All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire

by Jonathan Abrams

CLAIRE COWPERTHWAITE (SCRIPT SUPERVISOR): Because the shoots were long, I remember there was always a challenge for me to get home at night because we would do several company moves. I was staying in the Inner Harbor, and I didn’t know the area at all. I would drive to the location, do a couple of company moves, and then, at the end of the night, there were no directions for me to get back to my apartment that they put me up in. I had no idea where I was. I would be stopping, “Excuse me, Mr. Crack Dealer?” They would come up to my window, and they were like, “You buying?” “No, honey. No, no, no, I just need directions.” They were like, “Girl, you in the hood.” I said, “Honey, I’ve been in the hood all day. I know. My feet are killing me. Do you know where the harbor is?” They’re like, “No, no, man, I don’t know.” So, I take all these kinds of points that I thought they might be able to get me in the right direction. “Do you know where the harbor is? Do you know where Johns Hopkins is?” I knew if I knew where two areas were, I could get back home. Every night, I’d be asking some crack dealer, some prostitute, some whatever that’s on the corner, how I could get home at night. That’s what I did every night. I’d wind down my window, “Hey, can you come here for a second? Hey, hey, can you come here for a minute?” They’d look at me, stay on the corner because I’m this white woman and they’re thinking, Hmm, this is odd.