TwoCents & Five Questions With...

...Wendell Pierce, Actor

Wendell Pierce is one of those actors you can always catch while watching movies on TV. He has appeared in films such as: "Casualties of War", "Malcolm X", "Bye Bye Love", "Waiting to Exhale" and "Ray".

On Television you've seen Wendell in shows such as: "Third Watch", "NUMB3RS" and of course "The Wire".

Recently Wendell Pierce took some time out of shooting the final season of "The Wire" to share his TwoCents and Five Answers with us. Enjoy!

Q: How do you feel with THE WIRE finally winding down?
Wendell Pierce: I have mixed emotions. I'm happy we were able to complete the novel. This has definitely been the best job of my career. It's fun to be Bunk. I was real nervous about the role at first, because my character is loosely based on a real detective, but it turned out he loves the show, so that made me feel good.

Bunk is a great character to play because he's fleshed-out - a troubled man who's a really good cop at the same time. That gives him focus when the rest of his life is falling apart. He's not lost, exactly, but he's susceptible to his inadequacies.

Q: What happens in season five?
WP: About all I can say is that each character is challenged by his moral compass, and the choices people make put them at odds with each other. The best thing about being on the series is seeing the way the characters interact.

Q: Can you share any secrets?
WP: One of the interesting things about THE WIRE is that even if you like a character, you can't be sure they're going to do the right thing. There's always that ambiguity about whose moral compass is off and whose is on. You can't take stereotypes for granted, whether you're looking at a judge or a kid who's swinging on the street. I love that about the show.

Q: What are you going to miss most about playing Bunk?
WP: The camaraderie with McNulty and Freamon and all the other police. Playing Bunk brought me a sense of ease that I hadn't found before. I'm a lot more relaxed in my work now.

Q: How do you think THE WIRE will be remembered in coming years?
WP: We're going to be like "The Bicycle Thief." People will say, "Here's my top ten - and do you know about THE WIRE?" I think we'll get a whole new fan base after the show is done, because people will be able to pop in the DVDs.

The show has already touched people across the spectrum who want to be challenged as well as entertained - young and old, black and white, rich and poor.

Many thanks to Wendell Pierce for taking some time out to spend with us. The final season of "The Wire" currently airs on HBO on Sundays at 9PM EST.

Two Cents & Five Questions With...

... David Simon, Writer/Executive Producer

David Simon is the Executive Producer of HBO's critically acclaimed series - "The Wire" which launches its ten-episode fifth and final season Sunday, Jan. 6 at 9:00PM EST, exclusively on HBO.

David has also been a writer on shows such as "NYPD Blue" and "Homicide".

Recently David was able to spend some time answering questions about the show and the final season. Enjoy his TwoCents and Five Answers!

Q: Now that "The Wire" is finally winding down, how do you feel?
David Simon: It's been six years of storytelling, and we've put in a lot of effort to create this universe, so to say goodbye is certainly bittersweet. But we got to say what we wanted to say, and it's time to tell other stories.

Q: Was the five-season arc something you had envisioned from the beginning, or was it a season-to-season process of developing the series?
DS: We had pretty much decided by the middle of the second season what we would like to cover in terms of this city we were slowly creating.

Q: Can you summarize what "The Wire" is trying to say?
DS: I suppose that what we are trying to say, as a last consideration, is that if "The Wire" is at all correct in its portrayal of an American city, its problems and its inability to even fully acknowledge - much less attend to - its problems, then what exactly are we paying attention to? When the drug war went awry for generations, when the factories closed and the working class was hollowed out, when the police departments and the school systems all began critiquing themselves with fraudulent crime statistics and test scores, and when our political leaders exalted themselves with non-existent achievements, how exactly did we see ourselves?

Q: "The Wire" is often hailed for its uncompromising depiction of timely issues, but that kind of praise doesn't necessarily convey how much fun the show can be.
DS: We think about the issues, of course, but we try not to be didactic. It's important first to let the characters breathe. The show is very confident in its own sense of story and its sense of character and its own sense of humor. It's a very funny show in many ways - sometimes in that "Dr. Strangelove" kind of way. If you walk in anybody's footsteps, you'll see that people have a way of laughing at the world, and at themselves.

Q: How do you think "The Wire" will be viewed five or ten years from now, as people continue to discover it on DVD?
DS: I think it will have a shelf life. It has survived by critical attention and by word of mouth. And I think that word of mouth will continue.

A big thanks to David for taking the time to share his TwoCents and Five Answers!

"The Wire" Returns Jan 6th.

The Peabody Award-winning drama series THE WIRE launches its ten-episode fifth and final season SUNDAY, JAN. 6 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO, with other episodes debuting on subsequent Sundays at the same time.

In addition to resolving storylines that have continued throughout the previous seasons, the culminating narrative arc of THE WIRE will reflect on the media's role in addressing - or failing to address - the fundamental political, economic and social realities depicted over the course of the series.

Explains series creator David Simon, "It made sense to finish THE WIRE with this reflection on the state of the media, as all the other attendant problems of the American city depicted in the previous four seasons will not be solved until the depth and range of those problems is first acknowledged. And that won't happen without an intelligent, aggressive and well-funded press."

A 13-year veteran of the Baltimore Sun newspaper, Simon decries recent trends in the newspaper industry that have conspired to make high-end journalism vulnerable: out-of-town chain ownership, an economic climate in which the share price of media companies matters more to industry leaders than the product itself, and a newsroom culture in which prizes, personal ambition and the cult of the "impact" story has replaced consistent and detailed coverage of complex issues as the primary goal.

Returning cast regulars on THE WIRE include Dominic West, Sonja Sohn, Lance Reddick, Wendell Pierce, Deirdre Lovejoy, Clarke Peters, Reg E. Cathey, Domenick Lombardozzi, Seth Gilliam, Aidan Gillen, Jamie Hector, Michael Kenneth Williams, John Doman, Andre Royo, Corey Parker Robinson, Tristan Wilds, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Jermaine Crawford and Isiah Whitlock, Jr.

New cast regulars this season include Clark Johnson ("Homicide: Life on the Street") as city editor Augustus "Gus" Haynes, Tom McCarthy ("Year of the Dog") as ambitious reporter Scott Templeton, Michelle Paress as reporter Alma Gutierrez, Neal Huff ("Michael Clayton") as Michael Steintorf, Mayor Carcetti's chief of staff, and Michael Kostroff ("The Closer") as Maury.