All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire

by Jonathan Abrams

METHOD MAN (CALVIN “CHEESE” WAGSTAFF): Fans were a little rambunctious. Like, in between shots, I would have to either stay inside if we were shooting inside or go inside my trailer when people left, because I would basically be signing autographs every time we yelled, “Cut.” So, yeah, it was a little crazy. They shot on location in Baltimore, so some of those streets they shot on were in real rough neighborhoods. One day, this family, they were just playing this music loud when we were trying to get our shot, and I remember the crew constantly asking if they could [turn it down] and they was just beefing like, “We ain’t doing shit. We live here. We ain’t gotta do shit.” So, I walk over there and I ask them politely, but I didn’t ask them at first. First, I started kicking it with them. “Yo, what’s up Method Man? Blah, blah, blah. What’s good? What’s good?” This, that, and the third. Then, I politely asked them if they could turn the music off while we get our shots off and shit. They were like, “Yeah, we’ll do that for you.” But don’t get me wrong. They had goons on the set that would shut anybody down that would try and cause problems on the set. It just so happened that, that day, I kind of stepped up and did it in a diplomatic matter, where nobody was offended.

Great story