Lance Reddick Quotes
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Art is art, and journalism is journalism.
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It's funny, because in drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters.
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That's what David Caruso said to me. We were talking about the whole Emmy thing, and he said that one of the things about awards in this town is that a lot is about the drama - like the drama of the performance. And he said "Your show, The Wire, looks so real, it almost looks like a documentary. And people who aren't artists - a lot of people who vote for this stuff - don't get it."
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A very odd thing happened to my career when I got The Wire. My career was pretty much a steady climb; I didn't really flatline much. When I did The Wire, that's when I thought all the doors would open, but that's when things flatlined. I had a really hard time just getting seen for film, which was the next step.
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Growing up, I never imagined I would be an actor.
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Sometimes you have to say, "No. This is my space." If you're going to come at me, come at me respectfully, and I will respond respectfully.
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I mean, you know actors, we always want to do something else, something different.
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Nothing will ever top 'The Wire.' It was historical. It was black cinema.
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When you're in a high-stress situation, dynamics between people can change.
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It's funny, 90 percent of what I've done has been television, and I never really wanted to do it that much. I was really interested in film and theater. What's ironic is that when I started doing television, I did a bunch of amazing shows all in a row, starting with The Corner.
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I started to realize, a lot of times if you go into your memory, your sense memory, you know more than you think you do, from having watched and listened.
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Don't be a victim; if you want to make movies, make movies.
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You either get better, or you don't progress.
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If you're going to come at me, come at me respectfully, and I will respond respectfully.
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From the time I became an actor my whole approach was to try to do as many different things as possible. It never occurred to me that I might be typecast.
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Notes are tricky in an audition, because I find, more often than not, my instinct is right.
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'The Wire' really drew on a lot of real-life situations and real-life organizations - it created fiction to make a social statement about reality.
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I’m interested not just in projects that I’ll be starring in, but producing film and TV that’s really quality and great for adults; and when I say great for adults, it doesn’t mean without humor, because I’m also interested in doing comedy.
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I was coming from a theater background. I had an obsession with classic film and cool, interesting, intelligent television. I didn't really understand the way the mainstream television industry worked. I just thought "The wire is so good that it's going to be a huge hit, and we'll get awards up the yin-yang forever." That's what I thought!
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I graduated in '94 from Yale and New York Undercover was my first gig on TV. I was really all over the place with roles, which is what I wanted to do.
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The African American community is so under-served in the entertainment industry.
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In drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters.
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I grew up studying music. I went to conservatory.
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As I got further into my career, as a character of color, if I was going to have the types of opportunities I felt I deserved, and continue to have them, I was going to have to start creating those opportunities for myself.
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I'm an artist at heart.
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I started acting, almost on a whim to help my music career.
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I feel like my public life isn't necessarily my own. I'm starting to get used to how to maneuver and operate in New York in a way that I don't get stopped all the time. I just pretty much say "Thank you." But one of the things is to try to keep moving. Not to stop too long, because people try to get into a conversation with you all the time. The hardest thing is on the subway, or when people try to chase you down.
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Because of the way tech is changing, and becoming cheaper and user-friendly, it's becoming easier to make films cheaply, maintaining quality.
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What's interesting is, most of the people who are fans of the The Wire who black people or cops... most of the people in the industry are the crew: writers, actors and directors. And so they understand what it is that we do, so they think, "Wow, what a incredible group of amazing actors." It's funny, I think there are a couple of reasons why we have never gotten any nomination for anything except for writing.
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I can only speak as an American, but most journalism here isn't doing its job any more. It's about selling stuff.
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