Terry Crews On Expendables 2 And The Art Of The Action One-Liner
Former NFL linebacker-turned-actor (not to mention past and future President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho) Terry Crews took a slightly different journey to action stardom than folks like Sly Stallone, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren and Arnold Schwarzenegger; his route carved a path through the comedy world, with turns in films including Friday After Next, White Chicks, and Balls of Fury. Cast as the bicep-flexing, quip-happy Hale Caesar in 2010's The Expendables — a role he admits Wesley Snipes might have otherwise played if things had worked out differently — Crews more than earned his spot on the team, backed by Stallone's vote of confidence: "He literally told me, 'I?m going to make you an action star.'?
Back alongside his brawny brethren in The Expendables 2, Crews took time to share a few revelations about his Expendables experience with Movieline — starting with a surprisingly in-depth analysis of the art of delivering the perfect action movie one-liner.
What is the secret to delivering the perfect one-liner in a movie like The Expendables 2?
It?s funny because Sly, Bruce and Arnold kind of perfected it — and let me tell you a little thing that a lot of people don?t know. In the first Expendables there were a ton of monologues, and I mean monologues. Mon-o-logues. Everywhere! I remember I had a two-page monologue and spent about two months learning this whole thing, so did Randy [Couture], he had his own monologue — and we get on set and Sly?s like, ?We can?t say any of this.? [Mimes crumpling paper.] I was like, ?Ahhhh, the script is gone!? And you realize in an action movie, the one-liners…
Diora Baird Dita Von Teese Dominique Swain Donna Feldman Drea de Matteo Drew Barrymore Ehrinn Cummings Elena Lyons