How a common hearing impairment helped Terry Crews master the art of physical comedy

(CNN) — While filming a scene for the 2004 slapstick comedy “White Chicks,” Terry Crews sat in a parked convertible and jubilantly sang along to famed pop-song-of-the-aughts “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton. Smiling ear-to-ear, Crews animatedly belted out the lyrics in a now-classic scene that highlighted his knack for physical comedy, a performance technique that the athlete-turned-actor has since become known for.

“I feel like I’m a Muppet or a cartoon sometimes,” Crews said, with a laugh, in a recent interview with CNN about his upcoming movie “The Killer’s Game,” in theaters Friday. “That’s where I learned to act,” Crews added, joking that he’s taken cues from watching Muppets “shaking their heads.”

Crews is an actor, author, athlete, artist and even a flutist, and has always been an open book. He has been living with a hearing impairment called sensorineural hearing loss, a common form of hearing loss that occurs when the “inner ear or the actual hearing nerve itself becomes damaged,” according to Johns Hopkins.

“It’s kind of wild because I wear hearing aids and I’ve always had a problem with hearing,” Crews said. “A lot of people think I’m ignoring them but a lot of times, if I’m not looking at you, I can’t hear you. I read lips and I watch people and by doing that, though, it’s made me a better actor.”

It is something that Crews said he’s dealt with since as far back as his college days, before he was an actor when he “learned to get along in conversations even though I didn’t hear it.”

“I did that for a long time… It was one of those things you do to get along, especially when you have some sort of disability,” he added.

But, in alignment with his perpetually optimistic persona, the former professional football player has found a way to harness his disability.

Crews has built a legacy on making people laugh by using his body to convey humor – whether that be through his legendary Old Spice commercials or as the suave assassin Lovedahl in “Killer’s Game” – a skill he organically picked up while navigating his hearing loss by looking at people and watching their mannerisms.

“I found that it helped me as an actor in order to mirror people and to look at facial expressions and to know what people are feeling and learn how to emote with your body, as opposed to what you’re saying,” he said.

The viral “White Chicks” car scene helped launch Crews’ Hollywood career into what it is today, with credits including the beloved TV series “Brooklyn 99,” “Everybody Hates Chris” and the upcoming animated sequel series “Everybody Still Hates Chris,” along with serving as the long-time host of “America’s Got Talent.”

Crews points to his early work on “White Chicks” as an example of his physical comedy, saying that all of the performances in the movie – not just his own – are “all physical.”

“There’s a reason why that movie is still, 20 years in, a popular favorite to so many people,” Crews said. “Because we learned to emote with our bodies so that even if you didn’t understand, you were still getting it. And that’s a beautiful thing.”

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