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shadowkatI found the Omar (Michael Williams)/McNulty (Dominic West) commentary - it's on the third disc, S2,
All Prologue episode. And like most commentaries they spend most of their time talking about everything but the episode.
So far learned that the guy who plays Carver has an amazing training background as an actor that intimidated Williams and West. Nina (the Producer) would not permit actors not to be on set during off-camera shots. And Clark Peters (Lester), Idris (Stringer Bell) and West (McNulty) are all British, although Peters is from NY but has lived in England for the last 20 years. Idris - I believe - he has that sort of accent. And that an area that Omar (Williams) visited with a friend in Baltimore - had white guys, kids, etc all dealing drugs...in poverty and struggling. It blew his mind. And it gave him a whole new respect for the second season which touches on that. Also...a big difference between Baltimore and NYC - is in Baltimore they do testing for drugs or free samples to test the market, while in NYC they do not do that. Williams is really good at commentary.
But personally? I don't think they remember this episode. Lots of gossip about the actors and talking about how great they are, being reminded of why I don't tend to watch commentary. Also there's teeny spoilers that I could do without it. Note to self - avoid commentaries from now on.
Guy who plays Frank Sobotke - Chris Bauer - is in a fat suit. He had padding for the role.
You think putting together those computer graphics is that interesting states West, you should try acting with them?
Apparently the Judge - Peter Gerty - looks down at his lines on the scrib sheet...then when the shot comes back to him - delivers. Also when the prosecutor meets the cops in the hall after the trial, she kept tripping over the sand-bag which kept cracking up Williams and West.
Dominic West struggled with his accent -he struggled with it for three years and still couldn't get it right. They didn't want to do a Baltimore accent because apparently in Homicide they used to get regular calls if anybody had a Baltimore accent saying is this guy retarded. "I wanted a Baltimore accent, but they said no, just do a general east coast accent." Hired a dialect coach and they used to have regular sessions in the first season or so, but he didn't see him much for a while after that. Williams (Omar) states he had work hard on his too. And had to have a Baltimore accent. Really hard on it. That they do speak differently than in New York. (True - it's a little like the difference between North London and Cockney). Hours in Lexington Market and just listen to people's conversation. It's not completely south, not as drawn out, and not as fast as NY, so South but with a Northern undertone, a certain chop. We say Dog, they say Do-ug in Baltimore. We say do, they say due. Southern choppy. White Baltimore says "A" sound. White Baltimore is whole different world than Black Baltimore - which doesn't say the "A" sound, a hard "A".
Jeffrey Fugget isn't an actor - he's a real marine cop - whose working with McNulty on the docks. Did not know that.
Interesting thing on the commentary is who they avoid talking about...like nothing on Ziggy. Western references - on Omar - which Williams comments on. He said Omar is based on a lot of characters in Westerns, and several of his scenes were framed on films and characters such as The Wild Bunch and Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
West auditioned - by putting himself on tape, by himself, leaving gaps for everyone else to speak - which impressed and amused the producers/creators a great deal.
Oh Michaels picked up on the same thing I did in the last Avon/D scene - which as "death right there with a camera angle" - it's why I was convinced Avon was going to do it.
Discussing sex scenesis hilarious - had to do the vocals for first sex scene he did with Linda Pearlman in the first season all in post. The director kept screaming "climax now", because West said - you need to give me a signal or something. So the director screamed "climax" now - that's all they had on the tape. So they had to do all the moaning and climaxing in post. Williams thinks West has better chemistry with Callie Thorne than Linda Peralman. And couldn't take the first love scene with Pearlman and West agrees - it was ridiculous. In every sex scene, West made sure he was never on top, because didn't want to have his little white ass exposed. Also Callie's original idea was to slip the ex-husband an ecastasy pill and have sex amongst the kids toys, but they didn't like it. And they discuss gratitutious boobs shots. (Apparently Sonja (greggs) cut out her boob shots, and the actress playing Cheryl wouldn't go for it at all.)
The guy portraying Johnny 50 in a walk-on role is actually the props guy.
They spend a lot of time discussing Robert Colesberry, the Executive Producer, who died at 55, just after directing the Season 2 finale.
Also, I looked at the writing credits? Richard Price (Clockers) wrote for The Wire, Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) wrote for it.
All Prologue episode. And like most commentaries they spend most of their time talking about everything but the episode.
So far learned that the guy who plays Carver has an amazing training background as an actor that intimidated Williams and West. Nina (the Producer) would not permit actors not to be on set during off-camera shots. And Clark Peters (Lester), Idris (Stringer Bell) and West (McNulty) are all British, although Peters is from NY but has lived in England for the last 20 years. Idris - I believe - he has that sort of accent. And that an area that Omar (Williams) visited with a friend in Baltimore - had white guys, kids, etc all dealing drugs...in poverty and struggling. It blew his mind. And it gave him a whole new respect for the second season which touches on that. Also...a big difference between Baltimore and NYC - is in Baltimore they do testing for drugs or free samples to test the market, while in NYC they do not do that. Williams is really good at commentary.
But personally? I don't think they remember this episode. Lots of gossip about the actors and talking about how great they are, being reminded of why I don't tend to watch commentary. Also there's teeny spoilers that I could do without it. Note to self - avoid commentaries from now on.
Guy who plays Frank Sobotke - Chris Bauer - is in a fat suit. He had padding for the role.
You think putting together those computer graphics is that interesting states West, you should try acting with them?
Apparently the Judge - Peter Gerty - looks down at his lines on the scrib sheet...then when the shot comes back to him - delivers. Also when the prosecutor meets the cops in the hall after the trial, she kept tripping over the sand-bag which kept cracking up Williams and West.
Dominic West struggled with his accent -he struggled with it for three years and still couldn't get it right. They didn't want to do a Baltimore accent because apparently in Homicide they used to get regular calls if anybody had a Baltimore accent saying is this guy retarded. "I wanted a Baltimore accent, but they said no, just do a general east coast accent." Hired a dialect coach and they used to have regular sessions in the first season or so, but he didn't see him much for a while after that. Williams (Omar) states he had work hard on his too. And had to have a Baltimore accent. Really hard on it. That they do speak differently than in New York. (True - it's a little like the difference between North London and Cockney). Hours in Lexington Market and just listen to people's conversation. It's not completely south, not as drawn out, and not as fast as NY, so South but with a Northern undertone, a certain chop. We say Dog, they say Do-ug in Baltimore. We say do, they say due. Southern choppy. White Baltimore says "A" sound. White Baltimore is whole different world than Black Baltimore - which doesn't say the "A" sound, a hard "A".
Jeffrey Fugget isn't an actor - he's a real marine cop - whose working with McNulty on the docks. Did not know that.
Interesting thing on the commentary is who they avoid talking about...like nothing on Ziggy. Western references - on Omar - which Williams comments on. He said Omar is based on a lot of characters in Westerns, and several of his scenes were framed on films and characters such as The Wild Bunch and Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
West auditioned - by putting himself on tape, by himself, leaving gaps for everyone else to speak - which impressed and amused the producers/creators a great deal.
Oh Michaels picked up on the same thing I did in the last Avon/D scene - which as "death right there with a camera angle" - it's why I was convinced Avon was going to do it.
Discussing sex scenesis hilarious - had to do the vocals for first sex scene he did with Linda Pearlman in the first season all in post. The director kept screaming "climax now", because West said - you need to give me a signal or something. So the director screamed "climax" now - that's all they had on the tape. So they had to do all the moaning and climaxing in post. Williams thinks West has better chemistry with Callie Thorne than Linda Peralman. And couldn't take the first love scene with Pearlman and West agrees - it was ridiculous. In every sex scene, West made sure he was never on top, because didn't want to have his little white ass exposed. Also Callie's original idea was to slip the ex-husband an ecastasy pill and have sex amongst the kids toys, but they didn't like it. And they discuss gratitutious boobs shots. (Apparently Sonja (greggs) cut out her boob shots, and the actress playing Cheryl wouldn't go for it at all.)
The guy portraying Johnny 50 in a walk-on role is actually the props guy.
They spend a lot of time discussing Robert Colesberry, the Executive Producer, who died at 55, just after directing the Season 2 finale.
Also, I looked at the writing credits? Richard Price (Clockers) wrote for The Wire, Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) wrote for it.