Terry Crews Breaks Down His 10 Most Iconic Characters | GQ

I'd rather have a small role in an amazing movie than be the director of something that's just a day of training. I was doing security for years in Hollywood and I had a friend who was part location manager because that's what they would do. Would they do the locations and would I need security? Well, he's like dude, we're doing this really intense jungle movie right now with Denzel Washington. You have to come see it. I entered the set as a visitor. I always find that I just have to say that if you just show up a lot, your opportunities are there.

I was watching them prepare and I was studying it and I thought this is how an actor at the top of the game either he does his thing or the director leaves. Antoine Fuqua came up to me and said, Hey man, you want to be in this movie. I told him yes. I was sure that whatever you needed me to do was WOW. He said: Look, I want you to take off your shirt. He says the sun is going away. down, I'll take you to the roof and I want you to flip some pigeons and that was all good, whatever I took off my shirt, I went up to the roof of his house and he said, Terry, come back every night for the la next week and he said, "I'm going to find ways to use you in the movie" and I said, "whatever you need" and I didn't get a dime for the training day.

I just showed up. I volunteered. I said anything I can do, I just want to. to help the movie I want this to be the best ever oh okay I remember when when the scene played at the Oscars my mom called me screaming yeah the Oscars I was like no no no NO. at the Oscars mom, I'm at the Oscars but I'm not at the Oscars, this is a small role like that. I was so happy to be a part of it, I can't describe to you the satisfaction of it being such a good movie, you know?

For me it's that

iconic

and forever and ever, at the time it was going to be my career path, I was going to be the heavy one, I was going to be the bad guy in the movies and that's how everyone saw me at that time. a stereotype about big, muscular African Americans that make you security guards there like he's big, he's me or he'll tear you up and he wanted to. I love the fact that I've killed that trope and you have to see us as real, happy people in three dimensions. My family and I'm happy to be one of those guys who takes care of it now, Friday after next.

In fact, I did security the following Friday. I remember seeing Cubes car and his trailer and I said good morning Mr. cube and he was like yeah I can get out of the way oh my gosh I appreciate that and the strange thing is this is before I acted I started to act and I did a show called Battle Dome and they did another movie called The 6-day and then I was an extra on training day and they recognized me because, you know, training day was one of Ice Cubes' favorite movies. , but they remembered me, so I had the opportunity to audition for the following Friday and I remember sitting in the waiting room, Kat Williams and I waiting to pray that one day we could be in this movie Katt Williams.

We decided that we were going to go all out, there would be no stopping us. Look at the scenes with Katt Williams and I. It's al

most

like an intense drama, you're not and it's actually very interesting to bring out the me aspect of it because it was comical. , but still, here I was, this guy who was sexually assaulting me at the time, he was wonderfully big. comedy when you look at it from a new perspective you can al

most

see it it's like, oh my gosh, so this is really the attitude of you know, when you talk about man-on-man aggression, the attitude about this was comedic and tonal, which has done It's really hard for men to believe in it and I think about it now in retrospect and you think it's really profound, you know, even I was a part of it at the same time, I think when Kat and I did it, we wouldn't interpret it as a comedy and that's why it worked in a lot of ways when I look at Kat and her career and how it went and what it did for me.

People say this guy is willing to be a real actor and we put it on the line and because we were, we were playing it like it was dramatic. I remember I had the two foxes, you know a lot of people to this day, like you ruined that song for me, man you ruined it, but What's so cool. I remember being on set and I just had a little bit and I started dancing and they were like, "Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, this is what I learned to keep going and do it." a lot of times as actors a lot of times when you do things you do it right, you know they might not use it so I won't do it and then you missed a chance, Terry Crews will never miss his chance, white girls, Damian wins.

We said man, I have to introduce you to my uncles, I'll introduce you to my uncles and all that, okay, cool, cool, and he said they were going to release this movie, we think you'd be right, there was one day I had an audition for wife . and kids and I thought I was going to do it and I failed. I mean, it was the worst audition of my life. I thought, man, he wouldn't choose me. My agent at the time told me you had another audition for another movie, it's white girls and I went and just blew up, it was like and this is the same day right after a bomb, you don't care anymore, you stop caring and you just walk away. and Keenan was like, wow, this is pretty good.

I thought maybe he was being nice because I was a friend of his nephew's you know, I mean, I said "okay, cool." I got the job. I'm in Vancouver and let me tell you something Keenen Ivory Wayans these are the Jacksons of comedy this was the

iconic

Here I am the great Keenen Ivory Wayans and he's like Terry, anything you've ever done in an audition, he said do whatever you want do for me. I just like everything he said, man, it's you. I followed him. Never, that was the first time I had full confidence as an actor.

I did that Vanessa Carlton song 1000 Miles in the car, one take, going downtown walking fast, faces go by and I'm home and every scene I was in was comfortable and close and then the premiere happened and my life changed forever , the producer. of the movie he called me, he told me, Terry, your life will never be the same, he said you totally stole this movie. I was like, oh my God, it was an incredible bureaucracy, we had just wrapped white girls and I was auditioning, what was weird is that I kept auditioning like I had an audition for this movie, probably seven different times, which is really unusual. .

Usually if they call you back, it's great, you know? And you might get two or three at a time to get me in there, so almost seven times. It was like what the hell I remember what Mike just said, you got the job, casting director Mary Renu, she said Terry, if I told you who and how many other people were going for this job, you'd be intimidated, she was like you wanted and she like there were some big names running for this president role and I was like, oh my gosh, they were like and but Mike loved you, that's why we kept calling you.

I knew this guy. I would tell you that I met President Camacho because this really reminded me. me from my time growing up in Flint Michigan in a church where you had a pastor or a preacher that you knew was a scammer, you knew he wasn't telling you the truth, but he can tell it was a lot of charisma if you just put $5 in the till $5 will get you what your wall is fooling America. I said this is the most bombastic personality. He is a fighter. He is a former porn star. He is a charismatic person who is larger than life and loving.

He wants to lead the. world and I'm telling you I walked in again it was one of those things when we did the speech and I was like he didn't, oh you know, he was doing all those things, my judge was like, dude, this is it, I got lost and when you lose to Terry Crews and you become, you know this, you know, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho I said, this is my life and what was so disappointing is that it was a bomb. I was telling everyone, this is the big one. Maya. Rudolph, Shepard, all this got Stephen Drew, my judge, it's going to be great for the creator of eNOS and Butthead, and the rumor was that we, because we use real corporations in our comedy, I mean, Starbucks was jerking off and these companies They gave us their name. thinking I'll never cheer up and then when I say welcome to Costco, I love you, welcome to Costco, I love you, all these real corporations are like wait a minute, wait a minute, well Carl's jr.

Would you like to try our? There are a lot of people who want to back out, but it was too late, so Fox, who owned a cup of the movies, decided we're going to release this and it's as few theaters as legally possible, so it was released probably in three theaters over one weekend and was absorbed by the Vortech years later. I had big stars coming up to me and saying Camacho, oh my Will Ferrell, it was like that performance blew me away, oh my gosh, people I looked up to. and loved for years were like idiocy is my problem The Longest Yard I like to call the longest shot my revenge in the NFL I heard there was this new movie of the longest character and I'm waiting for other roles that I met with its director Pete Siegel, what? where can I be?

What can I go? And they didn't know where they were going to put me. They had a role for Cheezburger Eddie. Now Eddie was originally supposed to weigh 400 pounds. That was the joke. The joke was that he eats cheeseburgers. he's a big guy Adam said wait a minute what are we going to do we're going to make you a cheeseburger Eddie but you're going to be fit in fact it's like cheeseburgers make you more muscular he was like and you're going to be rushed this burger with cheese this McDonald's is contraband in our art our prison and number two this is the biggest production I've ever been in today you had WWE wrestlers you had comedians Chris Rock and you had all these stars here I was in Santa Fe and No I'm, oh my god, I'm the Andy of the cheeseburger.

I remember putting on my beanie and putting it aside and I knew that's who I am when I started putting out those cheeseburgers and I saw everyone's reactions and the way and I tried it from the beginning. I never treated it like it was a comedy. I really liked doing it since I'm in prison and this is as good as cocaine or drugs or a woman. You want a little taste of the outside. I knew it would really come. I do it that way and let me tell you, a week doesn't go by and people go eat a cheeseburger and then I grab my pants and it's like Everybody Hates Chris comes from being on the set of the longest take.

Chris noticed me. he said he realized that I was a father, he realized, you know, because I had my kids on set, I was raising them and I think he did too and this is the thing when I tell you people are watching you, he He also realized what I was like. around other women and around other people and they saw it was like this guy was his family and he said: I have something for you now. He was home probably about three weeks later. I received a script without notice or warning or anything. Open it and it says Everybody Hates Chris.

Now I'm laughing because the show Everybody Loves Raymond was already on the air and I was like Everybody Hates Chris, so funny, just that joke when I opened it was one of the funniest things. Once in my life I read 30 pages of pure gold and thought, "Oh my God, now I wanted it." I was the first guy in a higher position in that program. Everyone hates Chris. He took over that year, the buzz was good, everything was great and it was a wonderful four. seasons of being this wonderful African-American father, Julius, and the only character named after a real family member because that's what Chris' father meant to his sitcom and I want to play such an iconic character in his life and that he trusts me. that Chris has other brothers and sisters that are like men, thank you, thank you for representing our father the way you did, I mean, I choke up a little, these are real people they were talking about, you know, his father He died before I could see all of his hits and when I look at everyone it's Chris now I'm beyond proud The Expendables The Expendables the first movie was supposed to be direct to video you understand where Stallone was at the time he was trying to make this that I do.

When you're sixty, how are you going to make an action movie? All the studios turned her down so he starts calling people and he starts generating rumors and this is also in the early days of Gooding's viral energy on the internet, so what did he start doing? It was a tweet about how would you like to see me Arnold Schwarzenegger Bruce Willis and a movie together and the internet went crazy and then he called me now listen to be honest I was probably the fourth choice in the movie but okay fourth place in the world is fine.

I was like and I got a call and I met up with Sly in his office and he said it was a good job there, I need you for the movie, right, we're going to do this and I'm thinking it's an audition. telling me we're filming in about three weeks and to be ready and I told him, I mean, I'm in the movie, and he said, yeah, you're the movie, we're done good, there you go. ready, about three weeks, get your bags, okay, there I am,I'm in Brazil, enter gently Jason Statham enter Randy Couture Dolph Lundgren oh my God, yes, if every time in Bruce Willis Arnold Schwarzenegger and sly and Here I am and took over was I remember when it came out in the summer, it was so manly that people said : Be careful, you know you're going to get pregnant if you watch this movie, it was like the last manliest man movie of all time I was in.

On the set of the film I felt very disappointed. I remember not feeling like I was being used enough. I wanted to do more and they told me no and I had a bad attitude. This is the moment on the road. The fork in the road. where I was always giving everything I had, showing up for free, no problem, I want my money and then I remember sitting there, you know, I remember, I think it was some kind of quote that I heard. It was kind of like you know there's no way to be happy, happiness is the way and all of a sudden I said, you know what Terry changes, this is it, I'm telling you man, this is what happened, I was literally in my room, I was saying tomorrow, act like you're getting twenty million dollars. .

I started to change my attitude when people say, hey Terry, I'll go, hey, how are you, how are you, hey everyone, what do I need to say?, they say a line, I'd go out and say my line and give it my all. It's like I did when I started, like on training day, all of a sudden, so I started to realize and let me tell you something, he wrote the script, the script in the original script, there was no tunnel scene that he rewrote. in the script it said Terry, you're going to save my life and I remember going through that tunnel with my big you know, 12 gauge shotgun and I'm going boom boom boom boom boom and I ended up saving the whole team, it's one of the Iconic Moments of the movie that literally everyone, when I saw it in the theater, the guys were jumping like, oh, you know, and he gave me a moment.

I killed maybe 30 people at a time, probably over the course of about 10 seconds, I killed like 45 people and then I said to the cone line more like yeah and I was like everyone else because I changed my attitude and I changed my trajectory I think that everything could have gone wrong at that moment in my life that fork in the road but it didn't I learned forever and ever to be the solution don't be a problem on set don't be the problem because you know what hard enough work is you know what I mean and I don't need it you don't need it to be the one who would do the most difficult things and I knew that was going to be my key and for sure it was Expendables with a giant success and it made me a real world star, bridesmaids Wow, that was a Judd Apatow.

Kristen Wiig got a call because they were like, "hey." We're looking for her fitness trainer and you know, we have this joke here. We want to do it, it was a one-day thing. I'm a fan of Kristen Wiig, in fact we did an episode of the drunk story together, everything she does, she goes and sees me. I can respect that because I'm the same way she does the comedic things about her like she's doing drama and when we were able to do these things on Bridesmaid and Maya we started living and we started going and they're there. and when I redo his workouts and I think: You know?

I remember seeing the scene. How would I feel if they saw someone interrupting their workouts. You know, I mean, it was one of those cameos again like I said I would do. I prefer to have a small role in a gigantic movie and what I said when the bridesmaids arrived was gigantic. I had no idea how big it would be, I mean it was huge and again I'm proud to be a part of it and honored to be a part of it. All of that is like being part of Hollywood history, I'm sorry to bother you.

I met with Nina Bon Jovi, who is Forest Whitaker's producer, and they told me we're doing this new thing. Sorry to bother you about the Rolly boots. I've been I'm a big fan of boots since it was cool and I was like, let me look at the script and I started reading and I thought it started out pretty good and then it went off the rails and the spirit went crazy like, oh my God, I thought. I have to be a part of this he started talking about the character he started talking about what Sergio was and here's this guy and he perceived Oakland and Flint Michigan I like the sister cities and I'm from Flint I met Sergio because he reminded me a lot Many people with the ones I grew up with had traded their dreams for the safety of a factory and suddenly that factory just makes you stupid and I was like man, I know Sergio, I lived near Sergio, I know these guys, being a part of this was one of those things that again I had a small role in but a big impact, let me tell you when I was done, when we got there, I thought, man, this is going to be groundbreaking when I saw it. at Sundance reminded me of the first time I saw doing the right thing and you just say, this is going to change the game, this is the movie that's going to influence every young filmmaker of color for the next 20 years, Brooklyn nine-nine.

I met up with Mike Shore and Dan Gore and we had a meeting and they said we were doing the new Andy Samberg pilot and I didn't even have a name and I thought, oh, I love Andy Samberg, so this is one thing I knew I said. that Andy is the future of comedy and I said this is good, but there were some other things that Mike and Dan called me and said Terry we named the character we want you to play in our script, Terry, so yeah Don't accept it, you'll feel horrible knowing that someone else is out there with your name.

I thought, "Damn, you bastard, you bastard, you got me." I said, Oh my God, that was a very wise move because you're right. I would have felt it. horrible to know that this guy's name was Terry and he was actually supposed to be my you know, we did the pilot, it felt like we'd already been together five years and, lo and behold, we were able to pick it up and then we won the Golden Globe, that's all. Another thing is that five seasons are canceled and then the Internet brings you back from the dead Internet The Internet goes crazy by Guerra Guillermo del Toro by lin-manuel Miranda a brand Mark Hamill Sean Astin they are going crazy like we have to have it a nine nine flyer on the internet we were number one trending in the whole world and it made me feel so good and then NBC picks us up thirty hours later a man you, you, you gotta understand something about my life, what's so crazy ? about my life is this B Road no one will believe it they would say it's artificial they would say no way this is for this it doesn't happen but that's life the truth is stranger than fiction