Lucious Lyon has nothing on Terrence Howard. Speaking to Rolling Stone, the Empire actor gave an interview bizarre enough to baffle even his outsized TV persona. Howard talked at length about his notoriously bad temper, his failed, volatile marriages, and — random alert! — a new number theory he’s called Terryology.

When not on set, Howard says — as part of Terryology — he has been spending time cutting plastic into different shapes and making unusual symbols out of them. According to RS, he won’t reveal the true meaning behind his new theory because he hopes to patent it one day.

“I was always wondering, you know, why does a bubble take the shape of a ball? Why not a triangle or a square? I figured it out. If Pythagoras was here to see it, he would lose his mind. Einstein, too! Tesla!” Howard, 46, told RS.

“This is the last century that our children will ever have been taught that one times one is one. They won’t have to grow up in ignorance. Twenty years from now, they’ll know that one times one equals two. We’re about to show a new truth,” he added. “The true universal math. And the proof is in these pieces. I have created the pieces that make up the motion of the universe. We work on them about 17 hours a day. She cuts and puts on the crystals. I do the main work of soldering them together. They tell the truth from within.”

Howard was even more obtuse about his actual relationship status with Mira Pak. Pak — who would apparently spend 17 hours a day cutting the objects with Howard, RS writes — acted like a loving wife during the recent interview. But in reality, the couple separated in 2014.

“When you meet your one, it’s completely balanced,” Howard said. “You know, all my checks from Fox are being held for garnishment, because of my ex. I’m broke as can be. But my wife [Pak], she did well for herself, so she’s covered us. This place, she’s renting it. I’m suffering. There’s nothing worse than being a broke movie star.”

Howard and Pak welcomed baby boy Qirin back in June. During the Rolling Stone interview, Pak said they had an “amazing connection,” but did hint at possible marriage woes. “But, I mean, he’s not perfect. Doesn’t do the dishes. Doesn’t cook. Doesn’t lift a finger. I probably leave him 30 times a month,” she said. “He’s so selfish. But, you know, he didn’t have much of a childhood. It was difficult for him being picked on and bullied all the time. We don’t have a normal life. In our two years together, I’ve only gone to restaurants with him two or three times. We’ve never been to the supermarket together. We’ve never been to the movies. I’ve never gotten a gift from him. Never, never.”

Howard’s other marriages have made headlines for their dramatic ends — and domestic abuse allegations. He reportedly punched his first wife, Lori McCommas, during an argument in 2001. “She was talking to me real strong, and I lost my mind and slapped her in front of the kids. Her lawyer said it was a closed fist, but even slapping her was wrong,” he claimed to RS. In 2013, he then was accused of giving his second ex-wife, Michelle Ghent, a black eye. “She was trying to Mace me and you can’t see anything so all you can do is try to bat somebody away, and I think that something caught her,” he said. “But I wasn’t trying to hit her.”

Howard’s bad temper — and past — have also affected his career. The Best Man actor went on to give even more eyebrow-raising stories about being shunned from Hollywood, alleging that he got Robert Downey Jr. the role of Iron Man. The Oscar winner also suffered a tragic childhood, and flashed back to the horrific moment when his father, Tyrone Howard, stabbed a man to death while waiting in line to meet Santa at a department store. The 1971 incident was famously called the “Santa Line Slaying.”

Read 10 more of Howard’s craziest quotes below:

1. Howard Talking to Himself As His Dad

“You see that curly motherf—ker right there? That little redheaded motherf—ker right there? You love him, because the only person that’s gonna be there no matter what happens in your life is that little motherf—ker.”

2. His Empire Character Luscious

“Everything I do with Lucious is still me. I just change the vibration. Because Lucious has a very base understanding of life — kill or be killed — I keep him down at a very low frequency.”

3. What His Dad Taught Him

“My daddy taught me, ‘Never take the vertebrae out of your back or the bass out of your throat. I ain’t raisin’ sheep. I raised men. Stay a man.’ But being a man comes with a curse because it’s not a society made for men to flourish anymore. Everything is androgynous, you know? The more successful men now are the effeminate. The people that judge you don’t matter. They’re not real. Everything is just frequencies.”

4. Going to Therapy

“The sooner people declare me insane, the sooner I’ll be free. Back in the Nineties or something. Told me I was crazy,” he says. “No, he actually told me I had a sex addiction. I said, ‘So what do I do?’ He said, ‘Don’t have any sex.’ I was like, ‘Okay, good, I getcha, I getcha.'”

5. Wise Words from His Uncle and Oprah Winfrey

“I spent all my time as a kid trying to fit in. My uncle said to me, ‘Why are you so busy trying to fit in when you were born to stand out?’ I was 14. He said, ‘You’re a young prince, and someday ye shall grow up to be a king.’ Many years ago, Oprah said to me, ‘Your crown is waiting right there. Pick it up and put it on.’ I remember being in the womb, found comfort there, and have been aware since that moment. As a result of the travesties I’ve gone through, I have become awakened.”

6. On All of His Many Faces

“Today, for me, has been about searching out who I am. We’ve got all these different faces that want to come out — there’s at least four just in this moment, with a possible expansion to 432 — but which one do you let out? Is it the person who’s cool that you’ve mastered? Is it the excited little boy?”

7. His Early Sex Life With a Girl He Liked

“In the ghetto, things happen a lot quicker. And then she ended up having a gangbang and called me laughing with her friends on speakerphone, and I was crying because of what had happened to my girl, not knowing that this was something she wanted. Before Mira, I always picked the wrong women.”

8. Giving Himself Electric Shocks to Help Bell’s Palsy

“The right side of my face behaved in a different way from the left, so I thought, ‘Maybe that’s also true of hands.’ I was right-handed, so I started writing with my left hand and then I reversed the direction and started writing backward with both hands.”

9. Claiming to Have Helped Downey Jr. Get Iron Man

“I called Robby and was like, ‘Look, man . . .’ Leaving messages with his assistants, called him at least 17 times that day and 21 the next and finally left a message saying, ‘Look, man, I need the help that I gave you.’ Never heard from him. And guess who got the millions I was supposed to get? He got the whole franchise, so I’ve actually given him $100 million, which ends up being a $100 million loss for me from me trying to look after somebody, but, you know, to this day I would do the same thing. It’s just my nature.”

10. Difficult on The Best Man Set

“[I said] ‘This is a joke, so say it as a joke.’ I was like, ‘Y’all do what you want, but I’m not going to mutilate this moment.’ And I said the line like I wanted, pausing before saying, ‘Y’all know there ain’t nothin’ better than pussy, except some new pussy.’ That seals my character, who he was. But after that, they spent the next year talking about how difficult I was. Then the movie comes out, I get all these accolades, and now the producers are like, ‘Oh, you made the movie.’ But now they’ve set it up that Terrence is difficult, and so that has followed me.”