Terry Crews has played the role of Hale Caesar in the first three installments of THE EXPENDABLES franchise, but it doesn't look as though he'll be back for the upcoming fourth film. Last year, the actor shared his own experiences with sexual misconduct in the industry when he revealed that he was groped by a Hollywood executive at a function in Los Angeles in 2016. It was later revealed that Crews' alleged assailant was WME agent Adam Venit, but after the Los Angeles City Attorney's office decided against prosecuting the case because the incident fell outside of the statute of limitations, Crews chose to file a civil suit against both WME and Venit.
Terry Crews testified this morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing about the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, where he said that he has been threatened with retaliation after speaking out. Crews said that EXPENDABLES producer Avi Lerner got in touch with his manager and ask that the actor drop his case against WME and Venit if he wanted to be in the fourth film, "and if I didn’t there would be trouble." Crews then clarified that he wouldn't have a role in the film.
No. Simply because this same producer is under his own … investigation. Abusers protect abusers — and this is one thing I had to decide, whether I was going to draw the line on. Am I going to be a part of this or am I gonna take a stand, and there are projects I had to turn down.
Avi Lerner and Millennium Films were sued by a former executive for sexual harassment last year, which Lerner dismissed as "all lies" and "a joke." The actor told the Senators that he doubted law enforcement would take his allegations seriously at the time, saying that he "probably would have been laughed out of the police station," but when the #MeToo movement began to take off, he felt that it was safe to share his story. "What happened to me has happened to many many other men in Hollywood, and since I came forward with my story I have had thousands and thousands of men come to me and say ‘Me too, this is my story. But I did not have the confidence, or I did not feel safe enough, to come out,'" Crews said. "Because what happens is you get blacklisted, your career is in danger — after that, no one wants to work with you." You can watch more of Terry Crews' testimony below.
At the moment, production on THE EXPENDABLES 4 is expected to begin in early 2019.