The Wire’s actors speak  part 3
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- January
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We continue our daily feature of interviews with four of The Wire’s cast regulars.
HBO conducted these interviews with the men as they were wrapping up filming in Baltimore in August.
Monday gave us Clarke Peters. Tuesday, Wendell Pierce. Tomorrow brings us Dominic West. But today, we have one of my absolute favorites: Andre Royo, who plays Bubbles.
Bubbles is not your usual junkie. His despair over the death of Johnny last season was simply devastating. His efforts to get Johnny into school and to keep him there were Herculean. See, Bubbles knows what’s right. He damn well knows that the junk is wrong and that he should get off it. But he’s too far gone. He lives the life he lives and doesn’t figure that’s going to change. His best chance was to help change someone else’s life, and he wasn’t able to.
On a lighter note, I simply love his shopping cart store. The man truly has everything.
Royo plays Bubbles without pathos. Bubbles is who he is and, sometimes, that’s a truly stellar example of a human being. Who has just happened to be homeless. And a junkie.
Season 5? Life, post-junkie.
Reminder: the season premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO.
Q: What are you feeling as THE WIRE nears the end?
ANDRE ROYO: A whole bunch of emotions all at once. It’s great to be able to complete the story. Its been an honor. David Simon and Ed Burns made it so much like a novel that I think all of us wanted to come back and finish it. With all the chapters written, I think we’re all kind of sad – and happy in a way. You know, five years of playing a junkie is enough. I’m ready to get clean! I’m ready to take a hot shower! So I’m looking forward to putting on a suit and tie, but we’re all going to miss the show. We’re all going to miss Baltimore in its unique way.
Q: What do you like best about being a part of THE WIRE?
AR: The accolades are great, but to be part of a show that’s so much more than just entertainment is really something special. It brings a lot of spiritual satisfaction.
Q: You’re fortunate to be playing one of the more interesting characters.
AR: I’m glad to hear that. When the show started, the plan was to have Bubbles around for seven episodes, so to still be here five years later – I must have been doing something right! When people see someone like Bubbles in the street, they overlook a lot. He’s just a human being with afflictions. We all have our own addictions to a different variety of things. Bubbles has been through a lot.
Q: What can you tell us about Bubbles in the final season?
AR: For all his life, Bubbles’ purpose was looking for ways to get high. Without that purpose, he doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know where he belongs. That’s the journey he’s on in the fifth season. Greggs said it best a long time ago: “What am I going to do with a clean snitch?” He has to re-establish what life is about for him and discover what kind of enjoyment he can have without the dope.
Photo courtesy of HBO.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 9:15 am by Amy Vernon.
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Just a quick note. You meant Sherrod, not Johnny. It was an easy mix-up to make though as Johnny was Bubs’ mentee for the first 3 seasons.
You’re absolutely right, Tito. As I said on an earlier post, I was relatively late in the game to The Wire and it’s hard, sometimes, to keep track of everyone’s names on a show with such a huge, sprawling cast.
Thanks for the correction and come back soon!