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fastchat { Terry Crews }
T
erry Crews is in
control. As Lt. Terry
Jeffords (formerly
Sgt.) of the titular
New York City precinct in
NBC’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,”
airing Thursdays at 8:30 p.m.,
the former NFL player is a
sometimes not-so-gentle
giant playing surrogate big
brother to smart but goofball
detective Jake Peralta (Andy
Samberg), eager-to-please
perfectionist Amy Santiago
(Melissa Fumero), weird but
big-hearted Charles Boyle
(Joe Lo Truglio) and others in
the acclaimed sitcom, now in
its seventh season.
Crews, 51, born in Flint,
Michigan, transitioned
from football to acting,
initially playing hulking
toughs in films including
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
“The Sixth Day” (2000)
and “Deliver Us from Eva”
(2003). But his knack for
comedy came through in a
host of 2000s movies and
as levelheaded but frugal
dad Julius in Chris Rock’s
semiautobiographical sit-
com “Everybody Hates
Chris” (UPN/The CW,
2005-2009).
More recently, Crews
became host of “America’s
Got Talent” and its “Champi-
ons” spinoff. In November,
“AGT” judge Gabrielle
Union accused its producers
of a racist “toxic culture,”
and she subsequently was
fired. On a Jan. 23 “Today”
interview, Crews, who had
been largely silent on the
issue, dismissed her con-
cerns. Then on Jan. 31 he
apologized to her
in a series of
tweets, saying,
“I want you to
know it was never
my intention to
invalidate
your experi-
ence — but that is
what I did. . . . I want
to apologize for the com-
ments I made. I realize there
are a lot of black women
hurt and let down by what I
said and also by what I
didn’t say.”
A married dad with five
kids, Crews spoke with
Newsday contributor Frank
Lovece.
Sgt. Jeffords has become Lt.
Jeffords. Are you and he
getting more of a spotlight?
Wow, you know, there’s a
different dynamic that starts
the season off. Last season,
we left off with Capt. Holt
[Andre Braugher] being
demoted. He loses his cap-
taincy and now he’s a regu-
lar old officer in the Nine-
Nine. I have his office and
I’m sitting at his old desk
with my pictures up there,
and it was just weird. It was
like, no, this is not right.
Andre even said, off-set,
when we were not shooting,
that it was weird!
But it must be great, too, since
you’re working with Andre
Braugher, who to my mind is
one of the greatest actors
around.
Easily, easily,
one of the best actors. I mean,
we sit there and talk about
what it was like on the set of
“Glory,” on the set of “Homi-
cide: Life on the Street.” And
he makes everybody better —
he’s the Michael Jordan of our
set. Sterling Brown was
telling me, when he won the
Emmy [for Outstanding Lead
Actor in a Drama Series in
2017, for “This Is Us” ], about
how Andre Braugher was his
inspiration. Then Sterling
ended up on the show [on the
2018 episode “The Box”].
Dude, this is like, these are
bucket-list moments — I can’t
believe my life right now. I
can’t. [Laughs.] It’s literally,
like, this is more than I could
ever ask for.
Your other big gig right now is
hosting the “AGT” franchise,
which featured Luke Islam, the
13-year-old singer from
Long Island. I
GETTY IMAGES / RACHEL LUNA
know there are lots of contes-
tants, but did you two have the
opportunity to speak?
We spoke! We’re both fans
of Broadway. We were both
talking about [the musical]
“Waitress” and the latest
show he’s seen. . . . He is an
amazing talent. Luke Islam
has got nothing but a bright
future. [Being on “AGT”] is a
game changer for him.
We were all so disappointed he
didn’t make it to the finals on his
season this past summer.
You know what, though? I
have to say this: You’ve got
to kind of think of “AGT” as
homecoming queen, king,
y’know what I mean? It’s a
popularity contest, too. It
becomes a thing where
there’s talent involved but
there’s also popularity. So I
tell every act that every time
you get on, you’ve won
because you get to be here.
And I’m glad that I’m the
host and not a judge be-
cause I’m not big on compe-
tition at all. Like, who’s to
say a dancer is better than a
singer is better than a dan-
ger act? That’s all subjective.
You starred in what many
people call one of the most
prescient movies ever:
“Idiocracy.” [Director and
co-writer Mike Judge’s
2006 science-fiction
satire of two time
travelers who arrive in
a future U.S. where
everyone has become
stupid and anti-intel-
lectual, corporations
own the
govern-
ment, and
newsday.com
the president,
played by Crews,
is a foul-mouthed
populist.]
What was crazy
NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2020
is that when we did
it, the movie was origi-
nally called [by the working
title] “3001.” And they had to
change the title because it
was happening too fast. It was
like, “No, this thing is happen-
ing way before 3001!” And we
saw it happening! I mean, in
2016, when, politicians were,
like, “Yo, mama!” “No, yo
mama,” we were like, “Oh,
this is getting really bad.”