Actually, it took a while before everybody started loving Terry
As Terry Crews navigates Hollywood traffic with a cell phone in one ear, he keeps his focus on the road ahead without reflecting on his discouraging days as an office clerk, floor-sweeper, security guard and journeyman pro-football player.
“I look at my wife almost every day and say, ‘Can you believe this?’ ” says one of the stars of Chris Rock‘s hit UPN comedy “Everybody Hates Chris.”
The show portrays the Brooklyn upbringing of a 13-year-old Chris (played by Tyler James Williams) in the early 1980s.
As the second half of the show’s freshman season opens on Thursday, Crews, who plays burly, hard-working father Julius, also begins a new year in which he has become an in-demand talent.
He’s got three movies on tap, as well as plans for writing and directing. A gifted graphic artist who has sold lithographs to NFL stars, he’s also preparing an art show.
Acting was never in the plan for Crews, who played for several NFL teams from 1991-1997. He had aimed for work in storyboarding and special effects, with an eye toward directing. But the father of five had to take various jobs – just like his TV character – to sustain his family.
“It was bad, man,” he says. “My wife asked how long we were going to give this before deciding it wasn’t going to work out. I said, ‘We are never leaving. If I’m 90 years old and it hits, it will be worth it.’ “
At 6-foot-3 and 245 well-sculpted pounds, Crews eventually landed a job as a security guard on the set of Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s “End of Days.” Makeup artist Jeff Dawn mistook him for an actor.
“You ought to try acting,” Dawn said. “You’ve got a great look.”
Inspiration, advice and guidance soon came, on location after location, from people such as Schwarzenegger, Ice Cube and Keenen Ivory Wayans.
While on the sets working security, he says, “I was watching and learning. It was like being in film school for free.”
He landed a stint on the syndicated “Battle Dome” game show, which led to roles in Schwarzenegger’s “The 6th Day,” followed by “Serving Sara,” “Friday After Next,” “White Chicks,” “Starsky & Hutch” and “Soul Plane.”
Those appearances led to a prominent role in “The Longest Yard,” which starred Rock – and to “Everybody Hates Chris.”
“Chris is always tweaking the scripts, working on the jokes, coming onto the set to suggest something to make things a little funnier.” Crews says.
“He came up to me the other day and said, ‘Man, the show is good, all right. But I want to make it great!’ “
Crews says the show is planned to last no more than six seasons, with the final episode closing as an 18-year-old Chris steps through the doors for his first comedy club gig.
“Everybody thinks Chris was this cool kid, but he wasn’t,” Crews said. “So the show will never hit his ‘cool’ stage. It will never be about his comedy career. It will stop when it’s supposed to stop.”
The birthday bunch
Comedian Soupy Sales is 80. “Sunday Morning” host Charles Osgood is 73. Singer Shirley Bassey is 69. Game-show host Bob Eubanks (“The Newlywed Game”) is 68. Singer David Bowie is 59. Actress Michelle Forbes (“Homicide”) is 39. Singer R. Kelly is 39. Reggae singer Sean Paul is 33. Actress Gaby Hoffman (“Field of Dreams”) is 24.