>HR: Okay, Wendell Pierce.

WP: Um, I was very early on. Uh… and I had this impression that the show was about… Bunk Moreland…

* laughter *

WP (“thinking”): … “I wonder who this white detective is going to be…”

* laughter *

WP (“thinking”): “It’s very interesting, they’ve never really done a show about a black detective before…”

* laughter *

WP: I mean, there was no one in the waiting area, and stuff like that, and Alexa was like, “We finally get to do something together,” and I was like, so happy, and (thinking) “Who is this Dominic West? I’ll read with him…” And Dominic and I had a… and I read with Dominic for Bob Colesberry and David. And uh, I’ll never forget, you know, I came in, and… I had been, you know, cast. And, uh… Dominic came in off-book (without a script), he was ready. And I wasn’t. I was like, uh… (mimes reading a script)

* laughter *

WP: And uh… and he would, he would, it was really wonderful because Dominic was very self-assured and he said, “Yes, you know, Bunk, I’m going to do, uh, we’re gonna come back and uh… what’s that line?” He would always call for line and I was like, “Well, the line is like this, and…” you know. And I really think the way we played off of each other, with me prompting him for his audition… uh…

* laughter *

WP: … captured the drunken stupor that Bunk and McNulty…

* laughter *

WP: … finds in the bar, and then David and Bob said, “Yeah, those two.”

* laughter *

CC: No brainer.

HR: Okay, Sonja.

Sonja Sohn: Um, actually, I had a bit of a relationship with Alexa first. Um, I had come to know Alexa back in ’98, and she became a fan of mine after I did, um, an independent film, and uh, tried to cast me in Oz. And, um, I came in and I completely flubbed that audition, and she said, “I think (Oz show runner) Tom (Fontana’s) gonna love you. We gotta get you to do something.” She said, “Ah, how about a poem?” I was like, “Okay, I got a poem.” * laughs * In this film (Slam), I had, um, played a writing teacher and I had done some poetry, and she knew that. And so, uh, you know, I did this poem, and uh, Tom didn’t go for it, you know…

* laughter *

SS: … and you know, my first HBO opportunity just, you know, flew out the window. And about a year or so went by, and uh, we had gotten to know each other. I had been, you know, coming in and auditioning for her for a while. And I gotta say, um, I was really, really green, um, back then, and Alexa really nurtured me through my auditions, because she just felt something, you know, from me. And I will never forget that.

* applause *

SS: Um, she gave me a chance, really, and, uh, you know, I owe a lot to her. And that’s why I’m here. That’s why I’m here.

HR: Michael.

* applause *
(Michael smiles)

RW: Omar’s comin’, Omar’s comin’…

CC: Right?

MKW: I came… like Jim, I came to The Wire, they were already on their third episode, and like Sonja I had a relationship with Alexa from trying to get on the Oz cast for a couple years. And um, uh, she called me one day and said she had a role she wanted me to come in for. She faxed me the breakdown, and I just remember reading it, you know… “Openly Gay Homo Thug.”

* laughter *

MKW: I was like, “Right, this is it!”

* laughter *

MKW: I went in, I put myself on tape with Alexa, and she sent it out to Baltimore. And next thing I knew, David and Ed and (producer) Nina (Kostroff-Noble) just gave me my call time to go to Baltimore, and that pretty much was it.

HR: Just start blowing people away after that. Okay, Jamie.

Jamie Hector: Hey. Well…

* applause *

JH: How y’all doin’? I was… my manager, Ally, she actually cut the TV on, and she said, she saw the show, she called me and told me to turn it on. I looked, and she said, “We’re going to get you on that show. You gotta get on that show.” So, I did a film called Five Deep Breaths, and… I don’t know, Seith Mann, he directed, he got it to… his agent got it to Alexa Fogel or the production company, and Ally walked up to the casting director and knocked on her door, and gave (the film) to Alexa’s assistant. He calls up, and from what he told Ally, he calls up and tells (Alexa), “You have to see this short film.” She says she already has it, but she was out of town. Then they both watched it, and then before you know it, Alexa’s calling me to audition for everything she’s casting for. So I’m in her office at least 12 times….

* laughter *

JH: … back and forth… “I want you to audition for a cat.”/“Alright, let’s go.”

* laughter *

JH: EVERYTHING she called me for. And then so, The Wire came up. And then she called me in and she said, “Listen, you read for this,” and it was for the part of Cutty. I read for it, and…

CC: I didn’t know that.

* laughter *

CC: Yes, I did, that’s my boy, I knew about that.

JTF: He didn’t get it, though.

RW: Exactly…

* laughter *

JH: So, they turned around and said I was too young for that, so they gave… so I read for another part—

CC: Whoa, whoa, easy, easy, easy… easy, boy…

* laughter *

CC: Easy… I got people out there…

* laughter *

JH: My fault. So they said I was too OLD for it, but…

* laughter *

JH: … my man… and then, um, I read for that part, then I met with the producers, and then we went down to Baltimore, and Andre (Royo) said, “Yo, Jamie, they got something serious set up for you, man.” You know, Andre Royo who plays Bubbles…

HR: Yeah, yeah, he’s not here. The invisible man. Yeah.

JH: … and he said they got something lined up for the cat, for Marlo. And I was like, wow. And it was a go from there.
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