Philip Andrews

A great interview with David Simon in VICE:

But ultimately, if something is all about character, then character has to be served at all costs. And you know, we loved our actors. We never killed an actor because he was pissing us off. The only reason we killed an actor was for story, and we’d go to them and say, “We love your work. We’re going to work with you again sometime. I can’t wait till that day comes, except maybe it won’t because you’ll be a frickin’ movie star.” But it was never about any contract issues. We never played that game with our actors and they knew it. That probably made it more terrifying for them—

I’ll never forget J.D. Williams, who played Bodie, he saw himself starting to have these conversations with McNulty, and when I finally came to him and said, “This is your episode. You’re goin’ out.” He said, “Oh, I knew it. I could see.”

/via MT