WENDELL PIERCE ON HOLLYWOOD’S RACISM, AFRICAN SELF-DETERMINATION IN THE FILM BUSINESS, AND WHY HE NEARLY QUIT THE WIRE (MF GALAXY 062)
THE
CRAFTS OF SCREEN VS. STAGE ACTING, THE RESPONSIBILITY OF AFRICAN CELEBRITIES IN
THE US, WHY ANTWONE FISHER FAILED AT
THE BOX OFFICE, AND WHY HE SAYS ISHMAEL REED IS RIGHT ABOUT THE WIRE
Best known as Detective Bunk Moreland on HBO’s The Wire, stage and screen actor Wendell
Pierce has appeared in over 30 films and more than 50 television shows. He’s
also an outspoken commentator on racism in US life, politics, and
entertainment, and a social and economic justice activist for the people of his
home town, New Orleans. He was also a top fundraiser for Barack Obama’s 2012
presidential campaign.
Way
back in 2008, Wendell Pierce came to Edmonton to shoot “Something with Bite,” the
werewolf episode
of the horror anthology Fear Itself produced
by Lion’s Gate, written by Max Landis, who later wrote Chronicle, and directed by Ernest Dickerson, best known for Juice and Never Die Alone.
Pierce
and I had a wide-ranging discussion in which he discussed:
* How
he deals with disappointment about his acting performance
* The
craft difference between acting for the screen and acting for the stage
* What
the “domino effect” is in acting and how to use it
* Representation
of Africans in US entertainment, in 2008 comments that are completely relevant
to the 2015 US Academy Award nominations
* His
commitment to working on films by independent African artists
* The
responsibility of African celebrities in the US
* Why
the superb film Antwone Fisher failed
at the box office
* His
opinion of the brilliant writer Ishmael Reed, who is one of the most outspoken
critics of The Wire, and why he
frequently considered quitting the series, and
* His
analysis of the so-called War on Drugs, privatisation of education, and the US
Prison-Industrial Complex
I recorded today’s never-before-aired interview
with Pierce on April 30, 2008. We sat in the lobby of the downtown Sutton Place
Hotel while he waited for his ride to take him to set. I began by asking him
about his approach to the craft of acting.
And now on MF
Galaxy, my conversation with Wendell Pierce.
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