockbuster six season run.  “We need accountability. We need access. We need to be able to share in the profits.”

In a press conference Friday at the office of The Cochran Firm, Howard accused his former agency of engaging in a lucrative packaging deal with the show’s creators and producers Imagine. Consequently, according to Howard and his legal team, the actor was bilked of “a much higher salary given the success of the show.”

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“I trusted CAA to look after me, and they looked after themselves.”

At its height, the Taraij P. Henson co-starrer series hauled in around $100 million in advertising for Fox, this new lawsuit claims. Money that Howard thinks he helped generate in his on-screen role as ruthless hip-hop mogul Lucious Lyon. Money that Howard also believes he had a hand in generating with his behind-the-scenes work on the music and scripts for Empire over the years.

“There was so much wealth,” Howard stated today of Empire’s success and his admitted knowledge that CAA was representing multiple parties in and around the show. He went on to say he assumed “that everybody would share and everything would work out fine.” The ex-Iron Man actor added Friday that he was being paid $350,000 an episode starting in Empire’s second and very well watched season.

Howard also noted that despite his central role on Empire, and his supposed work BTS, he “never received the compensation as a producer or any of those things that are immediately given or asked for by agents of white actors.” Citing Howard’s  pedigree of awards nominations and acclaim, attorney Carlos Moore put it more bluntly: “Discovery will show that this was racism.”

Launching in part off the WGA’s successful 2021 legal shattering of packaging by the agencies, the breach of fiduciary duty suit is set to be filed in LA Superior Court later today, I’m told. It has not actually been put in the docket yet. CAA, which Howard left in 2019, did not respond to request for comment on the looming lawsuit. If and when they do, we will update this post.

No stranger to controversy or the courts, the Oscar nominee was on the Danny Strong and Lee Daniels created series for its entire six-season run on Fox. Debuting on January 7, 2015, the primetime soap show was a massive hit almost from the drop with 10 million tuning in. That audience rose to an eye popping 17 million for the Season 1 finale.

Of course, proving that gravity works on TV like in real life, the ratings started seriously going down about halfway through Season 3. By the time Empire wrapped up on April 21, 2020, it had just under 3 million viewers.

Noting that this latest legal action against CAA may be a “death blow” to his career, Howard said Friday that it was difficult finding legal representation for this action and another involving Empire – especially because of who now controls the property. “There’s two types of lawyers in LA, two types of lawyers pretty much in the world,” he explained. “Those that work for Disney, or those that want to work for Disney. The conflicts of interest were there.”

Howard is currently repped by Independent Artists Group and managed by Universal Bridges’ Mira Howard.

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