Terrence Howard Sues Former Agency Over ‘Empire’ Pay Disparity

Terrence Howard filed a lawsuit against his former agency, CAA, over his Empire role, ABC 7 reports. Howard’s suit alleges that the Creative Artists Agency LLC fraudulently persuaded him to take less money on Fox’s hit show. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, asserts that the 54-year-old wasn’t informed on CAA’s packaging fee.

Legal docs claim that Terrence was paid less than Kevin Spacey and Jon Hamm for their lead roles in House of Cards and Mad Men, respectively. The suit alleges that Howard should’ve been paid the same or more than the two men, considering Empire brought in more viewership than both. According to Rolling Stone, Howard’s pay started at $125,000. His pay peaked at $325,000 per episode.

“Despite this feeling of trust, it would be years later that Howard would discover that CAA placed their own financial interests, as well as the interests of the production companies they also represented, ahead of his own,” the suit reads.

Howard and his attorney, James Bryant of the Cochran Law Firm, held a press conference for his suit on Friday (Dec. 8). Bryant detailed Howard’s gripes with the agency and their failure to compensate him properly.

“Mr. Howard will be filing a lawsuit based upon the duties his agents simply failed, time and time again,” Bryant said. “This is a man who was the lead actor to, once again, one of the most successful television shows in network history where Fox was making over $125 million a year in just ad revenue alone. This man was being underpaid time and time again.”

Additionally, Howard’s suit holds CAA at fault for representing him along with executive Lee Daniels and Danny Strong. The lawsuit doesn’t name a specific dollar amount for sought-out damages, but the suit does state it is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

“Not only did it become abundantly clear that his agents led him on a path to rely on information that was misleading,” the complaint states. “He discovered that this was the result of the fact that CAA was not acting in his best interest, but in the interest of their own financial benefit as well as the interest of the Production Companies and the producers, Daniels and Strong.”

“Under normal circumstances, had CAA not been the packaging agent, and had CAA not been concurrently representing the Production Companies, where their sole financial interest would have been the 10% fee from the compensation received by Howard, they would have most certainly fought for Howard in a manner that most producers are accustomed to seeing CAA agents engage in.”

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Howard also expressed that the CAA’s actions were racially charged. “I can’t say for certain this was a racial issue, but I can’t imagine another counterpart—a white counterpart—with the same accolades, name recognition, and numbers that I had, receiving the lowball pay that I was receiving,” he said.

“I drank the Kool-Aid. I believed that I was going to get paid, or that I was getting compensated properly, but I wasn’t. I just didn’t want to piss off CAA and Fox. They’re big companies to go to war against. But sooner or later you’ve got to stand up, because they’re just trampling over the rights of the artists.”

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