HBO’s The Wire quietly went off the air nearly a decade ago. In the ensuing time, the criminally under-watched series has become more properly appreciated as it is now widely considered one of the greatest series in TV history. As part of the show’s 15th anniversary celebration, some members of the cast have shared their best and most hilarious memories. This includes one particular sex scene.
“We were doing the scene over and over and [the director] kept screaming ‘Louder! Louder! Climax now!’” Deirdre Lovejoy, who played Asst. State’s Atty. Rhonda Pearlman across 60 episodes, said of the particularly steamy moment she shared with Dominic West. “We did that over and over and over. We were never allowed back in that house because the people thought we were shooting porn.”
The cast also spoke about the significant experience of watching the show evolve from its unheralded beginnings into a “bonafide social document,” John Doman, who played William Rawls on The Wire, explains. “As you know, there are college courses being taught using The Wire as an example of where society was at the time.”
Creator David Simons gets the lion’s share of the credit for The Wire, but the cast was initially skeptical of his nontraditional style. No one more so than Michael K. Williams, who played the infamous Omar.
“Season 1, I was completely ignorant to a lot of things,” Williams admits. “When he came back for season 2 with the docks [storyline], I was very angry. I thought that this white man had taken something that black people had made good and [wanted] to make it a white show.”
Williams’ costar, The Walking Dead‘s Seth Gilliam, remembers he “called up David Simon to voice [my] frustration” over the changes, though he “advised [them] to use the frustrations [they] were having” and channel them into their performances. Obviously, it paid off.
Wendell Pierce Arrest: Assaults Bernie Sanders Supporter
