Damon Wayans has said he is leaving Lethal Weapon, claiming he feels ‘too old’ to work the hectic schedule.
The actor plans to finish his work on season three and then he’s off, but admits that Fox might not be on board with the idea.
Quoting his Lethal Weapon character Roger Murtaugh,
Damon told Electronic Urban Report: ‘I’m going to be quitting the show in December after we finish the initial 13, so I don’t really know what they’re planning, but that’s what I’m planning.
‘I’m a 58-year-old diabetic and I’m working 16-hour days…Murtaugh said, “too old for this”.’
He added that he was planning on treading the boards on stage to ‘try and find my smile again’
Wayans went on : ‘This has been very hard, especially last week. My mother had surgery, my daughter had surgery and I had to look them both in the eye and go, “I can’t be there.”
‘It’s hard for me to play this loving, supportive father, husband and friend on TV and be the guy in life that’s telling everybody, “I can’t, I’ve got to work”.’
He said he would give Fox enough time to find a replacement for him on the show.
Wayans has starred in the TV series based on the classic film since it began in 2016 in the role originally played by Donald Glover.
Actor Clayne Crawford starred opposite him as Martin Riggs, Mel Gibson’s character in the film, however he was sacked by Fox due to alleged on-set behaviour.
Seann William Scott joined the show in season three as a new character to replace to Crawford.
Crawford recently spoke out about his being axed, and revealed he had to attend anger management after an on set outburst.
He previously admitted that he had been reprimanded while on set for the show, citing ‘dangerous work conditions’ as reasons behind the outburst.
Dana Walden, the CEO of the Fox Television Group, defended the decision to axe Clayne at the channel’s Upfront presentation earlier this year.
Speaking to TVLine in the US, Dana said: ‘Our partners at Warner Bros. came to us about three weeks ago to tell us that they could not deliver Lethal Weapon as we’ve known it, that there were some real challenges in the cast.’
‘[They] thought long and hard about it,’ she said.
‘I know that was not their first choice but ultimately these were the circumstances that they could offer us the show.’
