Lance Reddick

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I'm interested not just in projects that I'll be starring in, but producing film and TV that's really quality and great for adults; and when I say 'great for adults,' it doesn't mean without humor, because I'm also interested in doing comedy.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Humor
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If you're going to come at me, come at me respectfully, and I will respond respectfully.
- Lance Reddick
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You either get better, or you don't progress.
- Lance Reddick
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When you're in a high-stress situation, dynamics between people can change.
- Lance Reddick
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I grew up studying music. I went to conservatory.
- Lance Reddick
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It's funny, because in drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters.
- Lance Reddick
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Notes are tricky in an audition, because I find, more often than not, my instinct is right.
- Lance Reddick
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Growing up, I never imagined I would be an actor.
- Lance Reddick
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You don't see a lot of black rock stars. The music industry tends to be segregated stylistically. It's hard for a black artist to cross over to rock music.
- Lance Reddick
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I started acting almost on a whim to help my music career.
- Lance Reddick
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'The Wire' really drew on a lot of real-life situations and real-life organizations - it created fiction to make a social statement about reality.
- Lance Reddick
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When I went to drama school, I knew I was at least as talented as other students, but because I was a black man and I wasn't pretty, I knew I would have to work my butt off to be the best that I would be, and to be noticed.
- Lance Reddick
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Nothing will ever top 'The Wire.' It was historical. It was black cinema.
- Lance Reddick
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The African American community is so under-served in the entertainment industry.
- Lance Reddick
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As I got further into my career, as a character of color, if I was going to have the types of opportunities I felt I deserved, and continue to have them, I was going to have to start creating those opportunities for myself.
- Lance Reddick
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Don't be a victim; if you want to make movies, make movies.
- Lance Reddick
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Because of the way tech is changing, and becoming cheaper and user-friendly, it's becoming easier to make films cheaply, maintaining quality.
- Lance Reddick
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Art is art, and journalism is journalism.
- Lance Reddick
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I can only speak as an American, but most journalism here isn't doing its job any more. It's about selling stuff.
- Lance Reddick
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I mean, you know actors, we always want to do something else, something different.
- Lance Reddick
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'Pigeonholed' isn't the right word, because I feel like I've had a very wide range of characters that I've been allowed to play.
- Lance Reddick
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When I was working on The Wire with the other actors, scene after scene after scene, I felt like we were singing together. We were dancing together. I'm like, "This is the best ensemble I've ever worked with. I'm working with these cats? Holy mackerel, this is heaven."
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Cat
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Sometimes you have to say, "No. This is my space." If you're going to come at me, come at me respectfully, and I will respond respectfully.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Sometimes
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I started to realize, a lot of times if you go into your memory, your sense memory, you know more than you think you do, from having watched and listened.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Memories
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I’m interested not just in projects that I’ll be starring in, but producing film and TV that’s really quality and great for adults; and when I say great for adults, it doesn’t mean without humor, because I’m also interested in doing comedy.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Mean
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A very odd thing happened to my career when I got The Wire. My career was pretty much a steady climb; I didn't really flatline much. When I did The Wire, that's when I thought all the doors would open, but that's when things flatlined. I had a really hard time just getting seen for film, which was the next step.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Hard Times
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Most of the characters I'd played were so different from me, so far from me that I had to transform.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Character
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I started acting, almost on a whim to help my music career.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Careers
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From the time I became an actor my whole approach was to try to do as many different things as possible. It never occurred to me that I might be typecast.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Trying
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I feel like my public life isn't necessarily my own. I'm starting to get used to how to maneuver and operate in New York in a way that I don't get stopped all the time. I just pretty much say "Thank you." But one of the things is to try to keep moving. Not to stop too long, because people try to get into a conversation with you all the time. The hardest thing is on the subway, or when people try to chase you down.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Moving
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What's interesting is, most of the people who are fans of the The Wire who black people or cops... most of the people in the industry are the crew: writers, actors and directors. And so they understand what it is that we do, so they think, "Wow, what a incredible group of amazing actors." It's funny, I think there are a couple of reasons why we have never gotten any nomination for anything except for writing.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Couple
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Notes are tricky in an audition, because I find, more often than not, my instinct is right. If they have a preconceived notion about the role and it goes against my instinct, unless it makes sense to me, it often throws off what I'm trying to do. Though sometimes they have an insight that I don't because they've been living with the script. I don't have one feeling or another about notes, but it is always a little bit of a red alert when I get one in an audition.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Feelings
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I was coming from a theater background. I had an obsession with classic film and cool, interesting, intelligent television. I didn't really understand the way the mainstream television industry worked. I just thought "The wire is so good that it's going to be a huge hit, and we'll get awards up the yin-yang forever." That's what I thought!
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Intelligent
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It's funny, 90 percent of what I've done has been television, and I never really wanted to do it that much. I was really interested in film and theater. What's ironic is that when I started doing television, I did a bunch of amazing shows all in a row, starting with The Corner.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Ironic
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In drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Drama
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That's what David Caruso said to me. We were talking about the whole Emmy thing, and he said that one of the things about awards in this town is that a lot is about the drama - like the drama of the performance. And he said "Your show, The Wire, looks so real, it almost looks like a documentary. And people who aren't artists - a lot of people who vote for this stuff - don't get it."
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Real
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I did an Off-Broadway show that was a comedy written by Ann Meara. We were like a family, and we did that show for a year. On Oz, I did feel like the cast members were friends and there was a lot of bonding. That said, there was a lot of testosterone. Once again, it was full of really intense theater actors with this writing that was really intricate and subtle.
- Lance Reddick
Collection: Writing