ERNEST DICKERSON (DIRECTOR): In terms of Chris stomping Michael’s stepfather, this was a guy who had been suspected of abusing Michael. That was the reason why Michael couldn’t stand him. Him telling Chris that, it’s such an illuminating moment for Chris, and it’s such a horrifying moment that you really needed to see the damage that he was doing. I felt that if we never saw the damage that he was inflicting on this guy, it just wouldn’t have had the right impact. It’s one of those moments where you have to show the violence. You got to show the blood and guts. I felt that was a better way to tell that story to get the impact of what he was doing.
Without it, the audience would not have gotten the full feeling of what was going on. It was such an illuminating moment for Chris, who was pretty much an enigmatic person all the way through the series. He was always killing people very cool, very calm, very separated from what was going on. It was just like, “Okay, boom, boom. You’re dead. Let’s just put the body in the house.” This was obviously something very, very personal to him, and it suggested [that] perhaps he, as a kid, had been abused. Maybe that’s why he took it there. That moment of horror, we really needed to see it. The humor of Snoop just standing there, just looking at him, like, “Hmm.” She played it beautifully. She’s just looking at him. I think the line was, “Damn, you didn’t even wait to get him in the house,” which was really funny. It just underscored the horror of the situation.
GEORGE PELECANOS (WRITER/PRODUCER): Ed brought that storyline to the writers’ room. Ed came up with the idea that Chris Partlow had been abused, which is why he was so blank, such a damaged guy, and it kind of explained him.
DEBI YOUNG (MAKEUP DEPARTMENT HEAD): Ernest, with his sweet, soft-spoken self. He was like, “Debi, this person is going to be beat to death. He’s going to be beat so badly, we can’t even use a stuntman.” That’s how graphic he wanted it to be. He said, “You’re probably going to have to get a puppet.” I sent this actor to a special effects artist on the West Coast who could replicate all of his features, and I remember telling him that I wanted him to look very contorted, so when the puppet is moved, it would have a look of agony on the face. When that wooden crate arrived to the makeup trailer and I opened up that crate in front of David Simon, I have never seen David smile so big.
NINA K. NOBLE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER): Ernest loves horror. That’s his thing. He and George Pelecanos used to do a lot of episodes together, with George as writer and Ernest as director. In some ways, George probably wrote to Ernest’s strengths and the things he enjoyed doing. I don’t think it was an accident that that was in on this episode. It was a storyline that was always planned, but when we assign the directors to episodes, we think about what’s going to happen in the episode, and that definitely was planned for Ernest.
GBENGA AKINNAGBE (CHRIS PARTLOW): Ernest is going to make you look great on film. On top of that, he has such an understanding of story and depth that you feel comfortable just letting go with Ernest. So that, and then also it’s Michael, Tristan, who’s my boy. Because of the circumstances and the people I was working with, and obviously the writing, it was easier to go to that place, especially since it was the first time that you see Chris emote even in a small way, his first killing that wasn’t strictly business. He started to care about Michael, and so someone had violated someone or something he cares about.
ERNEST DICKERSON (DIRECTOR): I found out later that the editorial staff freaked out when it saw the dailies because the camera was laying down on the ground beside him. First, we started off with the actor as he’s down on the ground, and then, as Chris’s foot starts to come down on him, we cut. Then we moved the real actor out and moved the dummy in. The editorial staff, they didn’t see the change, because the dummy looked that much like the real actor. All of a sudden, the foot is stomping him in the face and the mouth, and the head is jerking. They were freaking out because it looked like we were actually stomping the poor guy. It was a beautiful special effect. That articulated dummy that we made of him, it worked.
Even they admitted that they had to cut down what I did. My cut was a little bit too much. I think it was longer with the stomping of the head. They shortened it. It was hard to watch.
GEORGE PELECANOS (WRITER/PRODUCER): You run the risk of [leaving the audience behind by not explicitly saying Michael or Chris was abused], but we are always just trying to make the best show that we can. We will take that risk, and we’ll leave some people behind if we do something that we think is not too on the nose. You trust your actors. The way that Chris Partlow delivers that beating is different than all the other things that he does, that he carries out almost robotically.
We just hoped that people would know, and I think it’s a good strategy. Executives, the people that are funding these shows, they always want you to be more on the nose and explain things. That’s our most common battle with the execs, is let the audience figure it out. Trust them a little bit more, but you do, in the end, lose some people. But it’s cool. It’s fine.
TRISTAN MACK WILDS (MICHAEL LEE): Growing up into it, I didn’t know what to expect at first. Of course, I didn’t even know what a character arc was. I was kind of just doing what they were telling me to do. But as it progressed, and speaking to David and Ed and Robert Chew, and a lot more learning, just honestly learning about what he can do and the things that I should look out for, you started to see how they really built Michael to show you how these kids in these terrible areas, they could be great kids with great intentions, but with no options and with no opportunities to do anything else, they fall to the wayside, and the problem is that we don’t even look at them. They fall to the wayside and they just become another statistic. It’s not even that people worry about it. But it’s those kids that you should look out for, because you never know. They may turn out to be the next Omar.
JOE CHAPPELLE (DIRECTOR/CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER): The main part of the discussion [with Randy and Carver] is in a waiting room area. I wanted that to be very kind of subdued lighting, kind of dark. The hallway that Carver walks down was this kind of glaring fluorescent, ugly, white-bright light. The dialogue was fairly conventional in the sense that a lot of it plays in the two-shot of the kid and Seth [Gilliam]. They have their moment, and then Carver walks away.
But the kid, when he’s talking to him at the end, the “You gonna look out for me?” I wanted him definitely in that dark shadow of the waiting room, and then Carver in that high-key white. I just felt that, for some reason, it would work right for that scene. On a very visceral level, I just thought it was really what it’s about. He’s literally leaving him in the dark and behind. That was a specific thing we talked to the cinematographer about. I wanted him to knock the lights down in the waiting room, but I wanted the hallway to be very vibrant, very bright.
MAESTRO HARRELL (RANDY WAGSTAFF): Sometimes you hear the actors going, “Don’t break my character” and all that kind of stuff. Most of the time they just sound like assholes, but I got it. It was such a different mood on the set, because everyone knew [the] stakes were high and what it was. Carver was giving me so much back. I kind of got free rein to do, within the lines, what I wanted to do. I think it was more reaction and interaction. I worked through that as well, with Robert Chew. I’m just thankful that it reached people the way that it did. Even now, I’ll be walking into a bar or doing something, and somebody will be like, “Oh, you gonna look out for me?”
It left that kind of impact on people who are twenty years my senior. All I remember about that day was, obviously, it was a great day. I think I even ended up going to ESPN Zone after that day, actually. I was glad I was able to get it right. I had the support of everybody on the set, from the people doing the makeup to the people doing the hair, everyone was just amazed and impressed that I was able to carry it out that way. That’s really all I wanted, especially at that age. It’s more of, Man, I don’t want to mess this up because I know that this is bigger than me.
SETH GILLIAM (SGT. ELLIS CARVER): At that point, it started to dawn on me the strain and frustration that these officers must feel when you start to step a little bit outside of the zone and start having a positive impact, but then realize that you’re kind of powerless. So, it was a pretty strong scene for me. And on that day, Maestro did a fantastic job with that scene. I had both being in the moment and being involved with the character and also kind of stepping outside and being proud as an actor. You know, rising to the challenge. The guys were so alive. It’s not the way I think I would have done it, at that point, if I was acting when I was fourteen or fifteen.
ED BURNS (CO-CREATOR): In Season Four, they said we should kill somebody. David would throw out a bunch of names, but it didn’t work. It’s a process, and it turned out to be Bodie, his famous stand on the corner.
DARRELL BRITT-GIBSON (DARIUS “O-DOG” HILL): I’m walking and I get a phone call and I know the number because they’re usually going to tell me this is where you need to be, because I knew I was supposed to be shooting. It’s a girl, Megan. She’s with casting. I get a call from her, and usually she’s like, “Hey, so this is where you’ve got to be, Darrell. How are you doing?” This time, I hear something in her voice, and I’m sort of like, “Hey, Megan, what’s up?” She was like, “I hate you.” I was confused, and she was like, “I hate you.” I’m like, “What are you talking about?” She says, “You’re going to kill Bodie.” I dropped everything, like the world stopped, and I was thinking to myself, Wait, wait, hold on, back up. What? What? She said, “Yep, you’re going to kill Bodie. This is what you got.” I’m shaking. What?
When I say everything stopped, it stopped, because I’m thinking, Hold on, I’m new to this show and I’m being asked to do this? Is this a mistake? I got told where I was supposed to go, and I hung up the phone and I had to sit down. I sat down and I had to regroup because, literally, like somebody had just hit me with a two-by-four, because I’m still thinking this is a mistake. I’m expecting another call to be like, “Oh, I’m sorry. We got that wrong.” And I couldn’t even tell anybody. Imagine sitting with this secret and all you want to do is tell somebody, but you can’t. It’s just like walking around with The Da Vinci Code and I can’t share it with anybody.
I was thinking, This is going to make me the most hated man in some circles. It’s incredible, because who doesn’t love Bodie?
J. D. WILLIAMS (PRESTON “BODIE” BROADUS): It’s kind of weird, because I saw it coming from the second episode. The show has its own reality and its own rules. From the very first episode of the fourth season and especially the second, you seen Bodie is outside by himself. Either he’s going to get some help or he’s going to get killed. I was on top of that from the first or the second episode.
I remember the sixth episode came around, and being that all of the young kids, that was my crew in the show—on set, we would be around each other so much—I basically adopted all those little kids. Keep them corralled, give them ideas and suggestions if they weren’t doing something or if they needed help. I would tell them sometimes it’s not looking so good for Bodie. The kids would come sit with me at lunch. It was like maybe six of them, seven of them. I was like the school mom. They would all sit around and we would talk, and David Simon came and sat next to us one day. He came and sat with us while we were talking. Somebody brought up “What do you think is going to happen?” I said, “I think Bodie is probably going to get killed.” All of the kids looked at me like, How could you say that in front of The Wire? All of them almost threw up, had a heart attack, fell out their chair. It was ridiculous. David kind of looked at me, and David Simon is not like an overtly emotional person as far as I’ve known, but he just had this look on his face. It was kind of, not a surprised look, but he was intrigued, because he was like, “Go on.” I explained why and everything, and David said, “Well, you never know. It’s possible.”
DAVID SIMON (CREATOR): He’s right. He saw that. Once they guess it, it’s sort of like there’s nothing you can do. And he guessed it. So, I think a couple episodes after that, I came to him and said, “Well, you figured it out. Don’t be doing that shit here, ‘Oh my God, I’m dead in three episodes. This might be the last cup of coffee I ever have.’ Performance has been perfectly fluid, perfectly paced, just keep doing what you’re doing.” You talk about a professional actor, J.D. is rock solid.
J. D. WILLIAMS (PRESTON “BODIE” BROADUS): They pulled me to the side and basically said, “J.D., we’re going to take Bodie out, but we’re going to make it great. We appreciate you and we’re sorry that you’re going.” Like I said, I was very excited for it. I was fine with it. I think they were a little bit more depressed than I was at the time. So, they started handing me pages. I never got a whole script. It was very secretive, and they were sneaking me little pages and little scenes maybe the day before we would go do it. I really appreciated the way it was handled, the way they told me. I appreciated the secrecy and the respect they gave it as far as shooting it. It was shot lovely. It was acted lovely. I was really proud of it and very appreciative. I felt like they honored Bodie.
DAVID SIMON (CREATOR): We arranged that he was the keeper of the chess metaphor all the way through. He speaks about the pawns and everything, and then, on the corner, we killed him with a chess move, the knight coming up from behind.
The corner boys start the season as close-knit children. Those ties are methodically frayed throughout Season 4’s thirteen episodes. By the end of the series, Michael (Tristan Mack Wilds) becomes a stickup artist on the run from Marlo’s crew. He can no longer support Dukie (Jermaine Crawford), who dropped out of school without his friends and turned to heroin. Randy (Maestro Harrell) loses all his innocence. He is returned to a group home, forced to physically defend himself after being branded a snitch. Namond (Julito McCullum) represents the kid who lucks into an opportunity when Bunny Colvin and his wife adopt him, offering stability.
JOE CHAPPELLE (DIRECTOR/CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER): I wanted to get a sense of camaraderie [early in Season Four], so there’s a lot of group shots of the guys, where maybe if it’s a scene later down in the season, it’s going to be more of a close-up. I remember in the exposition, in the early Episode One of that season, just trying to block scenes and shoot them, so it’s like they’re a group, they’re a team, at the end of the season, knowing we were going to tear them all apart. It’s a subtle visual, but that’s what I was going for.
JULITO MCCULLUM (NAMOND BRICE): Very often, you don’t get to see someone actually make it, in a sense, especially in film and television. It’s not shown, but there are actually kids, like myself, who was able to break the stereotype and change their lives. They had the support of great people. I had my mom and also my agents and things like that. I’m extremely proud that I was able to give that to the world. I’ve got stopped in the street a million times, like, “Man, Namond shouldn’t have made it, man.” That just goes to show how great the series was that people are so invested that they’re still thinking about it. I get stopped on the street every single day, still, because people are so invested in these characters and they feel like they were there. They watched them grow. They watched that transformation.
ED BURNS (CO-CREATOR): There’s always one kid that has that break, and he’s the one you didn’t like at all hardly. We created him that way.
DOMENICK LOMBARDOZZI (DET. THOMAS “HERC” HAUK): What Ed Burns and David did that season, I think it’s just some of the best writing I have ever seen and some of the proudest work I’ve ever done or been a part of.
CAROLYN STRAUSS (PRESIDENT, HBO ENTERTAINMENT): They were all really good, but if you put a gun to my head and said, “Pick your favorite season,” that fourth season to me was just killer.
On a macro level, yeah, it was a big political statement, but on the micro level, watching those kids go through that, it was just killer. Not in a good way. It was a good way, but it was rea
lly so visceral watching that happen.
ERIC OVERMYER (WRITER): That summer, what I remember most is [Hurricane] Katrina, really, and being in Baltimore and wondering if my house was still there in New Orleans. Then, after Katrina, David and I started talking again about doing a show in New Orleans, which eventually became the seeds for Treme.
GEORGE PELECANOS (WRITER/PRODUCER): It wasn’t really until Season Three that I felt like, This is pretty extraordinary, like we’re really doing something. And that’s where I think we hit our stride. I think Three and Four are our best seasons, in my opinion. Everybody’s going to have a different opinion. This is what I think we did best: we showed people how things work, why things are the way they are. It’s something that I’ve struggled with in my books, but I think we did it in the show. For example, if you take Season Four, if you came up the way I did, you’ve been hearing all your life, “Why can’t these kids just pull themselves up by their bootstraps to get out of the ghetto?” Like it’s easy. I think in that season, we showed America why it’s very difficult for them to do that, because of everything they’re up against. That’s really what I’m proud of, is that we articulated on film the mechanics of why things are the way they are.
MAESTRO HARRELL (RANDY WAGSTAFF): It was pretty sad to see, “Man, this is what happened.” I already knew that was the case. The second [that Randy] gets left in the group home, you see him get his ass beat, literally. That’s the world. This kid went in and he got hardened, and that’s what it is. He wasn’t about to break. I think that’s another thing about Randy. Randy didn’t just break and fold. But he was like, Wow, I did all this shit to not put myself in this position and then trying to do the right thing, I put myself in this position. That’s the world.
All the Pieces Matter Page 28
