Wendell Pierce
/In this post, there is a list of the advanced words and phrases from the BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Wendell Pierce - a famous American actor. Aggie and I are currently creating a podcast (in which we will explain some of the words) and it will be launched very soon!
You can listen to the interview here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009ryj
INTRO
00:50 His credits include roles in more than 30 films and tv
Meghan Markle’s father in ‘Suits’
1:00 Role as detective in ‘The Wire’ where he helped redefine the boundaries of what TV could be
1:09 a polyphonic tribute to the resilience and cultural riches of New Orleans (the sequel to the wire)
1:16 in the wake of hurricane katrina
First middle class african-american development (family lived)
1:25 schools were still segregated
Even in extreme circumstances, art matters “free southern theatre”
Katrina destroyed his neighbourhood → inspired to act in both senses
1:46 In America, we have turned away from an awareness of the prophetic power of art
Art gives us the power to live life’s questions
WORKING TRIFECTA
Film, tv, on stage
2:13 I shoot for that trifecta
2:22 Diversity has been the key to my having longevity in my career
2:26 You don’t wanna be the theatre snob
THEATRE - FIRST LOVE
Came home one summer, went to theatre camp at uni of new orleans
2:58 the woman called me back to be in
3:01 her thesis play
3:14 I got the bug
WILL SOMETHING BE A HIT
3:15 starred in some...
3:18 hugely popular, critically acclaimed shows
3:22 Do you know when something is gonna be a hit
When we watched the first two episodes of the wire I to the others I hope you saved some of your money cos we’re going to get cancelled immediately cos this is not very good, it’s too slow
3:53 Throughout all 5 series, David had to pitch it to the producers again
RADIO
4:05 another string to your bow [LL]
Had an idea for a show at 16 (went to the producer)
4:37 Do you want to go on the air
Call your mother - I was young, had to get permission! And I went on the air at midnight or something
MUSIC
4:56 So much music I had to cut out
5:06 I am very melancholy (the songs I chose)
Maybe because of what i’m working on
5:15 Death of a salesman would invite a certain amount of introspection [LL]
FIRST DISC (Being Green)
think of childhood, New Orleans a very musical city
5:47 told as a little black boy, if not directly, that they are sub par
my parents did a great job at making sure I knew I was valued
6:05 this song captured it
6:14 reinforcement and love of my parents and friends
I realised I was someone of importance
7:09 that was my shield
7:14 it’s a little on the nose
when it comes in the midst of racial conflict and prejudice
being suspicious of men around him “rub a little n****s head for luck”
8:02 they feign some sort of ignorance of what they’re doing to you
protects a child from the ugliness of racism ⇒ power of art
THE WIRE 2002-8
8:42 systemic examination of an entire city - Boltimore
READING SCRIPT (playing detective bunk)
8:58 real examination of the dysfunction of the corporate, political, criminal justice world
9:08 criticism of the decline of the american empire
9:14 eating away at the very best of America and its people
captured it in the simplest scenes
9:26 kids explaining chess and saying we’re the pawns
THE REAL BUNK
9:47 didn’t you say ‘I was born to play bunk’
Knew and got to meet men like Bunk
10:08 took me around, I did drive bys with him
went to his retirement party
10:28 I was ready to be chastised
10:30 you made me a star
african american officers - became police officers criminality happening in their neighbourhood
10:45 did not reflect not the community that they knew
I felt as though I knew those men
SUITS
11:13 walked a future royal up the aisle
11:15 sorry for the spoiler
11:22 always sweet
I didn’t believe at first that she was dating the prince until this MI5 guy turned up from London with this British accent and I thought oh it must be true
11:48 in the show she was engaged,
11:53 before the engagement she was about to get out of the car with the ring on and i said ‘don’t get out give us the ring, there’s paparazzi down the road’
11:59 if a photo got out it would explode all over the world
always know you have a friend in me
SECOND DISC (thelonious monk)
12:28 starts with that big four beat
12:35 jazz was born literally
12:40 captured Africans found their creative freedom before their actual freedom
12:57 some connection to home
13:24 the embodiment of genius in someone
13:38 a very hopeful song, it’s swingin’
15:28 noticed you conducting
15:31 I was an usher at juilliard theatre
CHILDHOOD
youngest of 3 sons
15:44 father was a private in the US army fighting in WW2
FATHER
15:52 were you raised to be patriotic
16:03 really it was implematic of what he thought of the country
america owes great debt to african americans, in spite of everything many generations are
16:19 still devoted to the country
great grandfather sold as a baby with his mother, she would say prayers - if you ever get free go and find your siblings in kentucky, he never did
17:06 willingly went to fight for a country
17:08 on paper it says life,
17:10 liberty
17:11 And the pursuit of happiness
it’s a great country because of what we do with it
17:39 all these years of violence and antagonism
around the time of black power movement and at a boxing match, these brothers in front of us pulled my dads pants whilst he stood for the national anthem - I fought for this country if you pull them down again I’ll kick you in the teeth
didn’t get his medals (7 of them)
18:18 my mother came before she passed
a white female officer told him ‘yeah right you won medals, impossible’ so he got angry and decided he didn’t want them
18:56 would you look into it
19:01 she brought this yellowed piece of paper from january 1945 saying that he had his medals
help of WW2 museum in new orleans
19:18 awarded his medals on veterans day
19:21 at the gala he said he wanted to speak
19:27 he hobbled to the microphone
“we’ve come a long way, we have a black president!”
as much as this country has done to me, and how I was denied these medals at first, I can now say
19:49 and he stepped back, saluted and said god bless america
love the country and challenge it at the same time
NEIGHBOURHOOD - PONCHARTRAIN PARK
it’s ordinariness made it extraordinary
height of segregation, a black person couldn’t go into a green space except for one day a week
20:22 so this park was created to appease the people
20:29 a dividing line a ditch actually to segregate
20:38 it became an incubator of talent
this moses generation gave us this joshua generation
THIRD DISC
21:07 my youthful best, my cockiness
21:10 is perpetual spring and summer when I hear this song
all my boys became men, we were unified
MOTHER
School teacher, I called her T
my mother like all mothers are just angels
everyone made fun of my grandfather - why you sending those girls to school for
met my father at a historic black college
Didn’t teach him at school
23:06 wasn’t allowed, just in case there was nepotism
all of my teachers were her friends
so I’d come home and my third grade teacher would be in the living room and say ‘pierce he has homework don’t be letting him tell you otherwise’
23:37 education was the real armour
23:38 to face the world
SCHOOL
23:39 predominantly white school
23:45 it was the gifted and talented program
my father had the talk with me - not about sex -
24:05 but about the first time you were going to probably encounter racism
24:09 I saw bussing happening in Boston, buses being attacked
24:27 you’re gonna get your ass kicked
the white boys will come at you in a group and you’ll get your ass kicked but whilst this is happening you grab the biggest one, the leader and you kick his ass
24:54 and they’ll never fool with you again
25:01 I was terrified, what’re you sending me into - a war zone ?!
25:09 I get off the bus the first day and the kids are like ‘hey wendell how you doing’ and all of a sudden I’m beating the kid up
I had a fight every day for the first week
25:25 You were like a coiled spring
we were playing our version of rugby and Chet yelled ‘n****s against the whites’
26:03 I turned into this devil
26:06 this is the epiphany
for the next two years we were friends and played happily
26:30 my fathers attempt to embolden me was weird and wrong
26:44 the ugly and insidious nature of racism and
26:46 white supremacy
NEW FREEDOMS
people had been fighting for a long time to have
27:04 we’d been given so many gifts
27:14 afforded possibilities and aspirations that people had been denied for a long time
27:32 you will dishonour all those came before you if you do not get an education
my grandmother got her high school education at 69
27:59 my mother was right, she was a blessed woman
FOURTH DISC (MAHALIA JACKSON)
28:01 song is hope and optimism that my mother gave me
28:07 reminds me of my mother
connection to family
28:22 this song is played as one passes on in our family
LOVE OF ACTING
29:45 you began to split your school days between high school and acting
30:00 high school - really tough preparing you for college
professional artist - probably going to have to leave Louisiana
30:26 two institutions that were very intense
30:35 I loved it! exactly the ethos that my mother was
30:37 espousing
TRIP TO ENGLAND
came to london at 16
went to west end, Shakespeare company
I realised people in england go to the theatre the way that we look at tv
I knew I could be an actor
31:33 the classes we were being trained in
31:38 I saw it actualised on the stage
not that level of professional theatre in NO
31:56 it gave me something to aspire to
32:15 commercial theatre here have a focus
JUILLIARD
very difficult to get into
In NYC 1981
32:44 JayZ was actually still slinging
Going to all the jazz clubs
32:55 hanging out with all these jazz musicians
33:13 Real coming of age
Understood what it meant to be an artist
FIFTH DISC (JONI MITCHELL)
Beautiful song
Says so much about to me
33:48 love to me is so multi faceted
What is life but love?
33:58 I am a sentimentalist
34:07 this song is sustenance to that mentality
LEAVING JULLIARD
Confirmation that my heart had spoken to me and it had not lied
35:22 Heart spoken about my vocation
35:31 Really focussing on your craft means you have to deal with your inadequacies
When I left Juilliard, clear that I wasn’t an actor
Came out thinking there was so much work to be done
34:48 Sense of the imposter syndrome
When in doubt, do the work
In deepest doubt, work harder
Thought I was going to go back to radio, and then I got a job
36:09 and I thought oh its a fluke
You’re a professional actor, declared it to myself
Employment doesn’t define you as an artist
36:35 Best thing since sliced bread
AUDITIONS
36:40 Sounds like you really knew how to ace
36:41 auditions
Best one - one of the highlights of career
Auditions are Opening and closing night
If something comes of it then that’s a little something extra
Big Deal by “one and only” Bob Fosse
Reading book about tricks people did in auditions
38:27 he circled me
He came up to me nose to nose and said you’re good but you’re too young
Promised he’s gonna work with you this year
38:57 cut to me in a hotel room about to go to work in another play
Turn TV up, picture of Bob Fosse - ladies and gentleman Bob Fosse died today and I thought aw Bob Fosse is dead and I was gonna work with him
And I realised I had worked with him. An audience of 2 !
SIXTH DISC (DON’T GIVE UP ON ME)
39:34 I am a fallible man
Greatest failure when you fail with the people you care about
39:52 When there’s dysfunction you just want it to be healed
39;59 the word that’s been on my mind is redemption
40:02 the blues idiom
2005 NEW ORLEANS HURRICANE KATRINA
Came for family vacation
Got to the airport and it was crazed
Hurricane turned
42:21 if there’s a mandatory evacuation then we’ll leave
(thinking there wouldn’t be one because there never has been one)
“This is not a test. We are in an emergency”
I knew New Orleans had been destroyed, couldn’t get in for 8 weeks
43:15 It was like a nuclear holocaust
It was like losing a member of the family
43:37 My father’s wailing, we raised our sons in this house
My parents losing everything, wouldn't wish that on anyone, seems so final
44:12 Look at your memorabilia, so painful
Before they die I want to give them back their home. Got back a year and a half later
44:41 that’s your home, that’s your identity
44:50 Seen my parents in grief once before when my older brother died
Became fragile souls, and saw it again at the house
45:28 Knew if I demolished the home, it would demolish them
Rebuilt from inside out
2007 WAITING FOR GODOT (1953 play)
Was a photo of 2 men calling for help to coast guard helicopters in the storm
Did it on stage filled with 15 thousand gallons of water
46:44 heart of the devastation where so many people had died
Rebuilt my neighbourhood house by house, 40 houses to date
SEVENTH DISC (seventh movement aaron copland)
About hope
Need this on the island
[lord of the dance!]
My mother was still alive, got them home before they died
Louisiana Philharmonic came to our neighbourhood and played this
Sense of home with this song
WILLY LOMAN DEATH OF A SALESMAN
50:31 limitations on a life
As difficult as anything I can have imagined
50:47 a man’s insecurities
Trying to find purpose in life
51:06 What art should be, a forum where we reflect and change together
Like yourself and you will never want
Have a problem with the execution, every day trying to get it right
EIGHTH DISC (John Coltrane)
53:44 This is spirituality, it is eternal
Sounds so much cooler when you say it
54:14 Now that will sustain you on the desert island
DESERT ISLAND
What will you do when you arrive?
54:28 Didn’t know that was a part of the examination of my soul !
Take a bath in the ocean
Wash away whatever trauma has brought me to this predicament
Proud of my people, my family - BOOK: The Omni-americans: Black Experience And American Culture by Albert Murray
LUXURY: 55:27 I would have a grill
Grilled shrimp, lobster, cook some wonderful items
TRACK: Mahalia Jackson
Thank you for your therapy session ! !