Terry Crews gave a powerful testimony before a Senate Judiciary Committee where he called for the end of toxic masculinity and recounted how speaking out has affected his career.
The Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor, 49, gave a six-minute opening statement on Tuesday, recounting his story of alleged sexual assault at the hands of an agent at WME.
Although he never mentioned him by name, Crews previously spoke up about agent Adam Venit, who Crews claims groped him at a party. The actor filed a lawsuit against WME and Venit, which was later dismissed due to the statute of limitations expiring. Venit was suspended and later demoted.
Later on in the hearing, Crews revealed that he would not appear in The Expendables 4 because of the lawsuit against the powerful Hollywood agency.
“I’ve done three movies called The Expendables with Sylvester Stallone,” Crews said. “The producer of that film called my manager and asked him to drop my case in order for me to be in the fourth installment of the movie, and if I didn’t there would be trouble.”
Crews then said he opted out of the movie altogether.
“Abusers protect abusers — and this is one thing I had to decide, whether I was going to draw the line on,” Crews said. “Am I going to be a part of this or am I gonna take a stand? And there are projects I had to turn down.”
Crews said that he has faced blowback from speaking out as a male sexual assault survivor and blamed toxic masculinity for not believing victims.
“This is how toxic masculinity permeates culture. As I shared my story, I was told over and over that this was not abuse,” he said. “This was just a joke. This was just horseplay. But I can say one man’s horseplay is another man’s humiliation. And I chose to tell my story and share my experience to stand in solidarity with millions of other survivors around the world. That I know how hard it is to come forward, I know the shame associated with the assault. It happened to me.”
According to legal documents previously obtained by PEOPLE, Venit issued a general denial to “each and every allegation” made by Crews in a lawsuit the actor filed against him in December.
In the documents, which were filed in late January, Venit denied that Crews had “sustained any injury or loss” and also claimed that his alleged actions and conduct had not been “sexual.”
