Terrence Howard Blames Robert Downey Jr. For His Absence In Iron Man Sequels

Terrence Howard Blames Robert Downey Jr. For His Absence In Iron Man Sequels

Robert Downey Jr. is known to be part of shrewd business deals.

According to US Magazine:

Drama, drama, drama. Terrence Howard spilled all kinds of secrets on the Nov. 14 episode of “Watch What Happens Live,” including — but not limited to — what really went down between the first and second Iron Man movies, when he was replaced as Lt. Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes by Don Cheadle.

“This is going to get me in a lot of trouble,” the Best Man Holiday actor told Bravo’s Andy Cohen. “It turns out that the person that I helped become Iron Man, when it was time to re-up for the second [movie], took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out.”

Howard, 44, didn’t name names, but the person who became Iron Man, of course, is Robert Downey Jr.

“We did a three-picture deal, so that means that you did the deal ahead of time. It was going to be a certain amount for the first one, a certain amount for the second one, a certain amount for the third,” the Oscar nominee explained to Cohen. “They came to me with the second and said, ‘Look, we will pay you one-eighth of what we contractually had for you, because we think the second one will be successful with or without you.’”

(The first Iron Man movie grossed more than $585 million worldwide in its first 14 months. The sequel, Iron Man 2, was the third highest-grossing movie of 2010, and Iron Man 3 has grossed over $1 billion since its release in May 2013.)

Howard said that he tried, to no avail, to get some backup from his pal. “I called my friend — that I helped get the first job — and he didn’t call me back for three months,” he claimed, prompting the WWHL audience to break into a chorus of disapproving “oohs.”

“How are things now with your friend?” Cohen asked.

“Oh, I love him,” the star replied dryly, without a trace of a smile. “God’s gonna bless him.”