Terry Crews slams toxic masculinity, Expendables franchise in powerful congressional testimony

When the #MeToo movement first broke out, Terry Crews was one of its most vocal supporters.

In October, the actor shared his story of being groped by a Hollywood agent. And he continued his activism Tuesday, delivering a compelling testimony about the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The bill unanimously passed Congress in 2016 and became law, ensuring survivors have access to rape kits, counseling, and other services. It even earned creator Amanda Nguyen a Nobel Prize nomination Monday. But Crews and Nguyen still returned to the Senate to discuss why a law doesn't solve all the problems of sexual assault.

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Crews began his testimony with a raw flashback to his childhood with an abusive father, and recounted how his own "toxic masculinity" permeated his NFL career and family life. That all changed in February 2016, when Crews has said he was sexually assaulted by high-profile agent Adam Venit. Venit has denied the allegations.

When Crews was assaulted, he said, he realized he couldn't violently regain power like his instincts demanded. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked why. "As a black man in America," Crews began, "you only have a few shots at success. You only have a few chances to make yourself a viable member of society."

Crews has seen pushback since discussing his assault: After starring in the first three Expendables films, Crews told the committee that a producer demanded he drop his sexual assault case or he wouldn't appear in the fourth movie. Crews refused, especially because that producer is apparently facing his own sexual assault allegations.

"'Am I going to be a part of this, or am I going to take a stand?'" Crews had to ask himself. "There are projects that I had to turn down." Watch more of Crews' testimony via C-SPAN.