If you’ve watched any number of movies or TV shows featuring Terrence Howard over the last few years, you’ve probably noticed that one of his acting “tics” involves a shaky, gravel-voiced line-reading. This is typically deployed when his character feels particularly passionate about something, and it’s only become more pronounced in his current scenery-chewing role as Lucious Lyons on the soapy melodrama Empire.
So we’ve traced the evolution of Howard’s “warble voice”—from The Best Man to his Oscar-nominated turn in Hustle & Flow, all the way up through Empire, his warbliest role ever.
