The Expendables franchise included some of the greatest action movie stars of the last 40 years or so. There were so many of them, however, that they don't all get a chance to shine the way they all might have liked. It turns out that Terry Crews' role in the original film was not going to be a very big part, but writer and director Sylvester Stallone loved Crews' performance so much, he changed the movie to give the actor a bigger, and more important role. According to Crews...
When I was on that movie, I wasn't getting a lot of light and they kept changing the script and I just kept disappearing. I was like, 'You know what, I'm gonna mail it in. I'm gonna say my lines and go home. I wanna get out of here.' And something told me, like, 'Terry, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. You have this chance to make history. You've got to just shine no matter what.' And I went 'You know what, you're right.' And I went to work and I said my two lines, three lines, and I said it with all the gusto I could say. And all of a sudden, Sly's like [breaks out extreme Sylvester Stallone impression]:, 'You know what, I like that. Wait a second right here. Wait a second right here. I'm gonna change the movie!' And he rewrote the movie.
So let that be a lesson to us all. You should always give your all to every job you do, even if you don't think it's worth it. It might not always pay off, but sometimes it does.
In the case of Terry Crews, even though he was frustrated with a small role in The Expendables and his first inclination was to simply phone in the part and get it done, he ultimately decided not to do that. As a result, he impressed the boss to the point that he was given much more to do. Crews tells EW that Stallone changed the script so that Crews' character, whose name was Hale Caeser (let's all just enjoy that for a moment) was the one who rescued him in the film. Also, at least one scene that was never in the script was added on the set to give Crews more to do.
It probably also led to additional work for Terry Crews. If the character had only ever had a couple of lines in the first film, it's possible he might have been dropped entirely when it came time for Expendables sequels, but Crews returned for those as well.
A fourth installment of the Expendables franchise is expected to shoot this year. Most of the cast has not been confirmed, though the word is Terry Crews won't be back, though for unfortunate reasons. Still, he seems to have fond memories of the movies, so we'll see what happens.
