Terry Crews: ‘First of all, if you ain’t been sweating, you don’t need to shower’

Terry Crews interview at Q102 studio

Terry Crews is problematic and unsupportive of coworkers. The last time we talked about him was last year, when he said a bunch of stupid sh-t about Black Lives Matter. The less said about that, the better. Recently, Terry decided to chime in on the topic du jour in celebrity-ville: whether or not showering and bathing is necessary on a daily basis. Terry said this last week:

Terry Crews, 53, admitted that he has to shower because he “spends so much time sweating,” during an interview on Tuesday with Access Hollywood. “I took three today,” Crews said. “Three. Today. See, me and Dwayne [Johnson] are right. I took one in the morning, after the workout, and then I took one before I got here. And then I took one in between acts.”

Crews added that his fitness regime makes regular showers a necessity, and his wife Rebecca King-Crews, 55, helps him stay on top of his hygiene. “I love to shower. I love to, because I spend so much time sweating. First of all, if you ain’t been sweating, you don’t need to shower. But I spend all day sweating, all the time, running and working out, and it ain’t nice. My wife is like, ‘Babe, babe, babe.’ I’m Mr. Old Spice, you know what I mean? So I’ve got to get clean.”

[From People]

Can you see what some people might have pulled out of that quote? “First of all, if you ain’t been sweating, you don’t need to shower.” While I am unequivocally pro-bathing, I also find that if I had one shower and I haven’t been sweating or working out or anything, I probably won’t take a second shower. That’s my generous reading of what Crews said. Other people disagreed, and then Crews argued with the Hollywood Reporter guy on Twitter:

Terry tweeted back: “But I am 110% surprised that you’re a “writer” who actually never read the article…” And Newby responded: “But the thing is, I did, Terry. I’m glad you shower, man. That’s great. But the whole ‘First of all, if you ain’t been sweating, you don’t need to shower,’ fits under anti-bathing.” And on and on. While Crews is problematic about most things, I actually do think that Richard Newby was kind of nitpicking? What Crews said wasn’t even half as dumb as what Jake Gyllenhaal and Mila Kunis said.

Terry Crews at Buzzfeed looking dapper and wearing fancy shoes!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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45 Responses to “Terry Crews: ‘First of all, if you ain’t been sweating, you don’t need to shower’”

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  1. LoonyTunes says:

    Why does Terry always try to provide cover for white people, though? 😳

  2. DuchessL says:

    The only person I know who doesnt sweat is Prince Andrew

  3. NewKay_ says:

    Terry Crews is a white apologist. He has some deep internalized racism going on

  4. Seraphina says:

    Good Lord, people are facing their death and being killed in Kabul yet society has decided to be debate bathing. We have Kabul, a pandemic, a racist family in that lives off of others and always has…………..to name a few.
    And let me say, I hurt my foot several months ago. I was unable to walk and was told to stay off of it. I can assure you I did not sweat laying on the sofa all day, but I needed to bathe on day two before bed. No sweat no stink – but for me, I also WANTED to bathe and relax in a hot shower. Maybe these celebrities have so many comforts they dismiss the comfort of a hot shower – I do not.

    • Desdemona says:

      Bathing or not bathing – first world problems…. In the meantime, freedom and survival for women is over in Afghanistan, millions don’t have drinkable water in Africa and other parts of the world… Here they discuss some Hollywood idiots and their bathing habits… Who cares… I don’t live or hang out with them…
      Yeah.. first world problems…

    • Swack says:

      Many of them probably have hot tubs to help them relax. I to soak on sa tub or have the shower hit the sore muscles even if I haven’t sweated (and that’s would be a rare thing for me not to sweat).

  5. Wiglet Watcher says:

    Terry spoke about something at the wrong time and it got looped in with others. Unfortunate.

    P.S. we all sweat! Always! Quite a bit at night too and most people never realize the day sweat because it evaporates so quickly, but it’s a constant thing. We shed skin constantly. Children even more. I’m so pro bathing and hygiene these people with their anti bathing make me crazy.

    • Seraphina says:

      Agreed, I take showers before bed and in the summer, despite the AC, I still feel I need to rinse off with some soap in the morning.

  6. Becks1 says:

    So I’m trying to be generous with my interpretation here, which seems to be more that he showers a lot because he’s working out, being active, and sweating a lot, and if he wasn’t doing that, he would not shower as much (like not three times a day.)

    I will say that I do think multiple showers a day for people who are NOT active or not working out is puzzling to me, but to each their own. i do time my showers around my exercise and activities for the day (for example on Saturday, I walked the dog, worked out, and then took a break and read for a bit but did not shower bc I was getting ready to weed the back lawn, which was a gross and sweaty process, so I showered after that.) Again though to each their own within reason lol, just be clean.

    • questions says:

      If he’s taking 3 showers, I’m almost dead certain he’d shower at least once a day even if he wasn’t working out — either in the evening to or in the morning. Even if his reasons aren’t perfectly stated, his actions would indicate to me that he’s following a routine of some sort.

    • MF1 says:

      Agree with this. Everyone’s body chemistry is different, but for the vast majority of people I know, one shower a day is fine unless they’ve been working out or doing something physically taxing.

  7. Merricat says:

    This entire discussion has just made me question how often people are washing their HANDS during this pandemic. Ugh.

  8. Erica says:

    I am so tired of hearing which celebrity showers and which doesn’t. This is a weird conversation all because a joke was made by Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. Now it won’t stop. (And I’m fairly certain Ashton and Mila were actually just joking around)

  9. Mina_Esq says:

    This bathing conversation needs to stop.

  10. Cocoa says:

    When will people learn to keep their business to themselves?

    • questions says:

      I feel like someone asked him because of the previous “conversations” around this topic. And if someone asked me, my immediate inclination would be to go “Oh, heck yeah, I shower. I’m not Mila Kunis.”

  11. North of Boston says:

    Terry Crews is obviously a man. As a woman, and someone who mucks around in her garden, I can think of at least a couple of good reasons to shower even if I haven’t been working out, sweating.

    Why can’t people just speak for themselves and stop trying to issue edicts for the world.

    • Tanya says:

      I get sweaty mucking around in my garden. Heck, I get sweaty just walking to the grocery store most days. He’s right — we all sweat, and thus, we should all shower.

  12. questions says:

    Since he’s actually showering, I think I’ll just go by what his actual actions are. I’m a little confused as to why he’d be categorized as anti-bathing if he actually is, in fact, bathing (for whatever his own reasons might be. We all have our reasons for self-care. Ultimately, he’s taking a shower and not imposing his smell on people).

    If you’re taking 3 showers, even if it’s because of working out, my assumption is you’re pro-bathing.

  13. Lauren says:

    No, it’s not Richard being nitpicky. I also read it as “if you don’t sweat you don’t need to shower” and nope, nope, nope. If you are human you pee and poo and those smell bad. Wash your a*ses people.

    • questions says:

      Before that part, he says he loves to shower. Maybe he tried to make a joke and it went wrong. The front end of that statement and the back end are clearly about how much he showers. There’s also additional talk of how his wife makes sure he stays on top of his hygiene. And the Old Spice reference seems like an emphasis to make sure everyone knows he doesn’t smell bad. But for whatever reason “the first of all” statement is weirdly thrown in there randomly.

  14. questions says:

    For some reason, I don’t think anyone who isn’t white (or white and rich and somewhat good-looking) is going to admit to not bathing. Maybe this guy came the closest, but even with the initial quote separated off I figured there was going to be a “Ha! Gotcha! I actually do shower!” at the end of it. I just knew there had to be a clarification somewhere…

  15. Nev says:

    Shut up Terry.

  16. AmberMarie says:

    WE ARE 👏STILL👏IN👏A👏PANDEMIC 👏 Hygiene in a pandemic seems like a no-brained for me. I realize that surface exposure, etc. has been proven not to create a significant viral load but am I the only one who finds these statements more disturbing because of the time we’re living in? I shower the second I get home from the pharmacy, store, etc.

  17. IMARA219 says:

    Terry Crews ain’t one of us //That ends my PSA for today//

  18. Baela says:

    I don’t understand how people manage to have strong feelings about this. Like joking and teasing I get but actually getting mad? Anti-bathing? LOL. Maybe Newby should write more articles because you need to have way too much free time to come up with this take.

  19. Drea says:

    WTAF is “anti-bathing” and why in gods name is this STILL a conversation?

    This narrative has officially jumped the shark.

  20. Shari says:

    I live in the south. Hot and humid. I don’t care if you sweat or not. you are musty at the end of the day. take a shower

  21. Ry says:

    Is there seriously a bathing and anti bathing fight going on these days. I wish this was on a list of important things to beef about but it’s just not. The world is going mad.

  22. You Know Me says:

    I cannot stand this person. He is so full of self-hate

  23. jferber says:

    Why this now? Just why? Isn’t it already bad enough without making anti-bathing statements a thing?

  24. shabs says:

    I’m probably going to get lambasted here but why are people so mad about this and why has it become a ‘uh, white people thing’. I don’t think anyone is anti-bathing and it’s more an acknowledgement of occasional laziness and a joke?

    I’m not white, and I will admit to not showering everyday while WFH. In my defense, I live in the UK and it is not hot and humid.

    I am also not a particularly sweaty person, I don’t have much body hair (don’t have to shave my legs and barely need to shave my armpits), and so I don’t wear deodorant either. I also have dry skin and honestly if I tried to have 3 showers a day like some others here, I’d be so dry. when I do have a non shower day I do wash my butt/genitalia though….
    ——
    edit: I think I must have this gene as I also have no/dry earwax.

    The ABCC11 gene determines axillary body odor and the type of earwax. … Most of the world’s population have the gene that codes for the wet-type earwax and normal body odor; however, East Asians are more likely to inherit the allele associated with the dry-type earwax and a reduction in body odor.
    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-without-underarm-protection/

    • IMARA219 says:

      It’s a lot of layers to these weird assertions. For years Black Americans were denied basic human rights and social, civil rights under the impression that we were nasty, dirty, diseased. Those were their reasons for segregated bathrooms and water fountains; for example, these were the supplied reasons for segregated pools and even beaches. Black Americans carry this stigma of being dirty; due to this stereotype in the Black community, cleanliness is essential and something culturally (of course, this extends back to African cultural traditions that were derailed due to certain aspects of slavery). So, it is ingrained at a young age as a Black American to be clean and present as clean. It’s just how the culture is set up, a large part of that is not specific to slavery, but it is a part of how we were raised in modern culture. For Black people, uncleanliness is an excuse for CPS to take children away, etc. Here are rich, privileged white people discussing with glee how they do not bathe; they are discussing how dirty they are as if it’s the new hip thing to do. So, yes, many cultural jokes in the Black community are about our cleanliness and the otherness of white people’s hygiene. So for Terry Crews to chime in as a Black man about no need to shower extensively, it comes across as him caping for white people.

  25. VitaBANItaBONnita says:

    It’s always gotta be that one asshole…what a…rhymes with prick.