Recently, Terry Crews has been reflecting on his journey into Hollywood following the release of his memoir, Tough: My Journey to True Power. There, he opened up about his struggles in life — from his times in his breakout film, White Chicks to his Brooklyn Nine-Nine stint. But what shocked a lot of fans was his rough childhood which involved "abusive" experiences with his parents. Here's the truth about his relationship with them.
What Is Terry Crews' Memoir, 'Tough' About?
Speaking to ET in July 2021, Crews said that his memoir is about the "mistakes" he's made in his life. "It's all about the mistakes I've made," he explained. "It's really about being able to do the things you don't want to do until you want to do them." When asked how he'd describe his book, he said that it's about "self-discipline" in different aspects of his life. "There are several different topics that I take on in this book, be it religion, be it a relationship, be it money," he shared.
"There are about eight to 10 different subjects I take on and basically how undisciplined I was in almost every one of those subjects, and the self-discipline that is required in order to really make these things work for you in your life," he continued. "And the big thing is, Tough is really about self-discipline because one thing I realized is that that's the only discipline that actually works."
He added that self-disicpline and self-reflections have led to many wake-up calls in his life. "And it's a wake-up call. And I've had several different wake-up calls in my life and several near disasters that I have avoided," he said. "I'm very hopeful that this book -- it may not help everybody -- but there will be something in there that you could say, 'Oh my God, this was revolutionary for me.' I've always been about self-reflection and that's the real thing that's helped me."
Inside Terry Crews' Relationship With 'Abusive' Parents
In his memoir, Crews revealed an "abusive" experience with his mom when he was growing up. "She made me pull down my pants to see if I'd hit puberty," he recalled. "It was wild because I never envisioned actually being that transparent. It was so difficult because I love my mom and, to be honest, I didn't want her to go down as having done something so heinous. But at the same time, it was abusive. This is the stuff that came out in therapy, the stuff that I really had to address."
He previously talked about his father's violence as well. He said it influenced him to develop toxic male traits of his own. "Growing up was not a good experience. My father was very abusive. He used to beat my mother," he told National Geographic's Running Wild with Bear Grylls. He added that it's what pushed him to be more fit. "It was one of those things where I knew I had to get stronger because one day I thought I'd have to fight him. That's how it started out," he confessed. "I always, always had been like, 'Be fit, be ready, be prepared, be there.'"
How The #MeToo & BLM Movements Inspired Terry Crews' Memoir
When asked why he decided to write his memoir, Crews said that it was partly due to the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. "You mentioned the #MeToo movement and you mentioned Black Lives Matter, you mentioned these kinds of things that have happened over the last couple of years that I've been on the forefront of in a lot of ways," he told ET. "I think the book is perfect because if we don't at least start to talk more about all of this then we can't get past this. And we have to find ways to move on and, you know, ways to fix and correct what's happened with #MeToo and what's happened with Black Lives Matter."
"Because my thing is, the mistake we can always make, it's just restating the problem on both things. We can just keep talking about the problem without any hunt for any solutions," he continued. "And the reason I decided it was time to put this book out was, because this is about finding solutions together. Finding solutions, men and women, finding solutions, black and white, finding solutions, rich and poor. All of those things are much deeper than we all realize."
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