From Elba’s perspective, the scene added insult to the damage of ending his time on the present. Martin recounted how Simon typically didn’t keep in mind actors’ emotions concerning the character or the job. He wouldn’t hear when Seth Gilliam and Domenick Lombardozzi expressed issues about their characters Carver and Herc getting pushed to the sidelines. Simon even excitedly advised Lawrence Gilliard Jr. about how excited the actor can be concerning the episode he simply wrote, the episode during which GIlliard’s character D’Angelo Barksdale is killed. Martin relates the query that Simon often posed every time they received defensive about their character: “Whoever stated it was your character?”
But, Simon and Pelecanos did perceive Elba’s frustration and, in line with the latter, tried to justify the story beat to him. “He was pissed, man. And I received it, as a result of, in impact, we had been firing him,” Pelecanos advised Martin. “David and I went to his trailer and tried to speak him down. We stated, ‘That is the tip of the character. We are able to’t hold his story going, it’s not logical. And that is precisely the best way he would in all probability exit.’”
Ultimately, a compromise was made, as anybody who has seen The Wire‘s third season is aware of. When Omar and Brother Mouzone (Michael Potts) kill Stringer, they wait a beat to acknowledge that their unlikely alliance has come to an finish. Then they stroll away, and the digicam pans as much as look by the window at an indication promoting actual property that Stringer tried to promote in a bid in the direction of legitimacy. In a method, it’s a extra poetic and damning insult than the urination.
However did the brand new ending appease Elba, who was nonetheless being written off the present? Pelecanos wasn’t certain as he walked house at evening after the demise scene was shot. “Pelecanos heard pounding footsteps behind him and turned, cringing,” wrote Martin. “It was Elba. ‘I simply wish to shake your hand,’ he advised the author. ‘It’s simply enterprise.’”
It’s enterprise that Elba has definitely performed nicely in, as demonstrated by all the pieces from his solo crime collection Luther to his position because the U.S. President within the current Kathryn Bigelow film A Home of Dynamite. But it surely’s laborious to argue that Elba’s ever had a personality as compelling as Stringer Bell. The Wire is, in any case, the best tv collection of all time.
