This has been a breakout year for Terrence Howard (pictured on the right). In addition to his role in Crash, he was featured in 2004's Ray and starred as DJay in the critically acclaimed Hustle & Flow—for which he was nominated for an Oscar® for Best Actor. Also in Hustle & Flow was Terrence's Crash co-star Chris Bridges, better known as the multiplatinum rapper Ludacris.

Some of the most intense scenes in Crash involve the characters played by Terrence and Chris. Terrence plays Cameron, an African-American Hollywood executive, and Chris plays Anthony, a young man who commits the carjacking at the movie's outset.

Chris says that one line by Cameron about the thuggish Anthony really stuck with him. Cameron admonishes Anthony, saying, "You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself."

"What it did for me…it just makes you realize that [our characters]—not only as black men, but as a race, as Americans, as human beings—we're only as strong as our weakest link. And that can go for a lot of the things that are going on in America today."