Wendell Pierce: The Wire changed everything
The US actor told The Big issue magazine he is now ‘ready to do all those roles my insecurities told me I shouldn’t pursue’.
Wendell Pierce has said The Wire changed his career and “defined” television.
The 56-year-old US actor, currently on stage in London in Death Of A Salesman, starred as Detective Bunk Moreland in the hit HBO drama.
He told The Big issue magazine he is now “ready to do all those roles my insecurities told me I shouldn’t pursue”.
“The Wire changed everything. It was the defining moment of my career,” he said.
“(Creator) David Simon changed the game. He innovated the medium … He wrote the first television novel.
“He showed … that people would watch television the same way they read a novel, allowing it to develop chapter by chapter … We did great work that defined television in a historic way.”
The US crime drama also starred Dominic West and ran from 2002 to 2008.
The Big Issue, sold by vendors to lift themselves out of poverty, is available to buy from December 9 across the UK.
