After five seasons on HBO, iconic TV series The Wire ended in March 2008. In celebration of the series, which featured a mostly Black cast and provided some of the most prolific moments in on-screen history–but was never awarded during its tenure–Shadow And Act is showing love to The Wire and the actors that made the series so unforgettable.

For our latest episode of How I Made It, Andre Royo, who played Reginald “Bubbles” Cousins, detailed his journey to the show.

“I have moments in my life in which I recognized I was on the right path,” Royo said of when he knew he wanted to be an actor. “I remember growing up in The Bronx, me and the boys went to the movie theater to see Rocky. And that was the first time I understood the power of cinema, because I didn’t know why, in The Bronx [with] a movie theater full of Black people [we] were rooting for the white guy to win. It was weird to me. It was like Apollo’s not a bad guy, he’s like Ali. Why are we rooting for the white guy? But I recognized storytelling and how you could be influenced by the power of cinema and good storytelling. That was the first time I realized I might want to be a part of that craft.”

He ended up going to an acting class at HB Studio through one of his friend’s girlfriends. Royo described the class as “a room full of dreamers.”

“I felt like I fit in. I was the Black guy so I was a superstar…everything I did was raw, everything I did was special, and I was like no, It’s just Black.”

Royo thought that he would be doing theatre and stage works before looking into film and television. The actor admits he was first hesitant about auditioning for the role of Bubbles. “I was like…they’re making fun of drug addicts? I’m not going in for Bubbles. That’s crazy….[but] I went in and I killed it. I just dropped into being a person and not a cliché.”

“The Wire was what changed my perspective on the career and who I was as an artist,” he added.

READ MORE:

‘Rewind The Scene’: Andre Royo Discusses The Changes In Playing A Clean Bubbles

‘Rewind The Scene’: Jamie Hector On Marlo Stanfield’s ‘My Name Is My Name!’ Scene

Years Ago, Sterling K. Brown Auditioned For This Iconic ‘The Wire’ Character

 

Photo: HBO