The role Terry Crews only played for the money: “We’re going to hook you up”
Terry Crews has a better track record than most athletes-turned-actors, but there was one television show he appeared in purely for the paycheck.
It’s not uncommon for former musicians, professional wrestlers, or stage performers to try out acting, as they come from a background that requires some degree of performance; however, it’s less common to see truly competitive athletes fully transition into careers in film and television where they are taken seriously.
Although there are many former athletes who can complete a fun cameo or two, Terry Crews was able to revamp his career after his time as a professional football player and become a much better actor than anyone would have expected.
Considering that Crews has admitted to being a bit of a cinephile with a love of classic films, it’s not that surprising that he’s taken roles that actually challenge him. While he was able to develop a successful working relationship with David Ayer after appearing in his crime dramas Harsh Times and Street Kings, the actor eventually developed a knack for comedy, best seen within his scene-stealing roles in Idiocracy and the Adam Sandler-led remake of The Longest Yard.
He may have surprised everyone with the range he has as a performer, but that doesn’t mean that he’s been exempt from making the same mistakes that many other actors have. It’s a common trend in Hollywood for actors to accept roles that are beneath them purely for the money, and while Crews said he had reservations about appearing in the television show Are We There Yet?, he told AV Club that the paycheck was too good to pass up.
“The money’s really good on this,” he admitted, “It’s funny because it’s a family show, a family movie, and I was really afraid of taking over somebody’s character, you know, with Ice Cube and the whole thing, because you don’t want to mess it up for anybody. Ice Cube, Terry Crews, we don’t even look alike.”
Are We There Yet? was based on a 2005 family comedy that starred Ice Cube as a disgruntled father taking his children on a road trip, and according to Crews, the former returned to create the series, and personally reached out about having him take over the lead role, recalling, “I got the call from Cube, he was like, ‘Man, coming off Everybody Hates Chris, I think you’d be the perfect guy to handle this, TV-wise’, I was like, ‘Great, so how’s the money?’, and he was like, ‘We’re going to hook you up’.”
The film version was a somewhat box office success that failed to impress critics, and the television version earned the same muted response. However, despite less-than-enthusiastic reviews, Are We There Yet? ran for 100 episodes and certainly enhanced Crews’ star power.
In fairness to the hulking man, appearing on the show didn’t mean that he had given up on being taken seriously as an actor, as he managed to make appearances in Bridesmaids, The Expendables 2, and Draft Day in between seasons of the show. Ironically, the end of Are We There Yet? led Crews to what would become the most iconic role of his entire career, as he was subsequently cast as the wacky supervisor Terry Jeffords in the hit NBC sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
