This fall, Lethal Weapon returns to TV with a new face, Seann William Scott, who’s replacing Clayne Crawford as the character Martin Riggs. Crawford was fired amid allegations that he created a hostile environment on set, and now, in an interview with the Drinkin’ Bros podcast, Crawford denied some of the allegations against him and claimed he only found out he was fired from the show on social media. Crawford admitted he fought with his co-star Damon Wayans, and in this new interview he claimed Wayans wouldn’t come to table reads and that Wayans and his allies were using recordings of Crawford on set to “blackmail†him. “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,†Crawford said.
In those the recordings, which were obtained by Variety, Crawford is heard calling Wayans a “pussy†and yelling at crew members to keep the set quiet during a scene when the show was shooting near a swimming pool with children. Crawford claimed that it was a “blatant fucking lie†that he was yelling at the children (though Variety only claimed that the children were within earshot) and that the scene was not shot near a pool, but admits he did yell at crew members. “I snapped,†Crawford said. “Should I have gone to my trailer? One hundred percent … 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.â€
Crawford also claims that Warner Bros. TV never formally fired him from the show, and that before he was replaced, studio president Peter Roth pressured him to make a public apology to Wayans, which Crawford refused to do. After the allegations against him were first reported, Crawford said he reached out to other actors on the show, who agreed that Wayans was the problem, and put together a statement, where he admitted to those tapes, but did not apologize to Wayans. On the podcast, Crawford added that the reason he decided he was going to speak out was because “any time they talk about the show, it’s my image, my fucking name, to promote their goddamn show.â€