The Wire’s Aidan Gillen won’t keep hanging around Hollywood
-
- February
- 24
Tommy Carcetti is the ultimate politician.
He really makes everyone believe he cares. He truly cares. Behind the scenes, he’s a political animal, striking deals with anyone and everyone who can help get him elected. But even watching the wheeling and dealing, you can’t tell me in season 4, you weren’t excited to see him elected. Even when you saw him turn down the governor’s offer of financial aid for the city’s schools and knew it was for political reasons, there seemed reason to hope.
Maybe Baltimore could change for the better under his leadership. Maybe he’d do better than Royce before him.
On second thought, naaah.
Problem is, Carcetti is built for politicking moreso than leading. He eyes every new challenge as mayor through the prism of how it might affect his chances in a run for the governor’s seat. Even the serial killer of the homeless men is mulled over until he can figure out how to best use this seemingly horrible series of crimes (would seem worse to us, the viewer, if we didn’t know it was made up) for his own benefit.
Dublin-born actor Aidan Gillen (well, born in the suburbs of Dublin, anyhow) plays Carcetti without a hint of an Irish accent. His main TV role before The Wire was on the Showtime series Queer as Folk, and he told The Guardian this fall he didn’t mind “nasty” roles, but told the Official London Theatre Guide, “I’m not going to be hanging out in Hollywood looking for baddy parts.”
After the break, check out some excerpts from the Guardian’s interview with Gillen, when he was about to start appearing in a stage version of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross.
About the graphic sex scenes in Queer as Folk:
I’d been an altar boy. But what does that mean these days? Ample training, I’d imagine. I think my mother made it to halfway through episode two. I heard she was watching it with my brother-in-law and she said, ‘How are they actually doing that?’ And he said: ‘It’s trick photography.’
About the difficulty of joining a show like The Wire, midway through its run:
Most of the characters in that spend most of their time off screen, so you have to be able to fill it in. It’s like opening a book in the middle and trying to understand a chapter. David Simon, the creator, made himself available to answer any questions about what had happened in the past, where a particular character had been.
And come back tomorrow to check out my recap of tonight’s episode, “Clarifications.”
Here’s the official HBO description:
Baltimore’s renewed police commitment brings fresh recruits to Daniels (Lance Reddick) and McNulty, starting with Carver. Facing a new political challenge, Carcetti is forced to make dangerous political deals. As the Pulitzer season winds down, Haynes approaches Templeton about his sources. Bunk returns a McNulty favor; little Kenard (Thuliso Dingwall) makes a big score; Dukie finds work; Fletcher (Brandon Young) continues his interview with Bubbles; Freamon presents his latest plan to a prosecutor; Sydnor (Corey Parker Robinson) uncovers the missing piece to a puzzle; McNulty comes clean.
Like how they tucked in that last little clause there….
Photo courtesy of HBO.ÂÂ
Article is not commented: 0 ->
This entry was posted
on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 10:00 am by Amy Vernon.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
