Terry Crews Outtakes

Defensive lineman turned comedian Terry Crews has one piece of advice for you: hustle harder.

Interview by Jack Erwin

If comic book collecting, sci-fi loving, breakdancing pro football players were a dime a dozen, the world (not to mention the NFL) would be a much more interesting place. Unfortunately they’re not, which makes Terry Crews, despite his own protests, one of the coolest dudes on the planet. After a six-year NFL career that included stops in Green Bay, San Diego, Philadelphia, Dusseldorf (for the Rhein Fire) and Washington, Crews moved to L.A. in the ‘90s and grinded his way to a successful career as a go-to comic actor. With his latest flick, Get Smart, in theaters this week, Crews sat with Complex to talk about his long, strange trip to stardom.

Complex: I don’t know if a lot of people know this about you, but you were an artist before your football career.

Terry Crews That’s it man. I just loved to draw. I actually had an art scholarship before I had a football scholarship. I had an art scholarship to Western Michigan University. I was going to go to the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, but they didn’t have a football team and I loved to play football. But art was something I always could do. After school, it was one of the things I did to get girls. You draw a pretty picture of them, hopefully you could end up with something later. [Laughs.]

This is middle school, high school?

Terry Crews Yeah, all the way from elementary school, I was always drawing and painting. I was a big comic book fanatic. Everything that I liked to watch, I wanted to do. Like I liked to watch football, so I wanted to do it. I liked to read comics, so I liked to draw. I liked watching guys that were breakdancing, I got a breakdance crew. I was that community activist dude [Laughs], like, “Hey man, let’s put on a show!”

Usually the football player is not the dude that likes comics. Did you ever catch flack from your football buddies or from you comic friends for doing the other?

Terry Crews You have to understand, I’m from Flint, Michigan. You catch flack everywhere. You have to fight your way into school. I learned how to kind of roll by myself and do my thing at a very young age. Because when you saw the crowd, they were never doing anything good [Laughs]. I never really needed to fit in, so I was always cool with that. I was one of the guys that was married before his 21st birthday. I’ve been married for 19 years now with five kids—all by my wife. That was definitely against the norm back then.

You just fell in love?

Terry Crews I did. I think that’s one reason I’ve been able to achieve a little bit of success because I don’t do anything to get girls. I don’t do anything to try to be cool. Everything I do I can go wholeheartedly, knowing that I have a great family sitting at home waiting for me. It’s not like, “Aw man, you really made an ass out of yourself and you’re still trying to get dates.”

What was the thing that got you into movies?

Terry Crews Star Wars. That’s real cliché, but that’s the deal. My aunt took me, in a drive-in, and it was like my life changed. I must have drawn every character in Star Wars at least a hundred times. It felt empowering, like you can actually create a whole ‘nother world.

So coming off your football career, how did you end up as an actor?

Terry Crews When I was on the Redskins I shot a movie, a terrible movie called Young Boys Incorporated with my friend Derrick Carr. He was on the Rams in 1991 [when Crews came to the team] and we would sit and talk about movies all the time, like two weird football-playing artist guys in the locker room. So we decided to make this movie. We shot it all in Detroit, got kicked out of locations. There was so much pain trying to get it together, but it was the best time I ever had. After I got cut for the umpteenth time, I moved to Los Angeles. We took the cut of the movie and I was going to sell it. I was going to become a producer and the whole thing. Nothing happened with that movie. I went broke, literally. I was sweeping floors; I was working at the Veteran’s Administration and filing their papers. It was like one dead-end job after the next. I ended up doing security on movie sets, I just wanted to be near the production. We basically starved. My wife was pregnant. It was a pretty difficult existence for a while, but I knew one day I was going to do something in the business. And then I auditioned for a show called Battledome and got it.

T-Money the Urban Warrior!

Terry Crews That’s it! The first movie I ever auditioned for, I got too. It was The 6th Day with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I got an audition and then I get a callback and I’m thinking the role is Arnold’s gonna kill me. Of course I’m a black man so I’m the first one to go. [Laughs.] But it turns out it was a major name part. I said, “You know what, I’m going to keep doing this.”

You’re famous for your, shall we say, “unconventional” dance moves. Where do they come from?

Terry Crews I had a breakdance crew back in the day and I never lost it. I’m still the guy that goes to Amoeba down here in L.A. and grabs all the b-boy dance tapes. I’m 39 years old, I was totally raised in that whole thing, back when you had a cassette tape and you were trying to catch “Sucker MC’s” on the radio so you can record it. Growing up in Flint and the whole crack era, it was a wild time. You see 14-year-old guys in Suzuki Samurais, fat cable ropes, and it just makes you realize, “I’m broke.” [Laughs.]

In White Chicks you played a black athlete with a thing for white women. Did black women give you any shit for that role?

Terry Crews Yeah, all the time. Not from my wife—well, yeah, I did from her at first. [Laughs.] Most people say it was one of the funniest things they’ve seen. They loved that character but I do get a lot of black women that really feel I’m that guy. It’s really hard because you can’t prove that you like black women. [Laughs.] What are you going to do? I’m married to one, but it’s so funny because my wife is half black, so they’re like, “Well, she ain’t black enough.” What do I do? You can’t really prove it.

Home » CELEBRITIES » Web Exclusive » Terry Crews