In an interview on the Drinkin Bros. podcast, Crawford, who played Riggs, talks with host Ross Patterson about the allegations that led to his ouster from the Fox series. Crawford says when the first news story of the allegations came out, he didnt pay much attention, saying he believed it would all blow over.
In particular, he addresses two on-set incidents, one during a location shoot in a park during which he can be heard on tape shouting Shut the **** up to the assistant director over noise issues on the set.
I knew that they had those tapes, and they had been blackmailing me with that
anytime I had a problem with [Damon Wayans], Crawford explains. (Crawford alleged Wayans refused to attend table reads or film in churches). 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 by a security guard, so it was humiliating.
He also blisters at an allegation that he was yelling at children at a nearby pool that day, calling it a blatant ****ing lie
Clearly Im yelling at the guy whose job it is to get the set quiet, he says. And heres the thing: Did I make a poor choice? Absolutely, and I felt embarrassed in the moment because I was belligerent
Wed been shooting a three-page scene for eight hours, OK? We were so behind, and we continued to try and shoot through all of this noise
We stopped production over seven times. I called my agent, we were writing emails, we were phoning everyone we could to try and help us resolve the situation. No one would come in, no one would help us
So I shot all of my coverage in between the sounds.
I snapped, Crawford admits. Should I have gone to my trailer? 100 percent. Should I have just gone and waited? Thats 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 its a bunch of very delicate flowers out there."
Crawford also tells Patterson, to this day he has never received a call from Warner Bros. informing him he was fired, learning his fate from social media and Deadline. He said his last conversation with studio president Peter Roth came after news first surfaced of the on-set issues. He said, Clayne, I cant promise you that I can save your job, but what I can tell you is that you have to make a public announcement apologizing, publicly, to Damon Wayans, Crawford says. I was like, What the ****? Peter, why would I apologize publicly because he and I had a riff on set? And hes like, Clayne, that statement alone tells me you dont want to come back
If I were you, Id look your children in the eyes, and Id look your wife in the eyes, and you need to make a decision, but again I cant promise you that I can save your job. Crawford said he couldnt apologize to Wayans, saying Wayans made his life miserable on the show.
Crawford says he decided to talk now because its important to him to get his side of the story out there. The only reason Im doing this is because every time its August and any time they talk about the show, its my image, my ****ing name, to promote their goddamn show.