Terry Crews responded to all his critics who have mocked him for coming forward with his own #metoo sexual assault story by a powerful Hollywood executive last year.
“Why didn’t you say something? I did,” he said in a tweet posted on Friday. “Why didn’t you push him off? I did. Why didn’t you cuss him out? I did. Why didn’t you tell the police? I did. Why didn’t you press charges? I did. Why did you just let it happen? I didn’t. Why didn’t you beat him up? (Sigh)”
The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, sharing his experience of being groped by Hollywood executive AdamVenit in 2016. Venit was never charged after a police investigation.
“I sit here before you in this committee just as an example because a lot of people don’t believe that a person like me could actually be victimized,” he said in his testimony. “And what happened to me has happened to many, many other men in Hollywood and since I came forward with my story, I have had thousands and thousands of men come to me and say, ‘Me too.’”
After detailing the troubling account, Crews was praised by many for speaking out. However, not everyone was supportive, including 50 Cent and Def Jam founder Russell Simmons.
Crews also testified that he will not appear in The Expendables 4 after being threatened by the movie’s producer, Avi Lerner.
“The producer of that film called my manager and asked him to drop my case in order for me to be in the fourth installment of the movie — and, if I didn’t, there’d be trouble,” he said.
In a recent interview with the Huffington Post, the actor explained that anyone, including Black men who look like him, can be exploited, although most aren’t usually allowed to express their traumas because they don’t look like the stereotypical victim.
“The big thing I’ve encountered is that people expect a guy like me to always be tough,” he said. “But, the thing is, as a Black man, the only time you’re really recognized as being victimized is when you’re dead. Otherwise, you don’t get hurt, you don’t get tired … it’s like people think you’re supposed to jump through the air and dunk from one place to the next.”
