The Wire’s actors speak  part 2
-
- January
- 1
As promised, today I’m continuing to publish the cast interviews HBO did with four of the regulars on The Wire.
Yesterday brought us Clarke Peters (Detective Lester Freamon). Today, we have Wendell Pierce, the lovable and foul-mouthed Detective William “Bunk” Moreland.
I’ve enjoyed getting to know Bunk over the past few years.
He’s the perfect partner for McNulty, at those moments when Jimmy’s a detective and not a beat officer and I enjoyed the flashback David Simon gave us of McNulty’s first shift as a homicide detective back in 2000. The sight of the pair of them farting in their chairs, drunk off their butts, as the day shift rolled in was priceless. (Now you really wanna go watch it, don’t you?)
What I really like about Bunk and the other cops on the show is that they’re human. They have faults, but they do actually try to do their best. Sometimes they fail, sometimes they succeed. They don’t solve every crime in an hour. They don’t run around with their guns drawn.
They have fun, they break rules, they try to ignore the politics their bosses are beholden to and try to just solve crimes and put the bad guys behind bars.
I suspect they’re a lot more like real cops than the CSI and Law & Order spawn are.
If something happened to me and I had to call the cops, these are the kind of police who’d make me feel better if they showed up at my door.
Reminder: the season premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO.
Q: How do you feel with THE WIRE finally winding down?
WENDELL PIERCE: I have mixed emotions. I’m happy we were able to complete the novel. This has definitely been the best job of my career. It’s fun to be Bunk. I was real nervous about the role at first, because my character is loosely based on a real detective, but it turned out he loves the show, so that made me feel good. Bunk is a great character to play because he’s fleshed-out – a troubled man who’s a really good cop at the same time. That gives him focus when the rest of his life is falling apart. He’s not lost, exactly, but he’s susceptible to his inadequacies.
Q: What happens in season five? Can you share any secrets?
WP: About all I can say is that each character is challenged by his moral compass, and the choices people make put them at odds with each other. The best thing about being on the series is seeing the way the characters interact. One of the interesting things about THE WIRE is that even if you like a character, you can’t be sure they’re going to do the right thing. There’s always that ambiguity about whose moral compass is off and whose is on. You can’t take stereotypes for granted, whether youre looking at a judge or a kid who’s swinging on the street. I love that about
the show.
Q: What are you going to miss most about playing Bunk?
WP: The camaraderie with McNulty and Freamon and all the other police. Playing Bunk brought me a sense of ease that I hadn’t found before. I’m a lot more relaxed in my work now.
Q: How do you think THE WIRE will be remembered in coming years?
WP: We’re going to be like “The Bicycle Thief.” People will say, “Here’s my top ten – and do you know about THE WIRE?” I think we’ll get a whole new fan base after the show is done, because people will be able to pop in the DVDs. The show has already touched people across the spectrum who want to be challenged as well as entertained – young and old, black and white, rich and poor.
Photo courtesy of HBO.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 9:15 am by Amy Vernon.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
