By Shivani Srivastava
Staff Writer
In one of the most anticipated events of the fall semester, Late Night Take (LNT) presented Terry Crews, who eloquently spoke on his life journey and the lessons he learned along the way.
Crews amazed the audience with his raw energy and vulnerability as he narrated his traumatic past, including his abusive father, pornography addiction and ultrareligious upbringing.
The event took place on Nov. 18, 8 p.m. in the Brower Student Center, room 100.
Terrance Alan Crews, known as Terry Crews, is an American actor, artist, activist and author. He has acted in many notable television shows, including the beloved sitcoms “Everybody Hates Chris” (2005 to 2009) and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (2013-2021) and starred in films such as “White Chicks” (2004), “Idiocracy” (2006), and “Blended” (2014). He also hosted the United States version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” from 2014 to 2015. Before finding success in Hollywood, Crews played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1991 to 1997.
While the event was meant to begin at 9 p.m., students began to arrive as early as 4 p.m. An hour before the event, the line extended to the outside of the building, and soon after, the room was packed.
Crews’ arrival prompted an explosion of energy and a roar of applause. His charisma shined from the moment he stepped on stage as he expressed his appreciation for being amongst College students.
Before diving into his past, Crews opened with a central message: “The only way to find out the reality of a situation is to keep asking questions.”
He then transitioned into an anecdote from his childhood of his alcoholic father beating his mother. As a child, Crews took on the role of peacemaker as he tried to prevent his father from resorting to violence.
On the other hand, while his father was addicted to alcohol, his mother was addicted to religion. The church his family attended was, as he described, “one step below a cult.” The fear of going to hell loomed over his mother and consequently him, which controlled every aspect of his life and prohibited him from freedom. To continue his ‘peacemaker’ role, Crews had to constantly reassure his mother that he would always do good and not go to hell.
“I learned how to be a pleaser,” said Crews. “I didn’t have a life on my own.”
As he grew up in this toxic environment, Crews noticed many inconsistencies with the church he attended. However, he was immediately silenced every time he tried to ask a question. Crews went on to emphasize how important it was for him to regain that power in his adulthood to question aspects of society he found wrong.
“It was definitely really engaging and you could tell everyone in the audience was completely tapped in the entire time,” said Kiran Pillai, a senior biology major.
The next segment of his lecture took many by surprise. Crews vividly described finding a chest full of pornography in his uncle’s basement as a child, which ultimately led to his pornography addiction. Students giggled as he went on, with some even relating to his childhood fascination with sex.
“When I saw this pornography, the violence in my house went away. The religious stuff and the rules were all gone,” said Crews. “I didn’t even know what sex was, but I knew it was something beautiful. It became a coping mechanism.”
As Crews morphed into a young adult, his curiosity toward sex led him to seek advice from the older kids in his community, who provided Crews with two options: either be a pimp or a hoe, preferably the former.
“[The boys and] porn taught me that I was more valuable than the women in my life because I am a man,” said Crews. The audience gasped as Crews stated how his addiction and internalized misogyny led him to cheat on his wife, Rebecca Crews.
After spending months lying to his wife and excusing his actions, Crews finally confessed. As a result, his wife proclaimed she was done with the marriage, forcing Crews to look in the mirror and recognize that he was the problem. This propelled him on a journey of therapy and change.
Crews was perhaps the first celebrity to openly communicate with the world about his pornography addiction and negative consequences without falling into the trap of shame, in turn inspiring his audience to face their own addictions and receive the help they need.
“He spoke really well, and while I did not relate to his life, I give him props for speaking up about his childhood trauma and pornography addiction because I am sure that was very hard,” said Emelyne Johns, a sophomore marketing major. “It must have taken time for him to find the courage to speak about that in front of this many people.”
Crews moved on to talk about his experience with sexual assault. He recounted how Adam Venit, a talent agent, tried to grope him at a Hollywood party, forcing Crews to try his hardest to not make a scene in fear of losing everything he worked for. In 2017, when Crews came out about this experience, he was among those named in Time Person of the Year as one of the “Silence Breakers” in the “Me Too” movement.
Crews also did not shy away from discussing his past controversies. In 2020, he tweeted, “Defeating White supremacy without White people creates Black supremacy. Equality is the truth. Like it or not, we are in this together.” Despite receiving backlash from the public, Crews stood by his words. He reminded the students that speaking out about what you believe in will not always be met with support, but is still crucial to do.
“I was very surprised by the remarks made by Mr. Crews,” said David Mothy, a sophomore biology major. “I thought that he would avoid the controversies yet he tackled them head-on.”
The event concluded with a Q&A session, where students were able to freely ask Crews questions. Finally, his time on stage ended with a roar of applause and many students expressed their love for the actor and activist.
“The event exceeded our expectations from when we were planning it,” said Svanik Shirodkar, a senior computer science major and the President of LNT. “He talked about a lot of topics that are pertinent to college students, and it turned out great overall. I am very happy with how the event went.”
