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July 17, 2025 44 mins

Terry Crews joins Wilmer and Freddy to share the story of how a tough encounter with a hostile landlord fueled his early career mindset. He opens up about falling into acting through a Billy Blanks reality show and the crucial advice to “be you, be a personality” that shaped his authentic approach. Terry reflects on his persistence through constant rejection and the breakthrough moment landing American Gladiators as “T-Money,” bringing Detroit energy alongside his brothers. Don’t miss his inspiring take on overcoming imposter syndrome and turning setbacks into stepping stones.

“Dos Amigos”  is a comedic and insightful podcast hosted by two friends who’ve journeyed through Hollywood and life together. Wilmer Valderrama and Freddy Rodriguez push through the noise of everyday life and ruminate on a bevy of topics through fun and daring, and occasionally a third amigo joins the mix!

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
How you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is Freddie Rodriguez and I'm Wilmer Valderrama.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
And the Dos a Egos podcast.

Speaker 4 (00:09):
We're here with Terry Crews and we just started the
story about a puppet show.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
I want to hear the story about the puppet shows. Man,
what's the show?

Speaker 5 (00:17):
It was wild because Wilmen was doing this puppy show,
Hollywood puppet show.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (00:21):
And first of all, I love animation. I love puppets.
I love the whole thing. And I said, oh my god,
like I have to do this. I get the invite
to tell a story, right, and they basically animate this
story using puppets, and it was genius. And they're like
Mary like, they were like real detailed, amazing.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
The heads really look like the people.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, picture with it and suit on an old thing.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
And it was like, oh my god, we gotta find
out where those puppets are.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
By the way, because those puppets are around.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
You know.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
We said, did you ever take your puppets?

Speaker 1 (00:57):
I didn't take No, I didn't take out.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Okay, I'll find it my personal shrine of humans.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
But the speakeasy basically that that we built, we built
this show. I thought, oh, man, you know be really
fun if like all of us have this crazy story
that we've never told before, and the idea was that
we use marionettes to to bring.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
That story to life.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Right, So we would basically design all these marionettes and
every every notable friend who came to to tell the story,
we would do a replica of their of their face
into a into a puppet.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
So it was called the Hollywood puppet Ship Show. And
it was so fucking funny.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Like and I had so many friends, like our boys,
Steve Oki, like Joe Jonas and Gina Rodriguez, and like
we had everybody come and tell the story.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
It was so it was so funny.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
It's a random genius. Thank you, Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:54):
It's a cool idea, man, because you could whatever you
can't say in real life, you can get away with puppets.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
You're forgiven. You're forgiven.

Speaker 5 (02:05):
Wow, man, this is how even you know, when you
look at the South Park guys, they got away with
the hand put it in puppetry and like all stuff,
you could never ever say so. But even though it
was like VH one.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Wasn't it, Yeah, it was it was like sitting again
on all of them maybe they're really good.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
People love this show. It's very cool.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
And the story, what story did you told you?

Speaker 5 (02:25):
The story was so it was one of the most
horrendous periods of my life. Like I just moved to
la And what was crazy is that I was, you know,
I retired from the NFL, and I wasn't a superstar.
See a lot of people think you were in an NFL,
but I was on the end of the roster. There's
like the last ten fifteen guys on the roster. They're

(02:46):
just they're holding on. Man.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
We got the NFL minimum.

Speaker 5 (02:50):
And what happened is I would play one year and
then get cut and then set out so that money
had to last for two years and then get picked
up us and I play again and then get cut again.
And so it was a really really again Me and
my wife were going through all of it. But this
was a wonderful part of the story is that when
I when I met my I'm gonna give you a

(03:12):
little background. When I met my wife in college back
and it was nineteen oh it had to be eighties,
probably eighty nine, no, no eighty eight, and I looked
at her and we were dating and we were trying
to getting interested in I say, look, I said, first
of all, one thing I'm gonna do. I'm gonna play
in the NFL, and then I'm gonna move to LA

(03:33):
and we're gonna make movies.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Oh Eve.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Even back then, I.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
Told this is I listen. I called it and we
were outside of a Windy's. Wendy I'll never forget. She
was like, that's what I'm down, babe, let's go, and
I was like cool. After my there was a point
when I had come back from a tryout with the
forty nine ers and I broke my finger and I
was so like done. Like there was a moment I

(03:57):
was like, no more like football, It's not in me anymore,
the energy. But I love entertainment. And then you have
to understand I didn't. I didn't want to come out
here to act.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
She's crazy. I was trying to get behind. See. I
had a movie that I shot with my boys in
Detroit that was terrible, like and we were getting kicked
out of locations, we broke lost all our money, and.

Speaker 5 (04:22):
I said, this is the best thing in my life.
Like I'm energized by this. This horrible experience is energizing me.
I was this working and I knew that's what I
needed to do, but so football was was leaving me.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
And then my wife looked at me.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
She said, remember when we said you said we were
going to move to La make movies. Yeah, she said,
let's go, let's go. And when she gave me that
green light.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Bru do it?

Speaker 3 (04:50):
You understand, was like she said, babe, yeah, we're wrong,
let's go.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Hey did you say that?

Speaker 5 (04:55):
And I said, wake up, let's go, let's get it.
We loaded everything we have into our Nissan Pathfinder. At
the time, nan.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
It was hot until it wasn't you know about the
wheels were falling off that thing.

Speaker 5 (05:22):
But we loaded our two daughters at the time they
were little baby girls.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
We have five kids now, moved out to LA and
didn't know a soul.

Speaker 5 (05:31):
But the whole thing was like, I'm gonna take this
little edit that I had still piece of stuff, and
I'm gonna get investors and I just want to do
that whole you know, Spike Lee, you know Robert Townsend,
work it from the bottom.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Up, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (05:44):
Independent, You know this that energy man went out here
and went broke, like broke, broke past broke, and what
was happening. We got this duplex in Burbank and this
lady who we rented it from, she was crazy and
we caught her coming out of our apartment. We just

(06:04):
rented it, and we got her coming out of our apartment.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
After you were living there.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:09):
Wait, we already moved in, like we've been there for
like a couple of months. And she was she comes out,
she heard our car pulling up, and she jumped run
out of the place. It's a terrible little spot and
I'm like, what are you doing? I do I'm checking
on something. Oh my god. And then she's just behaving erratic,
she's going nuts. And then my daughter is drawing on

(06:31):
the sidewalk.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
We cut her.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Next day, my daughter's d drawing on the sidewalk with
chalk and she comes over and you don't do that
to my chalk woak on the mace sidewalk, and she's
going nuts. Man, I don't know where she's from. It
was the weirdest accent of all time. Like it was like,
I don't know if it's Oh, she's yelling at my

(06:54):
little baby man, and I'm going, okay, okay, And now
I'm doing security now because it's not working out. I'm
just doing security on movie sets. And I did security
on Friday next Friday before I ended up in Friday
after next, right, I.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Was doing security on the original Friday. Well, no, the
second Friday.

Speaker 5 (07:17):
We shot that all the way up and that was
up in Santa Clarita where they were in the cul
de Sac and the whole thing. And I was standing
out there and Cuba Parkings car. Now I wasn't real like,
I wasn't like a bodyguard. I was like security, Like
the cars are there, you watch that thing and don't move,
you know, twelve hours. And I was just like, but
I want to be writing my little ideas. I have

(07:38):
my little stuff. And I was all, sometimes I do
all these you know. It was Cast Security, which was
these cats that you know, they kind of had a
stranglehold on the industry, and I became one of their
main guys because they were like. People started to request me.
And so I'm going coming back from the security gig

(07:58):
and I'm finding out there yelling and I don't think
so she's yelling at my daughter. I decided to go
over to the lady's house and I said, look, because
I already called her in a couple of minutes. I said, look,
don't come over the house anymore, like I knocked on
the door, and I just that was my job to
just tell her that. I say, ma'am, please just don't
come over the house anymore because I can't afford to

(08:20):
get out.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
We have no money. So she says, what the hell
get out of my place, and then she.

Speaker 5 (08:26):
Gonna do what no man, come on, spits in my face.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
Get out of here.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Oh it's crazy.

Speaker 6 (08:37):
And I'm like, first of all, like what you understand
the type of individual that you have to be for
that to be an instinct, like an instinct in you
to be like, oh, this is how I'm going to
handle this block.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
It's like you have to be.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
I mean, I'm going to spare the names, but you
gotta be something so like just ugly inside. So go
to that the most Like that's just like the craziest
sound of disrespect, Like it doesn't get more disrespectful than that.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
Like it doesn't like I'd rather you kick me, yes,
But the spin is like you spit on the ground,
you spent on someone you hate, you spent on someone's grave,
you know, like thee but to spit in someone's face.

(09:29):
You're telling them that you're worse than nothing. Wow, And dude,
I'm a And this is another thing because what I
was going through at the time, I didn't know what
we were going to make it.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
I didn't know what was It's the most vulnerable time
of your life.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Bro. I had the NFL.

Speaker 5 (09:48):
It's over and I'm going, oh, you know, I saw
all the big things in bright lights, and all of
a sudden, I'm down in a little duplex in Burbank
with my wife and two kids.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I'm struggling, and I'm going by the hour like, oh
my God, like wull I ever see something again? Like
you know, you don't get to you don't even want to,
you don't.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Don't want to stay it out loud to you, lady.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
You know stress, I was having an acid reflux and
you're just wondering, like in LA it's hard and cold
because they don't know you, and you got to go
through at least three four years of bullshit like no,
like people talking junk and yeah yeah yeah and no
meaning no no no. So I'm just in all this

(10:35):
and then they get this and I know I can't move.
I know I can't afford it. And I'm like, now
if I if I beat this woman.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
To be like.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
Like, well, now I'm in Burbank, which is a whole
nother animal. Everybody know in La Burbank believes is different
than the other police.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
But that old white guy with that coming in there,
with that whole fifties attitude, the fifties haircut.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
The Portos community reached for them.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
You see, Porthos is how they get the community out
of Porthos.

Speaker 7 (11:11):
It is with the potato balls.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
They think they hang.

Speaker 8 (11:16):
Yeah, I know you can't hand because you have you
think you can handles you Porthos is in Yeah, but
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
And do they I knew they would put me under
the jail, like there's nothing I could do, so do
I wiped my face and you're talking about having to think, think, think, think,
like what am I going to do? And I went, okay,
I remember wiping my face. I didn't say anything, and
I just got back in the car and I went
home and I said, Babe, I came home and told

(11:51):
my wife, I said, and we called the police. I said,
call the police, honey, I said, this woman spit in
my face. This is crazy, dude.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Wait. The police were there in five minutes and I went, whoa.

Speaker 5 (12:04):
I said, wow, I said, we just called you. I
said no, no, no, no, no, she called us on you.
What she said you attacked her?

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Now, man, I.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Got just three levels, so I mean four octaves even
more intense.

Speaker 5 (12:20):
Rah. Now I'm a big black man in bird Bank.
They came in with their hands on their guns because
I'm thinking, hey, you're here already, and they're like.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Hey, yeah, we're here because she called on you. And
I went, whoa, what she said you attacked him? I said,
we're here to arrest you.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Oh my what?

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Huh?

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Wait? I said no no, I said, oh okay.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
And man, something just downloaded from I don't know, from heaven,
like God just saw it downloaded, I said. I said, okay, okay,
I said, you can arrest me, but you have to
arrest her too, I said, because I have a complaint
against her, So let's both go to jail.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Are we okay with that?

Speaker 5 (13:12):
And the cops were looking at each other like, damn,
he's got a point, right, I said, okay, we're not
going to arrest your dude.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
This is what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (13:23):
Like if I'd have been like no, no, no, no,
but somehow I thought it's just like I said, It
wasn't me being smart, it was just God saying, listen.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Tell them this.

Speaker 5 (13:35):
You know what I mean, like, because you got family,
you got people to take care of. This is over
like you got and I see what this woman is doing.
So they said, no, we don't have to do that
because they want They didn't want to arrest it. And said,
but she says you got to get out of here,
and you're being evicted, right, my god, worst story ever man.

(13:56):
And so but then I went to one of those
family law places and they said, okay, since she is
trying to evict you the whole thing, you don't have
to pay rent anymore.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Protected.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
I went, what California.

Speaker 5 (14:12):
It's California law and said, so you gotta wait till
they can figure it all out, and the whole thing.
And we went four months trying to figure this all out.
I said, don't pay the rent, said don't do it,
and now I had it saved up.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
Wait wait because if you would have paid it, then.

Speaker 5 (14:29):
What well, it's it's literally because of her complaint against
me and the attempt to evict has now kicked in
this and I didn't want to go. And it wasn't
for lack of finances. It was some of the order thing.
You had to let the court settle it out and
you had to wait for the court, so don't move,

(14:51):
and nobody could literally move. But it was our advantage.
I was like, oh my god, like, okay, okay, what's next.
And then while we were doing that, my wife was
working and all these things out and there we need
to find another place to live. Okay, we need to
find So we had like three four months to find
another place too. We ended up moving across the street
and this man who just knew this lady was crazy.

(15:14):
He was like, hey, I'm moving out. I saw what
you're going through with her. Hey, I got a new place.
It was beautiful, it was gorgeous, and I said he
Then he said how much it was?

Speaker 1 (15:25):
And I said, I can't afford that. I can't afford it.

Speaker 5 (15:28):
Damn it, I said, I can't afford it. He said,
what can you afford?

Speaker 1 (15:35):
Come on, man, dude, I'm getting choked up.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
I'm sorry, I'm getting choked up there.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
We opened him. That's the way you gotta look at me.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
Oh, man, dude, he said, what can you afford? I said,
I can afford this and he said, I'll take it.
And man, me and my little girl, my wife, my

(16:13):
little girl. She's in the little wagon. We moveing our
stuff across the street. And that was.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
That was. But the story I told was Devil White Puppets.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
That we told that story with puppets.

Speaker 5 (16:26):
Oh they told that story with puppets. But you know,
but we ended up. And now I look back at
those those times, man, because moving out here, man, it
was so hard because I, like I said, I.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
Didn't know what was going on.

Speaker 5 (16:41):
I didn't know what was gonna happen, but I knew
we were after this dream. Me and my wife was
just like, we gotta we gotta make it work. So
we were so broke. There were times we would have
pizza night, like me and my family loved Friday night,
Pizza night.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
And this is back with Blockbuster and the herd thing.

Speaker 5 (16:56):
And I used to park outside of the Blockbuster to
wait for people to bring the movie back.

Speaker 7 (16:59):
Yeah, yeah, a new release. You know, you know, you
see somebody bringing in the box.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Some of you don't know what blockbusters and plays where
you're going. Rented a VHS movie, but sometimes the new
releases they only would have two copies, so you gotta
get there, you know, to actually get the movie.

Speaker 5 (17:23):
You know, my baby girls want to see the newest
thing and the new Disney thing that just kept. So
I used to approach people in the cars when they
be pulling up, like, hey man, you got it, you
got ye hey man, leave me alone, leave them alone.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
But what what what happened is the guy would come
out and you see it in his hand, Hey man,
is that you're intersecting? And as soon as he put
it in, like I want that one.

Speaker 5 (17:45):
Yeah, I would be parked out for like an hour
or two hours to get the hot movie then and
then I would take we literally would take flower yeast,
the whole thing, and I would make joke. Yeah listen,
sure Little Caesars was like we couldn't afford that, so

(18:06):
big flour dough and I would make a freaking dough.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah. Then we would put spaghetti sauce and we we
had we knew we had some cheese. Yeah, that was it.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
You're speaking so hard to my heart. First of all,
I just want to say thank you for telling us
that story again. It's uh, it's it's not just humbling,
but it's also kind of reassuring of all of our stories, right,
I mean, we we all have a tiny little bit
of a version of your story. And when we first
came to the United States, same thing. We were to
the ninety nine and store for the groceries, you know,

(18:41):
you know, and like, even even though I didn't I've
told this this joke before. It's like, we couldn't get
Coca cola, so we get cola, you know what I mean.
We couldn't get Captain Crunch. We just get crunched.

Speaker 8 (18:51):
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (18:52):
You know.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
But but the point is, like somebody was watching this
whole time, you know, and somebody was watching and knowing
that the blessing was going to.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
Change your life.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
It was going to give you the run where you
needed to continue to dream on the level you were,
you know, and nothink you know anything from there will
be coming up.

Speaker 5 (19:13):
But this is so strange. This is what's so strange.
And it's strange, dude. I've been in the most opulate
places in the entire world, the biggest hotel, the best
of everything.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
It wasn't as good as that pizza. Oh my god, I'm.

Speaker 5 (19:35):
Trying to tell you the movie and the pizza and
me and my little girls, all of us, Me and
my wife, my little girl. We all just sitting there
and I'm like, we're doing it. We're doing it. We're
gonna make it. Yeah, dude, again, we've had everything, you know.
Now it's like, oh, you get a car, you get this.

(19:55):
They're like, but man, when you go back, those times
are so precious and.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
So important, so important to hold up the blessing later,
you see what I mean.

Speaker 5 (20:07):
And again, it's just it's a precursor. It's just it's
the way to these things. You're like, the only way
out is through you know what I mean. It's not
a magic thing. You just gotta earn it. You gotta
take these little steps and baby step it, you know.

Speaker 4 (20:23):
But but sometimes God puts you through that to prepare
you for the big blessings. Because you're not prepared to
handle you.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Won't behold them exactly.

Speaker 5 (20:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
He put you put you through those storms.

Speaker 4 (20:34):
Man, it's called seasons, right, Yes, put you through a
season in order for you to harden you, to strengthen
your faith in him. I'm sorry, don't mean to get
too spiritual.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
Him, no, but that's it. We're all very spiritual people.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
That's that's kind of how I see it, because well, you're.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
Right, you're right ready, because dude, one thing I know
is that you know, when you look at when things
come too easy, they's just never appreciated, you know what
I mean. It's like, you know, it's wild because you
kind of have to it. The harder the battle, the

(21:08):
greater that we wore, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
That's all.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
It's like, that's why the people always say, man, like
when they're going through that small hell, you know, they go,
something goods coming, Yeah, yeah, something, something's at the end
of this road, you know. And speaking of that moment
at the other road, what was that one moment where
you tasted entertainment and you're like, oh, I'm about to

(21:31):
do this.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
What was that moment? Yeah, this is what what was
crazy was.

Speaker 5 (21:38):
Uh, there's several different starts to my acting thing, you know,
because I never again I wasn't trying to be an actor, right,
but but I was, you know, during after security, I
would bounce. So there was a club at Burbank called
Timmy Nolan's. Of course, the street Timmy Dolan's. I was
a bouncer every Friday Saturday, well actually Thursday Friday Saturday,

(22:03):
and so I would work twelve hours, get off, go
straight to Timmy and Olands, and then work till I
don't I don't know.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
If it's like a little Irish sh it's irish side.
Had I go up?

Speaker 3 (22:14):
They had a second story.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Right, yeah they did. They had a second story and.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
Their wings were crazy that a Mexican do. They used
to do the wings in the back.

Speaker 5 (22:22):
Listen, you gotta understand. One reason I worked there is
because I could eat. They would they would make They
would give you this soup like this. I had this
bread basket stewe that would be in a bread basket
and you would just man or that I would get
me a steak. They was like here, terry and dude.
Because I couldn't eat all week and I would feel bad.
Then they would let me take it home to the kids.

(22:43):
I got to tell you, man, whatever we had to do,
I was like, thank you. And I had a little
white store for them and I'll put it in the
back of the path, take it home.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
And uh.

Speaker 5 (22:52):
But I was at timmyn Oles and a police officer
who was was all sets all the time. He said, hey, man,
he said, I've been doing some work with Billy Blanks,
you know. And he said, man, they got an audition
down in Santa down in Santa Monica.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
For Warriors for like these this new show. And he said,
would you like to do it? And I said, oh,
I'm not an actor, man, I'm not I'm not doing that.

Speaker 5 (23:19):
That's okay. So he said, oh, no problem, no problem.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
I on my day off.

Speaker 5 (23:25):
I had one day off and I just decided I'm
just going to chill out. I get a call from
that police officer who became a friend because I was
always there and he was always coming there.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
So it was the regulars. He said, dude, we're having
it right now. You have to get here, Like, dude,
you could kill this. And I was like and I said,
I look at my wife. I said, you think I
should try this? Stuff said.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
It was one of those competition shows like it was
a show called Battle Dough, Battle Dome.

Speaker 5 (23:52):
Battle do if you look at it look on Google
you see it Terry Crews Battle Dough.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
It was.

Speaker 5 (23:59):
It was a show that was American gladiator steroids. Okay,
I went tried this thing out, man, and all of
a sudden, I went down there and I'm running circles
around these cats because you remember I'm out the NFL,
A lot of them catching bodybuilders.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
The bodybuilders came athletes, right. You can hear the hamstrings
going back.

Speaker 5 (24:23):
Oh, they just all fell out, like and you're like
you might get hit with a hamstring because it was popping, like, oh,
I get on. These cauts never ran in their light,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
They're walking on the treadmill, but they look good. Oh,
they looked amazing. They're like sprints.

Speaker 5 (24:46):
They had your twenty foot rope and these cats couldn't
do it.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
They was.

Speaker 5 (24:54):
Nothing worse than watching a gigantic bodybuilder stuck on the rope.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
We can't get out, they can't get up.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
It's crazy that their bodies look like they're built to
pull and push, but they're not right, Like they're not
They can't pull themselves up.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
It's a interesting there's.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
A big difference between athletics where you had both. And
I was an athlete, right, you know what I mean.
I wasn't even a bodybuilder at all, Like.

Speaker 9 (25:17):
You had the physique, but I was just I was
ready to go and dude, I'm running circles. I'm going
up to the top, going to the guy. I'm out
running these casts, Like when are they going to show
up at the finish line?

Speaker 3 (25:30):
You were lapping?

Speaker 5 (25:31):
So the producer and Billy blike, they were like, dude,
this guy like and they gave me, they got my number.
I did access Hollywood at that day. They were like,
you're one of the warriors they're looking for. And I
was like, yeah, yeah, you know, And I didn't know
what was going on. And I went home and I
told my wife, like that went really good. She was like, really,

(25:52):
what how did you go down?

Speaker 1 (25:53):
The babe?

Speaker 3 (25:54):
I got I got interviewed Holly.

Speaker 5 (25:58):
When we sat and watched like that seven we waited
for it to come on, and right before you know,
the prime time and it came on, they showed a
little clip of me and I was like, and then crickets, crickets,
Oh what? Six months go by and I'm back to security.
I'm like, I wonder whatever happened because it was just

(26:19):
a pilot, dude. It was this is what I found
out later that was not for the warriors. They were
looking for contestants. They had already picked the Warriors.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Oh so if you would have gotten so.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
The whole thing was, they went, maybe.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
You would have smoked everyone.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
So wait, this is crazy, they said. Okay. I got
a call six months later.

Speaker 5 (26:46):
We were freaking out because I was like, oh man,
that was really nice, like you know in your mind,
like what happened. Months go by, I get a call
and said, we have a call back for that show
that you went on. And I was a call back
and I was like it was a casting agent now
so it was past that little like. So they like
we were getting close, We're going to do this and

(27:08):
I was okay, and I said, I said what should
I do? She said, Terry be a personality. Just be
Because I didn't know. I was like, what do I
I said, okay, she said, just be you, but be
big man. I went to send him a secrets up
in Burbank, got my face painted like Darth Maul, had
makeup going all up into my bald head because I

(27:30):
was still balled back.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
I was shaved back every day because like Michael Jordan.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
You know, yeah, so aerodynamics, aerodynamics, I got it.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
I faked I got and then I went and got
some because Burbank was perfect, but these little costume spots
and the makeup spots, and then I went and got
some space Age little strap lists and I was wearning
span Dex and little goofy crazy like space Age wrestler outfit.
I said, it's not going to be for lack of try.

(27:58):
And I looked at my wife. I said, it's just
crazy enough.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
She said, you look that that was the barometer. It's working.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
So I'm sitting here, man, and I drive down to
Sony and this is a Sony show. I'm from burd
Bank all the way to Cuba City. You know that Jerney,
that's my makeup is starting to melt in the car.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Oh in the car, it's only.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
You know. I got the windows rolled down and this
was so bad. My tags were bad, like and I
was just so scared to pull over. Oh you know
the tags man about l a man, they get you all.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
It's not cheap to get that tax.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Anytime a police office was anywhere I'm going to go,
I go a go back around. It took me five
hours to get out there because you're like, I just
can't get afford to.

Speaker 5 (29:04):
Get pulled over, you know what I mean? And so
I had this car pounded or something.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
So I get there.

Speaker 5 (29:09):
Man, I pull into the gate and the guys just
cracks up. He looks at me and say, hey, man,
come on, man, this movie studio. You've seen some crazy
and stuff. He said, Man, he's laughing. I go in
there and all these bodybuilder guys are like super cool everything,
and they look at me and they start laughing.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
They're like, oh, none of them are. No, They're like, yeah,
we went casting.

Speaker 5 (29:38):
Everybody had leather jackets and man, I'm walking around my
spandex and sweaty. Yeah, like you know, I know I
must I had to be musty because it was. And
I sitting there and I'm like, I don't care.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
I'm like this is it? Like it won't be for lack.
I'm trying. Are we gonna find out today? I got
in that audition.

Speaker 5 (29:59):
I just I was like, they were like, oh, lood,
I'm just yelling and screaming and I'll beat you.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
And I just went big yeah, yeah, dude. I got
out of there. I'm like, they're like, great job, crickets.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
Wait, so how long did it take at all?

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Another Another three months go by? Right right? You gotta
understand I'm.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
Going okay, man, maybe I didn't get it because it
was to the point where I thought they were like,
we're gonna do the show.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Let's look at them one more time, and we're not
going to go.

Speaker 5 (30:37):
So I said, oh, they just decided they didn't want
to do and I'm like, man, baby, but I get
I said, but I gave it everything I have. I
told my wife, we gave it all we had. Ye, dude,
I told it was read. Three months later, I'm coming
back from security. I'm actually on the set of next Friday.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Now.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
I don't have a cell phone right and my wife
was like, because they're calling me, like they call one
more time.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
And my wife is like, oh, I got to wait
for him to get home.

Speaker 5 (31:04):
And I'm in Santa Karna and I've been working all
with Cube and him and I mean just literally watching
his car all day, like and I'm driving home like
well like when we had one car at the time,
so my wife couldn't come tell me whatever.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
So I'm driving back from Santa Career. It takes all day.
I get to the bar. She said, oh, she said, babe,
they called.

Speaker 5 (31:26):
They want another meeting with you, like tomorrow, And I'm like, what, who, Yeah,
they want you to go back to Sony again. So
I said, so it's another call back. They said yeah.
So I'm freaking out, like, oh, do I have to
dress up the No? No, they said, you don't have
to do that stuff anymore. They just want to meet
with you. I said, okay, okay, and I'm freaking so

(31:47):
I called my supervisor and I'm like, I can't come
in tomorrow, and we okay, to get it. I'm making
sure I got my job right. And they hit They're
like okay, and I'm like, oh please, But I built
up a lot of good will.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (32:00):
So finally I go to drive, take the drive back
to so Many. I get in the room and I'm like, Okay,
who do I have to mean? Do we have to
do an audition again? I said, no, Terry, you are
one of our warriors, oh.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
With like seven guys. Yeah, And I'm like it's us,
Like I'm gonna be on TV. Yes you are.

Speaker 5 (32:23):
We got a pole plan for your name is gonna
be t Money. I love a badass battle Dome warrior.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
You on our show? Are there?

Speaker 4 (32:33):
Did they incorporate any of the things that okay, none
of but they but they but they knew that you
could go there.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
You have the range.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
You have, Yes, they told me.

Speaker 5 (32:43):
They said, when you came dressed like that, we were like,
he's a guy.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
He knows how to create a character. He's entertainer.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
He's gonna go all out, right, And I went, then
I need to issues again, dude. Yeah, I went. I
went home to the back and I got a show.
Don't breeze through that.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
So you come home because she thinks it's a callback,
right right. She then you, So you come home because
you can't call her back, right. So you come home,
you walk through the front door, You look at her
in the eyes, and you say, what.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
Wait, she's been looking the whole time. She's just sitting
there waiting on the window. I got it, said she
said no, because you know, because it's like months and
all this, She's like, what, I got it? I got it.

(33:40):
That's what in the world. Like, I'm gonna be on TV.
Got crazy praying woman, Okay, praying woman. She's like, I
pray for this, I pray for I knew I knew it.
I knew it. I knew it.

Speaker 5 (33:55):
Yeah, you know, it was like everything changed. Like the
day I just laying in the bed like I'm going
to be on TV. I didn't think i'd be in
the front. I always thought i'd be behind it.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
Like everything's getting rewired.

Speaker 5 (34:09):
Yeah, like oh man, a neurellogic mess right now, likease,
I can't sleep and I'm like what is happening? Knowing
just walking around like I'm in this grocery store, like
one day, like they're gonna know because I'm on TV,
I'll be on TV.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yeah, this is different.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Did they Did they tell you what you were gonna
get paid?

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yes? When you were there, so so not there. No,
they told me later that this is when the legal
people came.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Here's the kind of thing.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
I got twenty five hundred dollars a show, which is
it was like the most money i'd see.

Speaker 4 (34:46):
That's why I'm asking like, was that a discussion that
you had with your wife?

Speaker 1 (34:50):
And was that mind blowing?

Speaker 5 (34:53):
Well, they called and told us eventually because they said
you're on the shows. They didn't even discuss money there.
But once they called and they said, this is what
we're gonna to give you. It'll be twenty five hundred
dollars a show, and you're gonna do four shows a week,
So you do two on Tuesday and two.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
On Thursday, I was ten Queens week.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
I was weak a week.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Friend, I'm coming from twelve dollars an hour. Yeah you
know what I mean. I'm coming from twelve dollars an hour. Bro, Like,
what in the world. I'm like, dude, you understand you hold.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
Your babies together. You got them together.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
Like that was crack.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
Now we can do little Caesars now, no more making
the pizza.

Speaker 5 (35:41):
I was like, I said, we got, We're going a
pizza hut. You know where they had the salad when
they used to let you in the pizza hus and
you used to get the pairing pizzas.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
I was like, yeah, we get, we go. Well, we're gon.

Speaker 5 (35:58):
We slurted it over fan piece, go to the garden,
go to the salad, barget anything. We're going to get
this can get the extra tomato ad, extra bacon bits on.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Dude, what like, how many episodes did they do it?

Speaker 5 (36:19):
So we did two years? We did twenty four episodes
a year now, mind you. It was the most physical, Yes, yes, brutal.
They put me in a cage, let the ends on fire,
and the cage rotated and I had to take on
three people per show.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
Trying to go through you, dude, the blood.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
I went home bleeding every night. But happened. Of course,
I was like, what the hell, it's easier. In the NFL.
One guy choked me out on camera.

Speaker 5 (36:52):
No, he was not allowed to do this move, but
he put me on the truck and I was like,
oh that all sudden, the world started getting all down.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
And he choke.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
He literally choked me out, and then I went to
the rep. I say, hey, I woke up. I was like,
he's not supposed to do that.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Like a sorry dude. All those other warriors were going
down like flies.

Speaker 5 (37:17):
Of course they were like, oh my leg, I can't
move my leg, and they kept bringing the new guys,
but I was always there. Again, I wasn't an athlete.
I'm ready money. My wife calls me tea money to
this day.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
That's correct.

Speaker 7 (37:29):
So what was it?

Speaker 1 (37:30):
What was it?

Speaker 3 (37:31):
What was the story behind the character? Because you had
to build a character.

Speaker 5 (37:33):
Team Money was this warrior from Detroit and I had
a team of three triplets. It was Troy, Lloyd and
Floyd Weaver, who were Mike Weavers brothers, the boxers, and
they were these three triplets that would come and I
had another guy that would hold my briefcase.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
He had all the money.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
So these are real guys who were with you. Yeah,
they had built He's a final boss.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
It was.

Speaker 5 (38:01):
And we shot in the LA Coliseum, which was right
across from the jungle, so we would get gang members
showing up.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
No gang signs, please, no gang. They were actors. They weren't.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
They weren't athletes, they were actors.

Speaker 5 (38:13):
Right, My guys were actually those three guys were real boxers,
but they were just interesting. They were triplets, and it
was so they said. And then Michael Hearn, who was
another guy who's still one of the he's one of
the biggest bodybuilders out right now. Yes, and still he
had three the dom triplets, which were Playboy model.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
Triplets, and he was like the Golden boy, you know.

Speaker 5 (38:42):
And I was in the street and I had this
chain with like a dollar signs, you know, let me
tell you man, and I but I.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Would go in.

Speaker 5 (38:50):
I would go in so far. I would never let
the contestants see me. Right, all the other boys were
walking around meeting the contestant. I was like, nope, I
would hide right, And they said, I then where's team money?
I was, you don't want to see nobody you stayed in.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
My whole thing was to get him scared before.

Speaker 5 (39:11):
And dude, I was like, it was so masterful because
Money was badass, he was dangerous, he was a killer.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
What song did you come out to?

Speaker 1 (39:20):
It was they had an original.

Speaker 4 (39:24):
And so the two guys, the three, the three triplets
would just come out next to you.

Speaker 5 (39:28):
They were there was a big gate and it would
open up and I would come down the gang plank
like what what what? Like?

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Who is gonna mess with this? Like?

Speaker 5 (39:37):
And I had my glasses on the whole thing, and
then I did my peg pie. They would take and
I would hold my hands out and the triplets would
take off my jack and take off my stuff and
get me ready for the thing. And it was like
what people were like and the contestant. I would look
at the contestant like you motherfucker.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Ye he was like he was and I would go
so far. It was because we had a game called uh.
I remember.

Speaker 5 (40:03):
It was like it was these bats and I remember, yeah, bats,
and they put us on this thing and I beat
this dude down. They were like money, you you really
had it? And I said, you know what, I'm gonna
take this stick I'm gonna stick it up their ass.
I'm gonna make all days stuck us out of every
last one of them sons of bitches.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
They were like, we can't you what network? What network
was it?

Speaker 5 (40:24):
It was Syndicate, So Sony at night like it would
only come on Saturday nights. Oh just on anything like
uh like your take out, It would be on upn
they played.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
But whatever shows made so much, they money, they could
sell it to any network in every market and any
continent around the world.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
It was.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
It was worldwide.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
We didn't see anything money. But I was about But
so I was going all off and what was so great?
And this was another thing? Man?

Speaker 5 (41:01):
But let me know I was on my way because
it wasn't really acting. It was just grand theater like
and that's what wrestling was.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
But you were you were playing something and you were
committing to it, and you were created a whole character
and that was that was your first training and character.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
All I wanted to do was.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
I said, what would I like to see? What would
I what would make me entertained? And I did that
and my wife came to me after one show and
she said, Babe, I see it on you. She said,
I can't believe this, Like, this is you, this is
you're going to be doing I saw it and my
wife is always called this. She said, You're going to

(41:43):
be doing this for the rest of your life.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
I see it on you.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
She's a prayer warrior, right, I'm trying to tell you,
like it's different.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
Like you thought you were going to be behind the scenes,
she said, but you are made for this, man. And
you got to say.

Speaker 5 (42:02):
We were in the bottom of where the studio or anything,
but it all started to really grow from there.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
You know, that the power of somebody seeing you, how
you haven't seen yourself yet, you know somebody.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Sometimes it only takes one person to be like you're
this and you're like, uh what, and then you look
yourself in the mirror.

Speaker 4 (42:27):
I'm like, oh, that's who I've been this whole time,
especially when it's your wife.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
Yes, I mean, that's that's what I mean.

Speaker 5 (42:32):
I mean it was just us, that's all we had.
Like there was so many people in and out at
the time because you didn't know who to trust. La
Is funny, man, la Is it's really hard to find
a real circle.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
To find your tribe is very difficult.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Oh, it was difficult.

Speaker 5 (42:48):
But what was wild is h You know, as I
kept going, I just remember just saying I'm open, I'm.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Open whatever whatever comes at.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
Whatever comes. Remember, like I wasn't trying. This is the thing.

Speaker 5 (43:02):
My whole career is free play. I didn't go to
school for this, so I'm an ex football player, so
there's no judge, just no acting.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Coaches like, no, we don't do that, Terry.

Speaker 5 (43:16):
If you really want to be successful, I was like,
I'll do it all yeah, whatever, okay, whatever you want
me to do, all right, all right, and you know,
as an actor, we tend to be pleasers, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
So it was like, I'll do it. I'll do it.
I got it, and I'll go big with it. And
all of a sudden, one job.

Speaker 5 (43:34):
Turn it into two turn into three turn, and then
it just turned into like because I one thing I
knew to do was the same thing I did on
Battle Doome go all out. Yeah, don't ever mail anything in, Terry.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
We're gonna hold you at right there because we have
to now allocate a second.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
Episode the second album.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
It's still good, and so stay tuned for part two
here with our brother Terry CRUs and those Aigos.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
Dos Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
Michael through That podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
and Wilmer Valdorama.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.

Speaker 4 (44:20):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts
and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by
Madison Devenport and Helo Boy.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny Holtz.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Clau and thank you for being at Third Amigo today.
I appreciate you guys always listening to Amigos.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
More podcasts from my Heart, visit the r Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
See you next week.
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Hosts And Creators

Wilmer Valderrama

Wilmer Valderrama

Freddy Rodriguez

Freddy Rodriguez

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