Terry Crews has become a vocal figure in the #MeToo movement. The accomplished actor opened up about his past experience with a Hollywood agent by the name of Adam Venit who assaulted him. “The assault lasted only minutes, but what he was effectively telling me while he was holding my genitals in his hand was that he held the power, that he was in control,” he said about the incident.
While at the "Man Up: Unpacking Masculinity" panel at the Teen Vogue Summit, Crews addressed the issue of toxic masculinity, and spoke about the significance of accountability. "I think as men, what we need to do is to say, 'We're sorry.' Then we need to concede, and then we need to be accountable," the actor explained. "The person who molested me in 2016, I had already forgiven him. That wasn't the point. The point was like, 'Wait, wait, you're telling me you can just do it? You're telling me, wait, it's okay? You're not going to do anything?' He's like, 'No, I said I was sorry.' I said, 'But you're not going to correct this? I'm giving you guys millions of dollars and you're going to sit here and say, 'Well, Terry, you're less of a human being right now. Just a little bit less. Just say it.' I'm, like, 'I'm not saying that.'"
The actor went on to reveal his decision to be a part of the #MeToo movement, despite the criticisms of others. "You have to correct," he said. "You can't ignore me, I'm standing right here...Yeah, I am. And all I did, this was not waving flags, this was not shooting guns in the air, this was like, 'No, no, no, you're not going to do that.' No, he can't go back to work. No. He can't go back to work and do that. No man, woman, child — you cannot molest anybody and go back to work."
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