-Our first guest tonight is a talented actor and host
you know from his work on shows
like "Brooklyn Nine Nine" and "America's Got Talent".
His new memoir, "Tough: My Journey to True Power,"
is out Tuesday.
Please welcome back to the show,
our friend, Terry Crews, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Wow!
-So nice to have you back, in the studio, no less!
-Real people! -Real people.
-Real people. I love real people. I love you!
-They are very nice.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And real peope love you. We missed you.
We had a "Brooklyn Nine Nine" finale show.
You had obviously filmed the finale
months before we did this,
but we had the gang back together.
You weren't here, but we went out of our way
to make sure you were represented.
And were you happy with the cardboard cutout
we used for you?
-I saw it. I loved it.
The pecs popped really wonderful.
-You can see that there's no technology.
This is not CGI.
-This is all real. [ Cheers and applause ]
This is it!
-But we got the finest the finest technicians on Earth
to see if they could replicate this on a cardboard cutout.
Let's take a look.
We do have a cutout Terry,
and we're very happy with the technology that we've used
to make his pecs go.
-Ooh! -Yeah, it's really good.
Really good. -Yeah.
-You know, the thing is, every year it gets better and better,
because they kind of droop a little more.
-Right. Oh, that's interesting.
-In a minute, I'm gonna hit myself in the face.
It's gonna be like, oh, oh, oh.
-The best thing is, every single one
of your cast mates said, "I want it, I want it, I want it."
And then they just left it in the hallway
and we had to get rid of it,
because every time I walked to my dressing room,
I'd turn on the lights
and it would scare the [bleep] out of me.
-Oh, my God. -Yeah.
-You know, I have a statue of myself in my house.
-Who doesn't? -I know!
Who doesn't have a statue?
And my wife would go in and it would scare her every morning.
She was like, "You've got to get this sucker out of here."
-How long have you had a statue of yourself?
-It was for fittings
and stuff like that, for the show.
So I was out and they would fit the thing,
and then I fell in love with it and I kept it.
[ Laughing ]
-So it sounds like a mannequin that you're calling a statue.
-Well. -Okay.
So was it hard?
You know, I can only imagine what it was like
the last day of shooting on a show like that
that had such a wonderful cast.
You all seemed genuinely close.
-I still get emotional about this, because, for one,
you know, I spent more time with that cast
than I did my own family.
And, you know...
-But your family got to be with the statue.
It wasn't like they had no one. -Yeah.
You know what I mean?
It was raising my kids.
But, you know, but we got the chance
to end it the way we wanted.
I mean, it's totally bittersweet because it was so sad.
But at the same time, like, we got an ending.
There's so many shows that just cut off and it's a wrap.
And I think we ended it the perfect way.
It was perfect. -Well, congratulations.
It was a really lovely one.
[ Cheers and applause ]
So this is your second memoir. -Yes.
-I can imagine early in your career,
you might not have thought you would have one memoir in you,
and now you've got two.
-Well, first of all, when I did my first one in 2014,
it was called "Manhood".
And I was like, "This is it. This is the one.
And then more life happened and more questions happened
and people kept, you know --
The first thing I brought up in that first book
was toxic masculinity.
And people were like, "What is that?"
And then the Academy Awards happened,
and you start to understand,
and you start to see all these examples.
And I got more and more questions, and I said,
"It's time for another book,"
because I wasn't always the nice guy
you see in front of you right now, Seth.
There were times that I had extreme rage,
and it was so wild, because there had been
a lot of people who've been knocked out by me before.
And what was so nuts is that my wife was literally like,
"Hey, you got to promise me
that you will never react in violence, ever again."
And I was like, "Oh, come on. I got to do this. I'm a man."
And she's like, "No. No."
And the time that I didn't, it actually saved my life,
which was so incredible.
-That's an amazing thing to hear.
And I can only imagine how easy it was to fall into that.
Obviously, you had a professional football career
before you found your way into acting.
That's, you know, an inherently violent sport.
I've heard you say you did you did not have
an ego to match your skills.
Can you explain exactly...?
-Well, I wasn't that good a football player.
-Yeah. -Okay, let's just...
-You must've been good at level...
When did you realize it was above your, like --
Was it the pros where you were like --
-No, I went all the way.
You got to understand, you can go a long way in the NFL
with a bad parent and lots of rage.
It'll get you really far, because you take a lot of pain.
-That's not in any of the commercials.
-No, it's not. It's not.
But you will.
You'll go, because it's one of those things where
they need someone who --
First of all, I also needed approval,
so coaches and different things,
and that was my way to get approval from people,
in playing ball and all this stuff.
But one thing I realized is that
I actually did not like football at all.
-Did you have a lights on moment when that happened for you?
-Yes, I was trying out for the 49ers.
It was my -- like, I was on six teams in seven years.
So the seventh team I was trying out for,
the coach threw the ball at me and it dislocated my finger.
My finger was sitting there like a L and I was like,
"I don't like this anymore.
Why am I playing? I don't like it."
And you know what I realized? This was the thing that hit me.
I realized I just liked playing outside all day with my friends.
That was it.
And once I started to do that
and substitute it with all this stuff,
I was like, "I was getting hit all these years,
and I didn't need to do that."
I was like, "Man, we could just go play badminton."
-Yeah. -And it was all good.
I had the breakthrough you had as a Pop Warner football player.
-I remember. -[ Laughing ]
-Yeah, I remember I was on a Pop Warner football team
and we were in, like, the state finals.
And if we won, we'd go to regionals,
and I was sitting on the bench, where I spent a lot of my time,
and our team fumbled and we lost.
And I realized I hated football, 'cause I was so happy.
Like, our whole team was upset on the bus.
And I was like, "Oh, I think I hate this."
[ Laughter ] Hey, this was --
I know you're also an artist.
We've talked about this on the show.
You wrote and illustrated one of my kid's favorite books,
and you used to do portraits of players.
So this was during your playing days?
-That's right. -And you would sort of
supplement your income with this?
-What I used to do is, because I got cut a lot, okay?
So I would go back in the locker rooms
and ask the players if they wanted their portraits painted,
because they had just as big an ego as I did.
I was like, "Yo, I'm going to make you look so amazing.
You're going to look great."
"Yeah, man. I want that, man. Yeah, boy."
And I would get money for these paintings
and I would do like, three or four paintings
in the offseason, get like three or four grand apiece,
and it would help me survive with my family
and get me to the next team.
Because I was in art.
I had an art scholarship before I had a football scholarship.
But now it's so good to actually be
and live this artistic life.
This is what I always wanted, you know?
-Well, it's nice, and now, of course,
you're on a show that is surrounded by talent
and all different talents.
And when Simon Cowell was here, I asked him, you know,
do people on the street, do people in public
ever go up to you and just start doing their talent
in hopes that they'll get like a little, free judgment?
-[ Sighs ] -That ever happen for you?
-Yes.
First of all, I was on a plane and the pilot comes out.
He's like, "I love 'America's Got Talent'!
And, you know, first of all, there's a bug and a rat
and they go into a bar --"
And you're like, "Oh, man. He's doing his steal!"
He's a stand-up comedian pilot!
And I was like, "But who's flying the plane, man?"
I was like, "But that's funny."
And, you know, I'm like, "Ha ha ha, let's fly the plane."
And it's going. It's in the air. -Yeah.
-And he's just doing his spiel and you've got to laugh.
It's a captive audience.
-Yeah, 'cause then you're like, of the two pilots,
you want at least one of their main talents
to be flying a plane, you know? -Exactly.
-Hey, congratulations on the book.
-Oh.
-It's always a delight to see you.
Terry Crews, everybody!