Did you know that Jimmy McNulty is played by an English actor? Or Stringer Bell? Well, it’s true…
Dominic West, who plays McNulty, was born and raised in Sheffield. According to the book The Wire: Truth Be Told, he got the role of McNulty by sending over an audition tape of him self playing the part of McNulty and leaving out the other persons’ lines with long pauses as he didn’t have anyone to play the part against. This made for a very amusing scene which caught the eyes of the producers. Although he’s usually spot on with the Baltimore accent, in the scene below you can clearly hear his English roots.
In episode 22 season 2 he is also going under cover at an illegal brothel parodying an English man, which makes for a very funny scene considering he’s actually English.
King Pin Stringer Bell is skilfully played by Hackney actor Idris Elba. According to IMDB, he actually uses his American accent when talking to The Wire fans.
“Wherever I go the real hard-core drug dealers come up to me and confide in me. I almost feel guilty turning around and saying: ‘Ello, mate. My name’s Idris and I’m from London.’ I don’t want to break the illusion.”
12 Comments
July 25, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Don’t forget Mayor Carcetti. He is played by Aiden Gillen, from Dublin, Ireland. And you thought that was a Baltimore accent?
July 25, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Of course I knew that, just wanted to check with the blog readers
August 9, 2007 at 9:24 pm
That Raid scene is great when you think about what’s going on there: it’s a british actor faking an american accent faking a british accent. Pretty sweet.
September 27, 2007 at 5:49 am
I recall hearing that Clarke Peeters, although American born, was raised in England and also speaks with an English accent.
February 4, 2008 at 10:28 am
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March 19, 2008 at 7:50 pm
if you look up clarke peters on wiki it says he was raised in new jersey, he jsut lives in london currently.
June 19, 2008 at 6:55 am
In Season Two, under “Features” on the DVD, one episode has audio commentary by Michael Williams and Dominic West, and they talk about all of the actors on The Wire that have British accents (and at least one director,) and how funny it is to try and suppress their normal speaking voices. I just finished re-watching Season Two (docks, union, Greeks) and it made me notice even more how things fit together later–Omar’s return to avenge Butch, for example.
September 11, 2008 at 6:54 am
>> Henry
Yeah, that’s absolute hillarious
January 9, 2009 at 11:01 am
What’s really funny about the brothel raid plot is that his fake English accent is so fucking bad! Must have been hilarious making those scenes…
August 24, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Nice Information. Really good.
August 28, 2009 at 1:27 pm
[...] on Wire alum. It also has tons of links to fun stuff like soundtrack listing, discussions on Wire actors with British accents, and, prior to Season 5, ponderings of the worthwhileness of a Snoop Dogg [...]
November 11, 2009 at 8:47 am
Michael Hyatt who plays Brianna Barksdale was born in the UK and moved to MD/DC when she was 10. She describes herself as African-British-Jamaican-American.