All the Pieces Matter by Jonathan Abrams

Author:Jonathan Abrams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2018-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

WILLIAM F. ZORZI (STAFF WRITER): Carcetti is based on [Martin] O’Malley, yeah. He’s based in part on O’Malley. He’s sort of based on a number of different politicians.

AIDAN GILLEN (MAYOR THOMAS CARCETTI): I think on my first day, [David Simon] said something like, “Okay, this is the deal. You were Bob Colesberry’s last casting call, so whether we really wanted you or not, we had to give you the job.”

SEITH MANN (DIRECTOR): I shadowed a couple of times, and David introduced himself to me. He said, “Bob was a big fan of yours, and his secret plan was for you to direct an episode [in Season Three]. That’s not going to happen. We’re just finding our way without him, but we wanted you to come have an opportunity to learn all you can.” That was great, too.

I was very green. Fresh out of film school, had never worked in television, had never been on a television set, and didn’t really know how it all worked, but I was really interested in television. I shadowed Ed Bianchi first, and then Ernest Dickerson. Jamie Hector was in my short. The Wire was a big break for both of us. The first day, he’s on set, and I’m shadowing Ed. My belief is you behave as a shadow. Shadow goes where the director goes and doesn’t say shit. That’s a shadow, right? I was sticking pretty close to Ed, and so Jamie, he was eating lunch and we’re talking. He’s like, “Damn, you and my man so tight, I swear you going to turn him black.” We just laughed about it. A couple episodes later, I’m shadowing Ernest Dickerson. Jamie comes up to me and says, “Damned if you ain’t do it.”

Eventually, George Pelecanos pulled me to the side one day and gave me some advice. He said, “Look, I think you can do this and I think you can be great at this, but it’s not going to happen if you don’t talk to David about letting him know you want to direct.” Self-promotion has not necessarily been one of my strong suits historically.

That was way outside of my comfort level, but at the same time, for him to take the interest and give me some advice, I kind of got to at least act on it. I proceeded to have a fairly awkward conversation with David and Nina, expressing my desire to direct. Neither one of them committed to anything. Truth be told, I don’t know if that conversation had anything to do with it at all, but [I got a chance to direct] when they finally got their pickup for Season Four.

AIDAN GILLEN (MAYOR THOMAS CARCETTI): I remember Bill Zorzi’s eyes kind of out on stalks when I walked into the room, the writers’ room, off the plane from London to start as Carcetti. I looked more like Ziggy than Carcetti—big mop of hair and scruffy clothes, etcetera. Someone said, “Get this man’s hair cut and get him down to Brooks Brothers immediately.

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