The Wire Anniversary Interview With Cast And CreatorsSkip To ContentHomepageSign InSearch BuzzFeedSearch BuzzFeedlol Badge Feedwin Badge Feedtrending Badge FeedCalifornia residents can opt out of "sales" of personal data.Do Not Sell My Personal Information 2022 BuzzFeed, Inc PressRSSPrivacyConsent PreferencesUser TermsAd ChoicesHelpContactSitemapUpdated on 20 Jun 2022 The Wire Turned 20 This Year – We Asked The Cast And Creators Our Burning Questions And They Didn t Didn t Disappoint Ray Winstone as McNulty would have been sooooo different. by Benjamin DzialdowskiBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestTwitterMailLink The Wire turned 20 this year One of the most well-regarded series EVER is now two decades old Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF HBO We had the pleasure of speaking to the actors who played two of the most iconic characters – Jimmy McNulty and Bunk Moreland – along with the show s creator and executive producers Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF HBO Here s our chat with Wendell Pierce and executive producers Nina Noble and David Simon who s also the show s creator Is the rapport between Bunk and McNulty something you two had to work on or did it come naturally Dominic: We hit it off right from the beginning. For my first New York audition Wendell had already been cast, he was the first person cast and thank fuck he was – it was because he was in the room and that we hit it off so well that I got the part. He's been such a joy to act with and be around. Wendell: We had a blast straight away. I enjoy Dominic to this day and the minute I see him, he brings a smile to my face. He has a huge capacity for joy which is infectious, and I love that about him. Here s one of their most iconic scenes together View this video on YouTube youtube.com How did you guys get into the mindset of a Baltimore detective Wendell: I got to meet the real Bunk, Oscar Requer. He was great. He was working in the courthouses at that point in his career and he was taking me around saying "this guy's gonna play me, this guy gonna play me on this new TV show." I also met the great detective Darrell Massey, and he made me appreciate the fact that detective work was close to what we tried to do as actors, as students of human behaviour. He was well-known for his interrogation progress. He would tell me all sorts of things like how the whole 'good cop bad cop' works. And he'd explain how you'd want to interrogate a suspect to get them to confess. Here s Wendell explaining what Massey would show him to do Ben Dzialdowski / BuzzFeed Are there any other actors that were almost cast for a main role David: We were having a hard time with McNulty and there were two guys that HBO really liked the idea of, one was Ray Winstone. We met Ray in early September 2001 and showed him the scripts – we were a little worried about the accent, but HBO really liked him, Sexy Beast had come out recently and we had a really interesting meeting with him. We flew back to Baltimore, but he ended up getting stuck in Toronto for about two weeks because of 9/11 – and when he finally got back to the UK he called his agents and said he's home now, he isn't gonna come back and do it. HBO / Fox Searchlight Pictures David: Then the next guy everyone agreed on was John C. Reilly. So we sent them the scripts and the moment he called back, I was in a corn maze for Halloween with my kids. So my kid's running around and my phone rings and it's John C. Reilly. I say "hey, I'm with my kid. We're running around this corn maze for Halloween, and I'm about to lose him in the maze." I call him back in about an hour and no answer. He doesn't answer his phone for two or three days. And then finally, when we reached his agent, he said he'd talked to his wife about the idea of moving to Baltimore on a five-year contract and she'd said no. They're all so different, people couldn't imagine what we were looking for – Dom and John C. Reilly couldn't, because they were in Chicago together, and they looked at each other and said, "what were those idiots going for"? J. Vespa / WireImage Via Getty Images / HBO And who was Dominic s inspiration when it came to playing Jimmy Ben Dzialdowski / BuzzFeed Where do you think Bunk and McNulty would be in 2022 Dominic: There's a strong chance that McNulty may be dead by now, he may have reversed into one too many concrete bridges over the years. You never know though, the could be chief of police, but I kinda doubt that. Wendell: I think the fictional Bunk would probably have taken the same path as the real Bunk: He'd be working security for the American Football team the Baltimore Ravens. He also would have retired from police work and enjoyed travelling around with his family. View this video on YouTube youtube.com Was there any particular reason for casting British and Irish actors for a drama set in Baltimore Nina: I think our casting director, Alexa Fogel has a great knowledge of actors everywhere and spent a lot of time in the theatre in the UK. She just brought us some great people, and I think British actors are typically really good with their accents. David: Famously with Idris, he didn't break into his own accent until he arrived in Baltimore with the role. Even when he finished his audition, he spoke to us at the casting session and he maintained his American accent. It was credible enough that I certainly didn't know he wasn't American, we thought he was from New Jersey. HBO What were you first auditions like Wendell: Well, I got the script and the particular day that I went in to read for the part I had an altercation with a cab driver on the way to the audition. So by the time I get there I was bitching and complaining saying: "I'm coming down here trying to get this job on television and this goddamn cab driver doesn't wanna pick me up and take me here. Now if I would've been late, you motherfuckers would gave said 'oh hell no'. Thank god I got here in time but I almost didn't make it because of this fucking cab driver." So years later, David said that "when you came in bitching and complaining about this cab driver and telling this story, there's nothing I could write that could match that." He said that when I walked out, he and Robert looked at each other and said "yeah, he's Bunk". Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF HBO And what about Dom s Dominic: I think I was brought in as a joke, initially because I'd done a tape to send to them. I put myself on tape in London where I was trying to do an American accent based on the cop shows I used to watch as a kid. My girlfriend at the time was supposed to be reading with me and she couldn't stop laughing so I had to send her around the room. I ended up doing this tape and I'd pause for the other characters' lines and react to the silence because I didn't know any better. Simon and Goldsberry thought this was so stupid or bizarre that they said, 'we've got to get this fool over to New York. It'd be interesting to meet him.' And they flew me out to New York and, uh, and I walked in a room and there was Wendell and I think he probably got me the part because we hit it off. Which scenes were the hardest film Nina: I think for me what's most memorable are some of the incredibly emotional scenes, like the night we killed Snoop, which was really difficult emotionally, rather than technically. David: She [Snoop] told me she only wanted her character to die in the last scene of the last ep, so she was not happy to leave, even at the late juncture of the show. I would say in the same way, the day we killed Wallace, even teamsters were angry at me. I mean, never mind hair and makeup and all the people who usually bond with the actors, teamsters, sparks, and grips were walking up to me and going, 'man, this is wrong.' HBO What shocked or surprised you the most when reading the scripts as they came through Dominic: It was a regular shock when our colleagues were dying, you know. You'd sort of open the new script, you'd get it not much before shooting, and you'd sort of nervously flicked through to see who's going to survive. So it was always pretty shocking. Wendell: I was pleasantly surprised by the choices in the writing and the depiction of everything about race. Two characters, a white character and a Black character, would so closely work together. There's a unique relationship and you'd see it in the bars they would be drinking in. They made specific choices that we'd be in a bar that was predominantly African-Americans or one that was predominantly white Americans, and without even saying anything about it, you would know that McNulty took him to that bar, or that Bunk made the choice of the bar that day. I thought it was such a unique and beautiful way to make a commentary about race and people's ability or inability to be open amongst others. View this video on YouTube youtube.com Did you have a favourite scene to shoot Dominic: Those scenes where we used to go to the wasteland and drink whiskey, you know, the two of us. I don't know how many we did, it could have been once or 50 times. But it was always fun, it was usually at the end of the day and was a nice way of relaxing – I used to relish the chance to do that. Buzzfeed UK: What about a favourite season? Dominic: What's amazing is if I ask people that question, I'll get so many different answers. There's no real consensus, but to my mind, season four is just the supreme moment of The Wire and the supreme moment of television in many ways. To me, that's what The Wire is all about. You shot a mouse with your service weapon View this video on YouTube youtube.com Were there any character s death scenes you had to rewrite David: I had an actor complain that his death scene wasn't interesting enough. It was Method Man (Cheese), he got the script and his character doesn't say much and then suddenly, in the original writing of the scene, Slim Charles pulls out the gun and shoots him in the head, just very abruptly, upon learning that he'd set up his uncle. So he called me up and said "come on Dave you gotta bend to the task a little bit, give me a little something to chew on here." I looked at it and I thought this character is really primed to give a speech about anti-nostalgia about 'the days of the old' that his uncle was from, where there was some dignity to this drug game and for him to say "fuck that. There's no nostalgia, there's no loyalty, it is what it is" and then get shot. So I sent him those pages and he went "that's what I'm talking about." Watch Cheese s final speech here View this video on YouTube youtube.com The Wire celebrates its 20th anniversary in June. The Wire: The Complete Series is available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital. Share This ArticleFacebook PinterestTwitterMailLink TV and MoviesGet all the best moments in pop culture & entertainment delivered to your inbox.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.