Terry Crews isn't one to shy away from criticizing Hollywood and toxic masculinity. He's been one of the most outspoken voices in the #MeToo movement, sharing openly an alleged incident of being groped by a WME partner Adam Venit. Back in March, he also compared Hollywood to a "plantation."
Crews is continuing his sentiments—especially in relation to race— on the Today show.
“This is America. I can’t [talk about assault] as who I am, because first of all, who was going to believe me?” said Crews, who was repped by WME at the time. "Your job is to protect me and you are assaulting me."
Crews continued to say black men aren't seen as vulnerable until it's too late. "As a black man, you feel like you're supposed to leap from one place to the next and go dunking from one building to the next. We're superheroes. We're super strong. We're never hurt. We never have pain. So, you are never seen as a victim until you’re dead. And that is the most dangerous part of this. I can’t say I’m hurt," he said.
Many of Hollywood's predators are the biggest donors to anti-sexual harassment movements, Crews said. "What's so strange and crazy is William Morris Endeavors is one of the biggest contributors to Time's Up. This is a way to hide. Just like Harvey Weinstein was one of the biggest contributors to women's causes. Bill Cosby put more black men and women through college than anyone but he was raping their moms."
Crews wasn't afraid to turn the mirror on himself though. He recalled his own issues with toxic masculinity.
"I was guilty of believing that I was more valuable than all the woman in my life simply because I was a man," he said. But when his wife almost divorced him, it led him to wake up. Between his newfound respect for women and own experience with the #MeToo movement, Crews says said he's received pushback from men.
"In a lot of ways, masculinity can be a cult," he said. "When you're in a cult it's about control. When you're in a cult if you do anything outside of what the cult wants you to do, you're ostracized."
He continued: "Predators want to shame you. It's like slave masters. Slave masters want to beat you, not to punish you but to shame you. And the shame keeps you on the plantation."
But luckily, Crews found a solution to the issue. "Of all my counseling, of all my therapy, what I realized is don't accept the shame, keep going, be public, be out there. Do not accept any shame that's put on you because it's not yours." And it seems to be working, especially as his career is flourishing.
Crews' Brooklyn Nine-Nine just got picked up by NBC after being dropped by Fox, and he's slated to appear in Deadpool 2 on May 18.
