Clayne Crawford Opens Up About 'Lethal Weapon' Firing

Clayne Crawford was replaced by Sean William Scott on the hit Fox series Lethal Weapon after he was fired for “hostile behavior,” including putting his co-star Damon Wayans in physical danger. (The feud also included childish name-calling and an ugly “fray” involving Crawford, Wayans, Wayans’ assistant, and an executive producer that ended when “Wayans left the set, and production shut down for the day.”) Before this week, all Crawford had said about the reported incidents is that he has “love, respect, and care for my crew and cast, and would never intentionally jeopardize so many jobs,” and that he’s “incredibly sorry” if his “passion for doing good work has ever made anyone feel less than comfortable on our set, or feel less than celebrated for their efforts.”

But in an interview on the podcast Drinkin’Bros (already off to a good start!), Crawford opened up about the “blatant f*cking lies” that led to his exit.

“It’s a little different when you replace Becky [from Roseanne] or the mom off of [The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]. Like it’s a little — like if they’d replaced the Fresh Prince, we’d have been like, what the f*ck are we watching anyway? That’s why I just didn’t think it was possible,” he said. “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… just a jangle? Just grab two cans and a string and just be like, you’re not coming back. We feel like this is The Damon Wayans Show and people just don’t like you. So go the f*ck back to Alabama you dumb hick, thanks for playing.”

As for the tapes where you can hear Wayans tell Crawford to “suck my d*ck,” and Crawford tell Wayans that he’s the “biggest crybaby p*ssy I’ve ever met in my life,” the Rectify star said, “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. 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 also called the claim that he told a group of noisy children to “shut the f*ck up” a “blatant f*cking lie.”

“I snapped,” Crawford admits. “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.” (Via)

When asked why he was telling his side of the story now, Crawford explained, “The only reason I’m doing this is because every time — it’s August and any time they talk about the show, it’s my image, my f*cking name, to promote their goddamn show.” You can listen to the entire Drinkin’Bros interview here.