Terrence Howard refuses to “be quiet” about the money he says Creative Artists Agency (CAA) owes him for alleged conflict of interest, while negotiating his salary on Empire — which he says was lower than what “white counterparts” in television were paid at the time.

Howard sat down for a recent interview with the “Straight Talk” YouTube channel and discussed his lawsuit against CAA.

In the video posted March 30, the actor told host Daphne “Phanee” Wynn that he’s still battling the agency in court over the contract his former agents negotiated for his role as music mogul Lucious Lyon on Empire, which ended its run on Fox in 2020.

“I want my money,” the actor said. Howard filed a lawsuit against the powerful CAA in December 2023, as previously reported.

In his interview with “Straight Talk,” he put a dollar figure on the amount he says he’s owed for the six seasons he starred on the hit drama series. “They owe me over $120 million based on what would have been paid to white counterparts,” Howard said.

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The actor and his current reps based that figure on the $325,000 per episode he received during the final season of Empire, compared to the pay the cast of CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory received.

Howard told “Straight Talk” the white actors on the comedy series were paid $2 million to $3 million per episode, although Forbes reported in 2017 that the actors received $1 million per episode on The Big Bang Theory, plus additional compensation on the backend.

Howard is seeking additional compensation for his six-season run on Empire.

The actor said in the interview that CAA also represented some of the actors on The Big Bang Theory.

“How do you negotiate $2 million for a white cat and negotiate $325,000 for a black cat?” he said.

Howard’s lawsuit accused his former agents of self-dealing because they represented Empire co-creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, as well as the show’s producers at Imagine Entertainment, while also representing him. The practice of representing producers or directors, and talent on the same project is known as “bundling” or “packaging” in Hollywood.

The actor insists he wasn’t aware of everything that was going on behind the scenes with his agents and the producers of Empire.

“Every year I’m asking my agents, ‘What’s going on? What’s going on?’ I didn’t know that with the packaging deal, my agents were incentivized to keep my pay low,” Howard alleged.

The actor added that when he spoke up about what he believes he’s owed, he was offered peanuts.

“When I asked them about my money, they sent me a check for $666… $666 exactly, not saying where it’s from. So I was like, ‘Oh you’re trying to threaten me, this is a threat. Y’all think I’m scared? You think I’m going to be quiet about this, because I wonder what you’re doing to every other Black artist.’”

Howard didn’t specify when he received the check.

CAA is seeking to have the case dismissed. In a February court filing, the agency’s lawyers argued that the statute of limitations had ended in the pay dispute.

“Howard was on actual notice of the facts underlying his claims … that CAA acted as packaging agent for Empire and was paid separately out of the show’s budget more than 10 years ago,” the agency’s attorneys stated in documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, as reported by City News Service.

“It would be highly prejudicial to CAA to require it to defend a deal that was negotiated a decade ago in February 2014,” the attorneys added.

The “Straight Talk” interview was recorded on the set of Peacock’s upcoming limited series Fight Night, which is why Howard was wearing a wig. The portion of the interview about CAA starts at the 1:07:00 mark in the video above.

Below is footage of Terrence Howard and his attorneys announcing their lawsuit and detailing the actor’s pay.