Terrence Howard got really emotional during his speech in presenting a montage of eight films that were nominated for Best Picture for the 87th Academy Awards.

The "Empire" actor rambled on, choked up a bit and took a deep breathe while talking about a character in the movie "Whiplash."

"How far would you go to be great, huh?" Howard asked as he described the intense teacher-student relationship portrayed in the film. "It's a thrilling symphony that's mind-blowing."

Howard's microphone made a crackling sound while he took several deep breathes, smacked his lips and giggled.

"Our next film ... our next film is amazing, I'm blown away right now myself," he said, referring to Alan Turing and the way he was persecuted for being gay in the film "The Imitation Game."

Howard was nominated for Best Actor at the 2005 Oscars for his role in "Hustle and Flow." He now plays a role in the hit series "Empire" beside Taraji P. Henson who also was in "Hustle and Flow."

Howard recently spoke to Wet Paint about why he thinks "Empire" is such a great hit right now.  

"I think it's because we've set aside the law of [political correctness], which we think is BS," he said. "It's fun, and we've got a great, talented team behind us ... you can't go wrong."

In "Empire," Henson plays Cookie who is the wife of Lucious Lyon, played by Howard. Together, they created an empire and are determined for its continued growth. The show has A-listers, guest stars and Timbaland as the musical director.

Howard was not sure if the show would be great at the start, despite all of the talent put into it.

"There's so much competition out there," the actor said. "We've been watching 'Homeland' and ... 'The Affair.' We wanted to be able to do work that competed with that."

The Oscars Best Picture went to "Birdman."