Clayne Crawford is speaking out about his termination from “Lethal Weapon” in May, which made national news.
Following his alleged aggressive on-set behavior, the performer, who portrayed co-lead character Riggs, was let go by the program and unofficially replaced by Seann William Scott.
There were reports of a furious altercation between Crawford and Damon Wayans, who plays Murtaugh, which was disclosed in previously leaked recordings.
Crawford spoke up about the circumstances that led to his firing in a nearly two-hour podcast with longtime friend and Drinkin’ Bros. host Ross Patterson, in his first interview since being sacked from the Warner Bros. TV-produced Fox drama.
Crawford, who claimed that Warner Bros. never phoned him to inform him that he had been sacked, spoke of an occasion when he screamed at an assistant director about distracting noises on set while another actor was filming a scene.
Crawford confessed, “I snapped. Should I have gone to my trailer? 100 percent. Should I have just gone and waited? That’s what I was instructed to do when there was a problem — you go sit in your trailer and you lock your door and you take a nap. … Hollywood is very sensitive, so I should not have screamed and yelled, right, because it’s a bunch of very delicate flowers out there.”
“Mind, you, when the incident happened, I had to pay half of my salary for that episode, I had to spend six weeks in anger management every day on my lunch break, and I had to be escorted to and from set, from my trailer to set, by a security guard, so it was humiliating,” Crawford said about the run-in with the AD, calling one report about his behavior “a blatant f—ing lie.”
Crawford alleges that his altercation with the assistant director, which took place in October 2017, was caught on tape and used to blackmail him.
“I knew that they had those tapes and they had been blackmailing me with that,” he claimed. “Anytime I had a problem with (co-star Damon Wayans) …any time I complained, it’s like, ‘This will come out, and it will ruin your career.'”
Wayans, 57, alleged on Twitter in May that Crawford was to blame for an injury he sustained during filming. He said shrapnel had struck him and shared a video of an explosion. Crawford directed the episode, according to him.
“He hit another actor in the mouth with a bottle of green tea and busted his mouth open,” Wayans tweeted later.
Wayans’ injuries were ignored by Crawford, who said that “guys have cut themselves worse shaving.”
He claimed, “He was blaming others when it was a ricochet. To go around and ask us to sign a get-well card? That was the show. I’ve worked with A-list stars and have never seen anyone treat someone the way they treated him: They’d reward his extremely poor behaviour constantly, which only fuelled the fire.”
Crawford also stated that he did not expect to be fired.
“It’s a little different when you replace Becky or the mom off of Fresh Prince. If they’d replaced the Fresh Prince, we’d have been like, ‘What the f**k are we watching anyway?’,” he stated. “That’s why I just didn’t think it was possible.”
“I just didn’t think they were going to get rid of me, I guess. And if they did, I thought they’d give me a buzz.”
Crawford also said that the animosity with former co-star Wayans was just part of the business.
“It’s like sports,” he remarked, “which we take very seriously and there’s no life or death. There’s a lot of screaming and yelling. It’s sometimes, it’s f**king necessary to get the job done when there’s a clock ticking.”
“Not in Hollywood. People are very sensitive nowadays, and here’s the thing – go for it. Go try and make Apocalypse Now where everyone’s trying to have a good time and being sweet. Go. Go, I just want you to f**king go and make Shawshank Redemption and everyone have a great time and it’s never difficult on anyone.”
Crawford constantly mentions Warner Bros. Television president Peter Roth, whom he alleges he sought assistance from in dealing with dissatisfied star Wayans and his continuous refusal to appear to table readings or set. Crawford reportedly recalls asking Roth how he could allow Wayans to “put this slander shit out there” when the accusations of his actions initially appeared. That’s when, according to Crawford, Roth advised him to apologize to his co-star in order to keep his job.
In May, Variety uncovered recordings of Crawford and Wayans having an expletive-laced dispute, revealing the actors’ tumultuous behind-the-scenes relationship.
The two dispute in the audio and video footage is about an injury Wayans suffered while filming an episode Crawford directed.
Crawford apologized for two incidents on the set of Lethal Weapon in April.
“It is true that I have been reprimanded twice during this past season of Lethal Weapon,” he wrote. “The first reprimand was because I reacted with anger over working conditions that did not feel safe or conducive to good work under the leadership of a guest director and assistant director who, in turn, were angry at my response. I met with Human Resources, I apologized for my part of the conflict, and I completed studio-appointed therapy. I even shared a sizable portion of my paycheck with one of the parties involved per the instruction of the studio.”
An actor on set felt unsafe because a piece of shrapnel from an effect hit him. It was an unfortunate event that happened in spite of all safety precautions and procedures being followed. I take responsibility for the incident because I was in charge of the set.”
