Hollywood’s Hardest Working Actor: Terry Crews

Terry Crews may hold the unofficial title of the Hardest Working Actor in show business, but unlike previous titleholders, money’s no motivation for the actor. “I have never done anything for money,” he says. “It’s just not my motivation. I am literally satisfied when I get to be a part of something.”

Terry Crews. Photo by Royalty Images

The former National Football League (NFL) player who traded in his helmet and cleats to pursue an acting career has been in over forty films, and television projects from “Friday After Next” to Street Kings” since he made his acting debut in the television series “Battle Dome in 1999.”

“I am not one of these seasoned guys who went to Julliard or acting school, so I have nothing to lose and will try everything. Failure is the only way I can learn,” shares Crews.

Known for his comedic roles in television shows like “Everybody Hates Chris,” a series of Old Spice commercials and movies, “Starsky and Hutch,” “Harsh Times” and “The Longest Yard,” Crews makes his return as the street-smart Hale Caesar in the sequel to the 2010 summer blockbuster movie “The Expendables.”

Maggie (Yu Nan, front left), Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone, front center), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren, front right), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews, back left) and Toll Road (Randy Couture, back right). Photo credit: Frank Masi 

With new members Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) added to the crew, this second installment of “The Expendables” also sees American martial arts legend Chuck Norris as a retired military operative, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and more of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had a cameo in the prequel.

Filmed for 14 weeks, mostly in the Eastern European nation of Bulgaria, as well as in Hong Kong and New Orleans, it’s a combo of high-velocity adventure as the crew leap out of falling plans and automobiles. The action scenes, as expected, are quite spectacular and are as close as we are going to get to re-living the good old action films of the ’80s. For Crews, a fan of the action genre, he isn’t ruling out the option to return for a possible 3rd installment.

“If we were doing an ‘Expendables’ cartoon, I am in,” he laughs. “There is no way I would ever opt out of anything ‘Expendables’ related. You don’t get these kind of opportunities every day. This is a lightening in a bottle and you have to go all the way till it’s done.”

Along with that action film, Crews, who has five kids with his wife of 22 years, Rebecca, a former beauty queen and gospel recording artist, has a role on Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom,” which recently premiered on the cable network HBO, is the spokesman for the “Smell is Power” campaign for Old Spice and a contestant on “Stars Earn Stripes,” an action-packed competition show, on the NBC Network. With a return engagement in the TBS sitcom “Are We There Yet?” and several other movies in pre-production, Crews is certainly thrilled with the wealth of opportunities that have come his way.

Terry and Rebecca Crews. Photo by Royalty Images

“I love that moniker of being the hardest working man in showbiz.  That moniker is what I want,” admits the actor. “I will never forget when I first got here from Michigan. You feel like you are nobody after a while when you keep getting turned down for roles. I have never been complacent and anytime there is an opportunity to act, I take it, for I have noticed that people who don’t take those opportunities just don’t last.”

by Samantha Ofole-Prince; Entertainment Contributor for Trendy Africa Magazine.

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