Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we're joined by actor Isiah Whitlock Jr. He played Clay Davis in the iconic television series The Wire. He's also appeared in some of our favorite films including Goodfellas, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, 25th Hour and last year's Da 5 Bloods. His latest project teams him up with Bryan Cranston in the new Showtime series Your Honor.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:10.8	It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:22.1	Isaiah Whitlock Jr. has been a working actor for a very long time.
0:26.5	He got his first TV parts in the 80s, started acting on stage well before that.
0:31.5	Like any good working New York actor, he's also had over a dozen cameos on different
0:36.9	versions of law and order.
0:39.2	In the early 2000s though, he got a role that changed the trajectory of his career.
0:44.2	He played state senator Clay Davis on the wire, a corrupt but charming Baltimore politician
0:50.2	who manages to gum up plans for drug dealers, fellow politicians and police officers alike.
0:56.6	You might recall his catchphrase, an expletive which he said in an extraordinary, extended
1:03.7	manner.
1:04.7	Anyway, while Whitlock's role in the wire was a huge break for him, it showed the world
1:09.2	something that was always true.
1:11.3	Whitlock is a compelling screen presence.
1:13.6	He can be charming or menacing or funny.
1:16.4	Sometimes he has all those things at once.
1:19.1	Next year he starred in Spike Lee's DeFive Bloods with Delroy Lindo, Clark Peters and
1:24.5	the late Chadwick Boseman.
1:26.9	These days he's starring alongside Brian Cranston in the new TV show Your Honor on Showtime.
1:32.6	It's a legal thriller that revolves around the cover up of a hit and run involving the
1:37.4	son of a New Orleans judge played by Cranston.
1:41.1	Isaiah plays Charlie, Cranston's character's best friend.
	...

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