Clayne Crawford has offered his side of the story following his firing from Fox’s Lethal Weapon and reports of behind-the-scenes drama with co-star Damon Wayans.
Crawford was let go from his role as Martin Riggs in May after audio and video tapes surfaced depicting bad behavior on set. While Wayans condemned Crawford’s actions during the first two seasons of Lethal Weapon, Crawford now suggests he was unfairly dismissed.
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Speaking on the Drinkin’ Bros podcast, the actor admitted he didn’t think he would be fired from the popular buddy-cop series. “It’s a little different when you replace Becky or the mom off of Fresh Prince,” he said. “If they’d replaced the Fresh Prince, we’d have been like, ‘What the fuck are we watching anyway?’ That’s why I just didn’t think it was possible.”
The controversy came to a head when footage emerged of Crawford apparently shouting at a nearby group at a pool. The actor denied there was any pool, and called it a “blatant fucking lie.” He did admit shouting at a first assistant director whose job it was to keep quiet on the set and said, “I snapped. Should I have gone to my trailer? One-hundred 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,” he continued. Crawford dismissed claims by Wayans’ that he was “targeted” in an episode directed by the actor, and said he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
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Crawford also alleged he was being blackmailed with the potential release of the tapes. “I knew that they were going to release these tapes because they’d been blackmailing me with them for months and months and months, the entire second season,” he told the podcast. “And I have all the text messages from these people and voicemails from these people saying, ‘Obviously you’re not the problem, but you’ve got to get ahead of this because you know they’re going to use those tapes against you.'”
He insisted in the interview that he was kept in the dark about his dismissal, and had presumed his apology would be enough save his job. “I just didn’t think they were going to get rid of me, I guess,” he admitted. “And if they did, I thought they’d give me a buzz … just a jangle?”
American Pie actor Seann William Scott has joined the cast of Lethal Weapon, and will star alongside Wayans. Playing Wesley Cole, Scott’s new character reportedly joins the LAPD to be closer to his family.