Chad L. Coleman: Through The Wire, Pt 2

AHHA: It’s almost like between Avon and Cutty, there’s this really deep level of respect that you don’t see between a lot of the other characters.

Chad: Exactly, and it speaks to…I think on a lot of levels Avon feels trapped. Every time when [Cutty] said ‘I can’t be in the game anymore’ – If you notice what [Avon] said, his response to that was: ‘He a man today’. I was trying to explain to people that’s very telling about something internally in him. He feels a certain level of probable doom, a lack of hope. ‘This is the way it is, I’ve got to live this out’ – so to see someone else making an attempt to do something other than that, he wanted to be supportive to that.

AHHA: Well it takes big balls to step out of that game, because you’re giving up a lot of things. Not only are you giving up your street cred and all that and your money and things like that, but you’re also giving up your protection in a lot of ways.

Chad: Right, and he could have flipped it and killed [Cutty] anyway.

AHHA: There’s a certain code of honor.

Chad: In him as a human being, so when it resonates in that someone’s trying to deal with their own code, he deals with it. Whereas Stringer, that’s why these things really happened to Stringer, he was totally out for self. He lacked any kind of allegiance to anybody but himself.

AHHA: Stringer had a lot of things in his past and I think that he didn’t really have the same respect for the same codes of ethics between the different crews. Like when they were saying no more killings on Sundays and things like that.

Chad: But where does that come from? Something happened to him a long time ago where he’s detached from people period on a certain level, he’s just detached. So whatever level of abandonment or something that he experienced early in his life, he said it’s all about self and self-preservation, and, ‘It’s about playing anybody around me to get what I want’. It’s all about opportunity to me with him, so that’s why I thought it would have been interesting. I wish he was there when [Cutty] said ‘I can’t do it anymore’. I thought that would have been really really interesting to see his reaction to that. I think he would have been smart enough to plan, it would have been interesting to see him play into Barksdale’s mentality, to play as if he saw it the same way. Like let Slim Charles say what he said and then play into it. He’s constantly trying to read Barksdale.

AHHA: Yeah he is, I think he was also always trying to put stuff in Barksdale’s head too and I think he would have been the dude that would’ve said, ‘Aw man, you just gonna let him walk out like that? No loyalty, what’s up?’ I think Stringer would’ve questioned that.

Chad: Yeah, but that’s what I was saying, the subversive nature of him though is to read those around him, and at that point say what Barksdale wants to hear and then you see it come down the road where he really stands, like [he’s] a phony. You can’t really live like that. Not to stray off…

AHHA: It’s all good. Going into the next season, Avon’s going in, but he’s the only boss now because there’s no more Stringer. The streets gotta be [chaotic]…

Chad: Well, I mean not really though if you think about who’s already holding it down.

AHHA: Who’s at the helm though without those two there? Prop Joe, it gives him more of a chance to step in.

Chad: Yeah but they already have a rival, there’s already [Marlo] that’s a young gun that’s there.

AHHA: Exactly and that guy’s crazy. [laughs]

Chad: I don’t know that he’s crazy, I think the young man is aggressive, he’s smart, he’s aggressive, he’s hungry and he wants to wear the crown.

AHHA: Mmhm, well he seems to have a really cold…it’s almost like he doesn’t even see people as people at all. He’s got this super criminal mentality.

Chad: Right, he’s no different [than Stringer], he’s like Stringer without a suit on, that’s something they always talk about, that it’s a young man’s game. If you go to Baltimore right now the dudes that are slinging and running stuff are really young. That’s what’s going on.

AHHA: That makes sense. Let’s get off The Wire for a little bit. Any other acting jobs that you have on deck?

Chad: Well, I was able to do a little work in Carlito’s Way: The Beginning. It’s going back before Pacino’s character went to prison, the prequel.

AHHA: I’m gonna speak on all of the comments that women make about you. How does it feel to be pretty much considered a sex symbol at this point? The women really love you.

Chad: Well I mean that’s great [laughs] – that feels great. I don’t see myself as that, when I hear people speak that way. My wife tells me that all the time, so to have that level of acknowledgement that’s cool. I think that’s what women identify in me. It’s like a ‘real man’, it’s not a ‘pretty boy’ man, it’s just a handsome rock man.

AHHA: It’s almost like they made Cutty and a couple of other characters almost asexual, like you guys are never gonna have a girlfriend on that show.

Chad: Well I don’t know, I’m not gonna say that because you know, [Cutty] did try to get [his] ex-girl back.

AHHA: We want the characters on HBO The Wire to have sex sometimes because it looks like Stringer was pretty much the only one getting any.

Chad: Well, no, Lieutenant Daniels.

AHHA: Oh yeah, but they’re all doing each other in the police precinct.

Chad: Which is what happens, you work in a certain radius, you end up mating and having sex with the people you work with. [laughs] That’s the thing about them, they hit the bull’s eye on all of it, because none of it is random. It’s all been highly researched, they’ve done books on it. One [writer for The Wire] is 20 years a reporter in Baltimore, one is 20 plus years as a detective. That’s Ed Burns and David Simon – you put those two together, and then the guys that they have as producers and writers all write crime novels and things of that nature. They’re all like in there.

AHHA: Yeah, It’s definitely one of the most amazing shows as far as writing. Between that and The Sopranos, I think just the character development for me are the best shows on TV.

Chad: Yeah which is why it baffles me a little bit that we don’t know that there’s gonna be a fourth season.

AHHA: Are you serious?

Chad: There hasn’t been any official announcement at all.

AHHA: There’s gonna have to be.

Chad: I don’t know how they compute these things because there’s a need.

AHHA: I think it’s gonna come down to exactly what happened with The Sopranos, when they were trying to say, ‘This is going to be the last season’ the fans just went berserk. Like ‘How can you just leave it like this?’ So they had to go back and make new episodes, and I think that’s what’ll happen with The Wire, it’s got a strong following.

Chad: That’s what I said on [Wendy William’s show on WBLS], I said, ‘Look, you guys gotta let the people know that this is what you want, make yourself heard that you want this and then see where they go from there’. I don’t know the way they compute the numbers, right now Desperate Housewives [on ABC] is cleaning up on Sunday nights. But people also know they have the option to watch The Wire later in the week.

AHHA: Yep, you’re [on HBO] In Demand.

Chad: So, it’s hard – I don’t know why they would look at the numbers just from the standpoint of that night.

AHHA: Exactly, what they should be doing is going to the cable company and checking those In Demand numbers.

Chad: Absolutely, we’ll see. I definitely hope there’s another season.

AHHA: Me too, I really do.