>HR: Well, uh, Alexa, and David, weigh in on this if you’d like, uh, but you cast, uh, a lot of people, I think, uh, for roles who either had very limited experience or no experience, people from Baltimore. Uh, why did you do that, and secondly, Ernest, how difficult was it directing people who had not had a lot of experience as actors? Alexa?

Alexa Fogel: Well, I don’t cast the people in Baltimore, Pat Moran does that, so…

HR: Okay.

AF: … I can’t actually address that. But David can probably address working…

DS: Right. We found, on The Corner, um, that by putting real people, in supporting roles, in a show like this where you’re really trying for almost a hyper-realism, um… it leavens everybody’s performance. It makes you really feel like you’re in Baltimore. Uh, it… it doesn’t, uh, uh, you know, you can go too far and there’s a lot to be said for trained actors. Um, so… I’m going to hesitate to say it now in front of (the panel’s) heads, but um… there’s a lot to be said for the craft of acting, and you can’t ask people who have not trained to take too big a turn. But here and there, if you put a trained actor in a milieu where you’re surrounding them with people who have actually lived the event…

(Ed Burns laughs)

DS: … something happens. I know Robert (Colesberry) would laugh… cause we put him in one scene where he was, like, everywhere he turned there was no one, nobody he could work with but…

* laughter *

DS: … somebody who had actually been a drug slinger, you know, it’s like, “Can I get another actor to work off?”/”No, you can’t.” But, um…

* laughter *

DS: … but up to a point it really does make it feel like the real world, because, you know what? Um, this is… (it’s as) if you’re taking pieces of the real world, you know, human animate pieces, and saying, “Be part of this movie.” Um, to that I’d like to sort of throw it to Ed with… I mean, I think our greatest triumph in this is a guy that Ed, uh… actually, Ed and I met over this guy, and that I was police newspaper reporter, and I was trying to do a series of articles on him cause he had such a huge long career as a drug trafficker. And he made parole about the time The Wire was kicking up, (to Ed) right, maybe a couple a years into the show? So I mean, that was one of the greatest lunches I ever went to. So, I’m gonna throw it to you.

(Ed Burns stares at him)

DS: Tell the story.

(Ed Burns looks away)

DS: Throw it out there. As only you can.

(Ed clears his throat)

Ed Burns: I read for Stringer Bell.

* laughter *

EB: And Bubbles.

* laughter *

EB: Um… because I knew those guys, and I knew (former dealer) Melvin Williams, who plays our deacon. And um, I knew a Cutty, and uh, I didn’t know a Bob Wisdom-type character, but, I’m sure they were out there. Um… for me, I used to be a cop, and one of the cool things was is, I put a lot of these people in jail, and they really didn’t like me. And, um, then I get on The Wire, and they all like me…

* laughter *

EB:… kind of a strange thing, but um... um… I think the great thing about the show is it does mix the quality of actors. I mean, to write for people like this is relatively easy. And we can mix those with, uh, people who are not quite as experienced, and everybody seems to rise because of it, and I think that’s basically, um, one of the secrets of our show.
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This ain't a scene
it's a
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arms
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