‘Tales of the Walking Dead’ Star Terry Crews Explains How Personal the Role Was to Him (Exclusive)

Tales of the Waking Dead premiered on AMC and AMC+ on Sunday and the first episode featured Terry Crews and Oliva Munn. In the episode, Joe (Crews) is on the road before being upended by Evie (Munn), and the two travel to Michigan for separate missions. During a roundtable interview with Crews, PopCulture.com asked the 54-year-old actor about his role in the series who revealed how his hometown prepared him for Tales of the Walking Dead. 

“What I thought was cool is that they did set it in my Midwestern upbringing,” Crews explained. “The fact that I circled the city of Flint, when I went to go lookout, it was a nod to my upbringing to where I’m from. Because you have to understand, Flint, Michigan went through its own apocalypse. The American city, Flint, Michigan, and Gary Indiana are two cities. My wife is from Gary. I’m from Flint. It went through its own apocalypse.”

Crews went on to say how going back to Flint, is similar to a scene he filmed in the series. “Everything I remember as a kid, from my high school to the movie theater, to the malls, to the places I used to go, the restaurants I used to eat has all been knocked down,” he said. “It’s all fields. When I drive back to Flint, Michigan, it’s like when Joe comes out of that bunker and he’s looking around and he’s driving around and he notices everything’s gone. That is my experience when I go to Flint, Michigan, and that prepared me. I mean, that’s what I was like, this is what Joe is going through. Things he used to see things, it’s all gone. And he says it to himself. He’s like, ‘Hey, they should have went underground.’ And I felt that way even as a youngster, as a kid growing up in the 80s, I was like, “I got to get out of here or I’m not going to survive.”

With Crews growing up in Michigan, he played college football at Western Michigan before spending a few years in the NFL. In one of the first scenes of Tales of the Walking Dead, Crews is seen watching an old Ohio State game and is later seen wearing an Ohio State helmet. That had to be difficult for Crews to film, right? 

“Not at all. I don’t care at all,” Crews said. “First of all, you got to understand, the NCAA, they’ve exploited us, it’s time to get them back. I was like, listen, I came up in a day where there was no name, image, likeness, you know what I mean? They used you and they exploited you. And so I have no loyalties whatsoever.” Tales of the Walking Dead airs on AMC Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes can be streamed on AMC+ one week before they air on AMC.