Terry Crews Reveals That He Was Sexually Assaulted by a Hollywood Exec
In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, many are coming forward.
Terry Crews is 6’3″ and well over 200 pounds of pure muscle. As funny and friendly as the actor seems, it’s really hard to imagine anyone ever putting their hands on Crews without his permission and surviving the encounter.
According to an account Crews tweeted Tuesday, one Hollywood executive did just that, and in the most appalling way.
This whole thing with Harvey Weinstein is giving me PTSD. Why? Because this kind of thing happened to ME. (1/Cont.)
— Terry Crews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
My wife n I were at a Hollywood function last year n a high level Hollywood executive came over 2 me and groped my privates. (2/cont.)
— Terry Crews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
Jumping back I said What are you doing?! My wife saw everything n we looked at him like he was crazy. He just grinned like a jerk. (3/cont.)
— Terry Crews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
I was going to kick his ass right then— but I thought twice about how the whole thing would appear. (4/cont.)
— Terry Crews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
“240 lbs. Black Man stomps out Hollywood Honcho” would be the headline the next day. (5/cont.)
— Terry Crews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
Only I probably wouldn’t have been able to read it because I WOULD HAVE BEEN IN JAIL. So we left.
(6/cont.)— Terry Crews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
Crews went on to say the exec called to apologize, but never explained why he did it. The former NFL star turned successful comic actor elected, he tweeted, to “let it go.”
Why? Consider his position. Just like the women preyed upon by Hollywood uber-lech and alleged rapist Harvey Weinstein, there was absolutely no good way out for Crews. He was trapped by the exec’s perceived power—which the crotch-grabber surely knew.
“I understand why many women who this happens to let it go,” Crews tweeted. He followed up:
Who’s going 2 believe you? ( few) What r the repercussions?(many) Do u want 2 work again? (Yes) R you prepared 2b ostracized?(No)(11/cont.)
— Terry Crews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
“I love what I do,” Crews said in the next tweet, “But it’s a shame and the height of disappointment when someone tries to takes advantage of that.”
Crews also tweeted that he understands and empathizes “with those who have remained silent. But Harvey Weinstein is not the only perpetrator.”
Response to Crews’s openness have been almost uniformly positive and supportive.
Thank you, @terrycrews. For anyone that asked, “what took them so long to come forward?” Please read below. https://t.co/zRWhW43Dz1
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 11, 2017
https://twitter.com/aishatyler/status/917915601170919424https://twitter.com/KateHarding/status/917880675713167360https://twitter.com/ira/status/917871010673594368
One thing seems clear: Hollywood has long kept a lid on one of the most grotesque aspects of the entertainment business. Men who hold keys to the gates to fame can take advantage of their money and access and violate even a grown man three times stronger than them just because they want to.
Hopefully the revelations about the extent of Harvey Weinstein’s predations will open the way to shedding more light on the other cockroaches scurrying around Hollywood playing with others’ lives.
While what happened to Terry Crews may sound like so much grabass to some, it was an assault on his dignity and an assertion of dominance. He was just as trapped as a 5’2″, 100-lb woman. By his own sense of civility, by racial prejudice, and by worries over his ability to make a living.
No one should ever get away with making a woman or a man feel that way.