NEED TO KNOW
- Tray Chaney, Anwan “Big G” Glover, Hassan Johnson and J.D. Williams reflected on their time on The Wire during the Friday, May 16 episode of The Breakfast Club
- Glover and Johnson recalled how large rats would visit them on their Baltimore set
- Johnson also confessed that he didn’t know the show would become a critically acclaimed series after its premiere
The Wire stars Tray Chaney, Anwan “Big G” Glover, Hassan Johnson and J.D. Williams are remembering the unexpected guests they had while on the HBO set.
The four actors appeared on the Friday, May 16 episode of The Breakfast Club to celebrate the acclaimed series’ 23rd anniversary. When asked what it was like to film in Baltimore, they recalled that it was a fun experience.
But Chaney, 43, chimed in to remind his former costars of the rats they would encounter. “The rats would come out for lunch,” he said, before Glover, 54, interjected to reveal one particular memorable scene. Chaney portrayed Poot, and Glover played Slim Charles in the series.
“At night, we were shooting a scene, it was maybe five below out, maybe more, and we took a break. It was me, [sic], Felicia [Pearson], and a couple of other people, and they ordered pizza. Bro, they had like 10 pizzas on the thing. And then a rat this big jumped up on the table and knocked the pizza down,” he said while keeping his hands about a foot apart for demonstration.
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“Then they just came,” he said, before motioning that several rats came flooding to the table.
“They really came for the pizza,” Johnson, 48, who starred as Roland “Wee-Bey” Brice, asked.
And Glover reassured him, “Am I lying? They jumped and knocked the whole boxes off and then everybody just jumped.” Johnson then added during a scene with Michael K. Williams that made it to the episode, audiences can spot a rat running in the frame. “I got scared to death,” he confessed.
Glover then reiterated, “[The rats] be more looking like this,” he said while holding his hands up again about a foot apart from each other. “Like dogs. Not puppies. Dogs.”
PEOPLE reached out to HBO for further comment.
During the Friday, May 16, interview, the group also spoke about the series’ legacy. The HBO series, which ran for five seasons, is recognized as one of the most critically acclaimed shows. It followed the institutions that revolve around Baltimore’s crime scene, from the media to the police officers to the criminals themselves. It aired from 2002 through 2008.
“It’s crazy to me,” Johnson said of the 23 years since the show premiered. “I always say when I get interviewed — I don’t care what none of y’all say — we didn’t know what we was doing. We were shooting that mother f—er.”
But J.D., 46, chimed in to say he noticed they had “something special.”
“When we got here, that made us, and I saw that work coming down. I knew it. I knew it,” he declared.
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Chaney added that The Wire was his first job as an actor. “So that was my first time I ever auditioned for a role,” he said. “I remember asking J.D. a whole bunch of questions, like ‘Bro, what is what is a trailer?’ ‘What are you telling me to do?’ ”
“But you know, like I said, man, to be here 23 years later and still just getting to it,” he continued, before J.D. added, “I’m glad people find it new every day. Somebody finds the show every day.”
“The show is more popular now, something years later, than it was when it was on TV,” Johnson said. He added that he never knew it would become the “cultural staple” it has cemented itself as. But J.D., said he “definitely” knew its impact at the time of its release.
The Wire is available to stream on HBO Max.
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