The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Every installment asks the same five questions. Today’s subject is Wendell Pierce, the terrific New Orleans-born actor who is best known for playing Detective Bunk Moreland in the groundbreaking HBO drama The Wire, which turns 20 this year. He also starred as trombonist Antoine Batiste in Treme, and his other works includes Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Ray Donovan, Waiting to Exhale, Malcolm X, Ray, and Selma. He was a Laurence Olivier Award nominee for Best Actor in a Play for his turn as Willy Loman in the 2019 revival of a play Death of a Salesman on the West End in London at the Piccadilly Theatre. His latest is Don’t Hang Up, a film airing on Bounce, the Scripps-owned network dedicated to Black audiences that debuts tomorrow.
In one of the more personal installments of Film That Lit My Fuse that we’ve had, Pierce explains the influences and life lessons that honed his acting chops. Starting with his upbringing as the son of a teacher and decorated WWII vet whose segregated Army unit helped the Marines win the Battle of Saipan. The neighborhood where he was raised, Pontchartrain Park, was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.