Terry Crews

Terry Crews talks new children's book, AGT and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's Mario? A little bit all Mario Lopez join me
nowt on zoom, actor, author, philanthropist, my man, Terry Crews.
Welcome to show Terry. How you been. I'm good. I'm good.
How you been, man, I've been good, man, I've been good.
It's always nice to see you. First off, how was
your Halloween this year? Did you dress up? You still
do that? You know? I actually did? Uh several times? Okay,

(00:24):
because you know it's it's Halloween is two months long, man,
you know what I mean? It's kind of wild. Soon
as August is over ex September one, it's Halloween time.
That's one of my hottest ideas. And I got to
be Mr T. I did show. I can't wait for
everybody to see it. That's great, that's perfect, that's perfect.

(00:45):
I always quote Mr T specifically in Rocky three. Come here, woman,
I'm gonna beat it like I did last time. To
hit yourself. A real man. She's up, a real man, exactly,
exactly clever A hey boy, hey boy, he's a vest
He's the best, the best. Um. Congrats on the new
children's book, Terry's Crew. It's a fun title. What inspired

(01:06):
you to write this one. You know, Um, what's weird
is all my books have been inspired by my quest
to know, you know, to kind of like, uh, just
to find out what it was to be a man.
And what was weird is that when I was a kid,
nobody would tell me. Um, it was so wild. I
had my best friend and I had an agreement. We

(01:26):
made a promise to each other that hey, man, if
you find out something before I do, you promised to
tell me. And if I find out something before you,
I promised to tell you. Because it was kind of wild. Man,
all that mancho is around me, man, and everybody was like, yo,
you're gonna find out what's up, you know. And so
when I started to write books, it was really to
my twelve year old self, all of it, you know

(01:47):
what I mean, from the from the stuff as an adult,
all the way to this book right here Terry's Crew.
Because the thing was I was an artist, like I
mean literally and I still am. I'm an illustrator. Uh.
You know. I had an art scholarship beforet of football scholarship.
But the problem was every time I would go to
practice as an athlete, they'd be like, man, you gotta

(02:08):
get that art stuff. Up, and then when I would
go to art class, they would look at me like, man,
you're just a big dumb job. And I was just like,
you know, I can do both of these things. I
can be all of these things. It was it was
my quest to become a multi hyphen it, you know
what I mean, Like why not? Why can't I do
both of the stuff. Why can't I design furniture? Why

(02:30):
can't I and host? I mean, what are the rules
about this whole thing? You are no rules. I know
exactly what you mean. You're talking to someone who was
in the drama club and also wrestled, so yeah, you
know what I mean. And it's kind of wild because
they try to make you make a choice, and you know,
but I never did. I was like, I'm doing both

(02:51):
of these things. In fact, when I met my wife,
man and I was nineteen years old when we met.
I got married before my twenty one birthday, the day
before my twenty first birthday, and I told her were
sitting outside a burger joint in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and I said, look,
I'm gonna play in the NFL. Then we're gonna move
to l A and we're gonna make movies. And I'll

(03:11):
be damned, that's exactly what happened, now, you know what
I mean? I did, And I told her she could
tell you right now. He always knew he would never
give up. And this is thing. I host a g
T which is the number one talent show in the world.
But when I was a kid, I hosted my high
school talent show. Man, I always saw this happening. I

(03:32):
saw it from the beginning and every It's kind of
like I just never gave up on any dream, you
know what I mean. It was like, Okay, I might
have to push it forward in the future, but never
ever give up on it. That's a great message and
so many people need to uh to hear that. Good
for you, man, who makes up your crew these days
of you you roll deep or keep it? You know

(03:55):
what you know? And let me tell you something, man,
I'll be honest, Mario. I had to get rid of
a lot the crew. As you get older, man, sometimes
circle get smaller. Yeah, oh man, you start to realize, wait, man,
not all this crew is good for me, you know
what I mean? And as my goals as I started
to reach my goals and started to hit these things,
there were a lot of people I couldn't take with me,

(04:16):
and that was really really hardcore. I mean, there are
a lot of people who are still wondering what happened.
Why I never called them back, you know what I mean.
But it was something that I knew I had to do.
But now my circle is made up of people who
really really want to do great things in the world,
you know what I mean. And it's while because it's
not a lot of Hollywood cats. There's a lot of
tech you know, tech superstars, they're science superstars, they're artists,

(04:41):
they are musicians, a lot of people who don't do
what I do, simply so I can really regroup, Like
when I get outside of Hollywood, it gives me the
juice to come back in, you know what I mean.
So I hang with people who don't do what I do,
you know what I mean. It's so amazing for of
mine as an oceanographer, and he's always talking about this

(05:03):
whales and stuff, and I listen. I went to Columbia
with them and we went on the boat and started
and just went in the oceans, started seeing stuff. And
I was like, and I brought that back to l A.
You know, understand, what I'm saying when you see that
stuff and it really helps you become a full fledged person.
But what I found is in Hollywood you kind of
get stuck in these ruts. And if you don't, if

(05:24):
you don't have a crew that's down and and really
for your you know, just just off for your success,
you're gonna have to start cleaning it out. Exactly right,
Neither with you or they're holding you back. I with
you on that, man. Um. You recently did an episode
of Tales of the Walking Dead? What what was it? Was?
It fun? Right there? We gotta understand, I am a
super fan of that show. Um, I remember when you know,

(05:49):
Walking Dead beat Monday Night football, that was icon it,
you know what I'm saying. It was kind of like
wait a minute, um, and it's such a you know,
my favorite movie of all time horror movie is Night
of the Living Day. You know, I had a black protagonist,
and I was like, man, and I got a chance
to be in the same world that I love and
homage to that movie and image to one of my

(06:12):
favorite movies of all time. The zombie stuff would never
go away. It only gets better, you know, And I
was just like to be in that world and all
my heroes and kind of like do a spinoff? It was.
It was one of the biggest honors of my life.
And again, why do I have to stick to comedy?
I decided to go into horror, you know what I mean,

(06:33):
and I'll go into action and drama. There's no rules
to this thing. Well, that brings me to my next question. Uh,
the show called Jessica's Big Little World. What what is
that about? Oh? You know, it's it's a's actually a
spinoff of the Cartoon Network show I did, um, Craig
of the Creek, and I played the dad on Craig

(06:53):
of the Creek. So Jessica is Craig's little sister and
he's got a little spin off, you know what I mean.
So she's got to spin off. Uh, and I'm still
a dad on the whole show. So I thought that word,
got it? Got it? Got it? And you mentioned a
g T a little while back. Any word on when
season eighteen start up? Oh yeah, we're starting up in March. Man,
We're already renewed. But actually right now we're filming a

(07:15):
thing called America's Got Talent All Stars, which is a
world version of America got talent, Like, we're bringing people
from South Africa, from Australia, Brazil, everywhere around the world.
And we're filming it now and it's set the air
in the spring, so it'll be actually January early January,

(07:35):
so I would say middle of winter into spring. That's
when that's gonna be happening. Oh that's great man, where
you you're killing it? And meanwhile, I know you're all
about the family to you got four daughters, a son,
a grandchild. That's awesome, man, that's how do they all do?
They all live here? No? Actually, I have a daughter
who graduated n y U. She is a musical theater major.

(07:57):
She lives in New York. Now, wow's she ain't coming back.
She's a New Yorker. And she's like, you know she does.
She's like that, I do real acting. Okay, yeah, I
know you know all my all my craziness page, but
that real. You know what I'm saying, Hey, look, white Bill,
what I mean, dude, here, no diverge rat somewhere else.

(08:21):
But that's great, longest yard that's gonna pay that big.
But you know, my son is acting right now. He's
on the Nickelodeon show that girl, Laila Uh. He's been
active for almost two weeks. For two years, he's been
a professional actor. He's at work right now. I have
a daughter who was studying screenwriting and media at Point

(08:41):
Loma University in San Diego. She's just this is her
first year over there, and my old I have a
twenty four year old who's in music school. So our
family is very, very artistic. That's awesome, man. Well, God
bless your brother. Always good to see you and Terry's
crew drops two days. Wherever you get your books, be

(09:01):
sure to check that out. Terry, thanks for hanging man.
I love you man, Thank you. Mario You're the man. Dude.
Thank you brother. I'll see you in person soon. You
got it, brother, Take care, Thank you alright with Mario
Lopez