Terry Crews Passionately Explains Sexual Harassment Lawsuit: 'We Have to Discipline Hollywood' (Exclusive)
Terry Crews is seizing this moment.
The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star and his wife, Rebecca King-Crews, spoke to ET's Lauren Zima at the GQ Men of the Year event in Los Angeles on Thursday, just days after filing a lawsuit against Hollywood agent Adam Venit and his employer, WME, for nine claims, including alleged assault and sexual harassment.
"First of all, it's bigger than me," the 49-year-old actor said in reference to his recent Time magazine piece about the need for men to hold each other accountable for sexual misconduct. "That's what this is all about. The whole Time magazine thing was the fact that I was representing those who had been trampled. Had never had a voice. Were kicked out of Hollywood never to return."
"I felt so proud to be that representative and stand along with the other wonderful individuals who really gave everything they had and risked everything they had to come forward," he continued. "There is no backing down. There is no backward. We're gonna take this all the way. It's the Emancipation Proclamation. You are now free. That's the deal. And I'm here to cement it, I'm here to make sure no one ever, ever, ever has to go through what I went through. What any other of these ladies went through."
King-Crews was proud of her husband coming forward. "He did not announce this, he did not plan it. It just came out of his heart," she told us. "I'm not surprised."
Crews explained that what compelled him to speak out was the many brave women before him who told their own stories.
"Those courageous women are the reason I spoke out in the first place," he shared. "The strength of someone else makes me stronger and it just keeps going. And let me tell you it's not stopping."
In regard to his lawsuit against Venit, Crews said it's about accountability.
"People need to be held accountable. See one thing people have to understand, this is not about revenge, it's not about get back," he said.
"It's about accountability, we have to discipline people. We have to discipline Hollywood ... You cannot treat people like they're less than human beings. You just can't do it. It's unreal and it's actually ridiculous it got that far."
In the lawsuit filed Monday with the Superior Court of Los Angeles, Crews alleges that Venit grabbed his genitals at a party "so hard that Crews leapt back in pain." Crews also alleges that Venit stared at him "like a rabid dog" at the party, "sticking his tongue in and out of his mouth provocatively." Crews is asking for a jury trial in the case.
ET has reached out to WME, the Hollywood agency Crews left last month. Venit was recently reinstated at the agency with a lower title after a 30-day suspension.
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