Movies - TV

Playing A Character On The Wire Was A Study In Paranoia

By ANYA STANLEY

In David Simon’s “The Wire,” the culprit behind Baltimore’s failed war on drugs was not a single kingpin or lawmaker but was instead the network of weak institutions like the city’s docks and school systems. Because of this reason, characters were killed off and then new ones were introduced in an unpredictable manner that had the cast’s heads spinning.

On one hand, when characters started disappearing, Clarke Peters (detective Lester Freamon) said in an interview that his “paranoia kicked in” and made him wonder if he was next. The opposite could also be true for actors like Isiah Whitlock Jr. (Senator Clay Davis) who ended up dealing with the Barksdale crew until the final season even though he was only supposed to appear for a few episodes in Season 1.

Some actors would look for hints in the script like Andrew Royo (Bubbles) who stated, “if too much of your story is being told. 'Oh s***, they're building it up. I'm gonna go.'” The showrunners would not give warnings about impending casting shakeups, as actor Larry Gilliard Jr. (D'Angelo Barksdale) found out he was leaving the cast the day he got the script for the episode.

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