Local actor shows
his Philly pride

By Nathan Lerner
For the Times

Although Terrence Howard has pursued acting since his childhood, it is only in recent years that he finally achieved widespread recognition.
In 2005, he garnered accolades for the supporting role of a buppie (black young urban professional) television producer in the Academy Award-winning film Crash.
He followed up in the following year, by scoring an Oscar nomination in his own right for the lead role of a pimp who aspired to become a rapper in Hustle & Flow.
Howard’s latest release, Pride, has strong local hooks. Howard lives in the Philadelphia area. The film is set locally, depicting the life of Jim Ellis, a collegiate swimmer, who became a legendary swimming coach.
Starting in 1971, he recruited disadvantaged African-American children from the North Philadelphia ghetto to swim competitively. Ellis created the Philadelphia Department of Recreation swim team and coached it in the ensuing 35 years.
What attracted Howard to this particular project?
"My producing partner brought this to me as a potential after-Oscar film," he explained. "Most of the things that I’ve been involved with have been gritty. I’ve gravitated to the darker issues that plague humanity. It was nice to be part of something that was inspirational and light."
During his first meeting with Ellis, Howard recalled, the coach asked him why he wanted to portray his life.
"There was something extremely piercing about his question and the intention of it," Howard said.
"I was struck by his composure. Whatever anxiety that I had coming from Oscars and worrying about whatever was going on in my personal life dissipated and a calmness came over me. He was honest and real. His voice was so soft, but his message was so powerful. I wondered where did he get his power from? How did he motivate kids? I wanted to have his power."
Howard decided that he needed to know in order to capture his subject on screen.
"I came to the gym at five o’clock in the morning and watched him train the kids and watched how he spoke to them and motivated them through the power of suggestion," Howard said.
To convincingly portray Ellis, Howard had to transform his body into a buff swimmer’s physique.
"I have the benefit of Will Smith," he said, "who told me whatever your desires are, he would be the energy inside them. To help me, he lent me his trainer, Bill Foster, who trained him for Ali. He gave me the attitude that iron sharpens iron."
The 6-foot-2-inch actor described the metamorphosis: "In six weeks, I went from 205 to 172 pounds."
As for swimming, Howard admitted, "I swam, but I had a natural fear of sharks."
For the film, he honed his swimming techniques, but "I couldn’t do flip turns or the butterfly stroke. I learned to do them for the film."
Besides being the star of Pride, Howard has a credit as executive producer.
Asked whether this was his first time, he joked, "Nah, I’ve executive produced three kids."
He then turned serious.
"As far as cinematic endeavors, it was my very first, and I took it very seriously," Howard said. "We started out with a seventy-three-page script. It was in no way a reflection of this man’s life. Having the title of executive producer gave me the authority to make the necessary changes to bring the truth as I see it."
Howard adamantly denied that being an executive producer of a film in which he starred posed a conflict.
"No, there’s never a conflict as long as you’re looking for the truth," he said.
"Being the executive producer allowed me to ad lib. I shared that with my co-actors. Now, if I allowed myself to ad lib and not the others, that would be a conflict."
Howard said he told the other cast members, "It’s the responsibility of every actor to steal the show."
Howard was born in Chicago and raised in Cleveland. Despite becoming a Hollywood star, he has chosen to live right here in the Delaware Valley.
When asked why, he succinctly responded, "I know my neighbors, and they know me."
Howard ended the interview on a philosophical note:
"There are two types of people in the world. The difference between them is attitude. The big difference between them is whether it’s positive or negative." ••
Nathan Lerner, the director of Davenport Communications, sees more than 200 feature films a year. He welcomes feedback at culturevulture1@aol.com