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Coleman spoke to Vulture about navigating Cuttys Invisible Mancomplex and the real Baltimoreans who added texture to his performance.
When I say the name Dennis Cutty Wise, what comes to your mind first?Redemption.
This guy represented positivity.
It makes me think ofCalvin Ford.
Calvin Ford is who the characters life was based on.
The show is all about the failure of systems.
It was very bleak.
I remember being paired up with Calvin Ford atUpton Boxing Center.
I just watched the mans commitment and passion for those kids.
He said, Thats gonna be my new champion.
That was Gervonta Tank Davis, the now champion.
But when he came back, he never left, and Calvin made him a champion.
Its amazing, and Im still friends with Calvin.
How did you prepare to join the series?I knew most of the guys.
Wood Harris [who plays Avon Barksdale] and I were roommates at one point.
Steve Harris, his brother, is an actor as well.
Steve said, Chad, do you want to sublet my apartment in Hells Kitchen with my brother?
Because he was going out to Los Angeles to doThe Practice.
So me and Wood were roommates when Wood was at NYU.
And Wendell Pierce and I had already done a short film together,The Gilded Six Bits.
I knew Andre Royo.
Everybody was in New York doing Off Broadway theater.
People think because we play the roles so well that we were not trained actors.
I knew a lot of the guys, and I was watching the show.
The guy comes in, and hes like [London accent], Whats up, mate?
I was like, You got marbles in your mouth?
It was Idris Elba!
And I said, Nah, man.
They aint going to hire me.
I didnt have the beard at the time, so when Im clean-shaven, I look like a cop.
Ive been calling him the Prophet ever since.
Me andMichael K. Williams God rest his soul I loved that brother.
But from the beginning, Cutty refuses that with the line I did 14 years.
Were looking out for you.
They dont understand the nature of whats clicked inside of him.
Im speaking about it in hindsight, in a much more sure way.
Cutty was not on firm footing with it.
you’re able to teach.
And he said, None of it.
That was my favorite part.
None of it, man.
Society dont see them because theyre ex-felons.
Was that the first scene that you filmed as well?Yeah.
Training was before filming and while filming.
Jamie [Hector] and I used to run together run downtown by the Inner Harbor.
Those rituals were happening in prison as well.
I think he learned to box in there.
To keep that going, that gave him some sense of normalcy.
When you say a fish out of water, I think of Cuttys clothes.
A lot of his outfits in the third season are well kept but an older style.
Can you talk to me about those looks?
Were any your favorites?Oh my God, I loved all of the sweat suits.
The sweat suits were dope, man.
The costuming Alonzo Wilson was amazing.
They asked me, What shades you want?
What hat you want?
And I said, Hes a throwback kind of guy, but yet it carries weight in the present.
Thats how I always felt about him.
I distinctly remember choosing that.
Nah, not that.
This is it right here.
I know a Baltimore summer; its terrible.
How much of that were you doing?Its hot as you-know-what.
All of it and I wanted to do it.
Thats another way to just land in it.
All that discomfort works for him because he hated doing it.
This is what I gotta do?
The landscaping also made for some really tangible moments of growth.
Its in real time, and its really hard and uncomfortable, but yet hes making strides.
Hes connecting with folks in a very real way because hes a good man.
Hes got a good heart.
We did that scene 14 times.
Its actually freezing me.
Once I got that glazed look going, then we had it.
It was much deeper than that.
I wrote in my notes that hes almost reacting to it like its a house of horrors.
Hes lingering at each door, just looking inside.
It was haunting in a lot of ways.
Im biased, but I never thought that Cutty was celebrated to the degree that he should have been.
You mean when the show was airing?Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think people were more drawn to the bad guys; the bad guys are more sexy.
Rewatching Cuttys episodes, its so noticeable how he has one foot in, one foot out.
That leads me to the scene in which Cutty tries, and fails, to kill Fruit in Homecoming.
How did you prepare for that scene?That one was hard.
It was so much more than just aiming the gun and not being able to pull the trigger.
I was doing it, and I was like,Mmm, this is forced.
Im not settling in on this right.
Dont venture to tell us a story.
Let the story tell itself.
No, no, no, no.
That was like [grimaces], but I understood it.
This is not a popularity contest.
If viewers dont like him, they have every right not to.
After Cutty is unable to kill Fruit, Slim Charles makes an excuse for his inability to act.
He is very generous with Dennis afterward.He was, even though he switched up when he got to Barksdale.
That is actually my favorite line: Nah, he a man today.
The biggest drug dealer in the hood is saying, No, no, no.
I cant do that, and I could stand in the way.
But Im not, because I see somebody emerging.
I made the choice to be like,Imma go for it.
I shouldnt be asking for this much, but damn it, Imma go for it.
It was a perfect setup for him to go, What?
Get the man the money.
At first, hes being all dismissive, but Im like,No.
Im going to fight through this, and this is going to happen.
Look at the dream, bro!That was a precious scene with Wood.
What was your reaction to reading that?I was so deep in it.
I wasnt talking to nobody.
I stayed away from everybody.
Its a mammoth scene condensed, but its as huge as any Shakespearean moment.
So I had to have that energy coursing through me.
I was doing a lot of push-ups.
Its coming from your gut.
Its coming from a place inside you that you dont absolutely know.
Something is taking over you right now, and there aint no going back.
This is very heavy.Everybody knew it, and everybody left me alone.
We did it twice, and that was it.
The level of heat that was coming off of me doing that one that got so real.
The vulnerability of the whole scene works very well.All men need classes in being vulnerable.
Its being in touch with your humanity in a depraved circumstance.
Thats the key to Cutty, for real.
When Cutty says to his ex-girlfriend Grace [Dravon James], Looking at you
Hurts.
And she says, Shouldnt look.That one!
And the look on his face afterward?
I just saw that one recently, and I was like,Lord have mercy.
The look on his face that lingered!
I was like,Wow, dude.
Good stuff!When I look at it, Im not looking at me.
Im looking at the story and the character.
Im able to do that; some actors cant do that.
I always wrestle with it.
The beauty of it was she was just being honest.
But the weight of it!
She was honestly, sincerely saying,Ive moved on.
My life has evolved.
Were not going to pick this up from here.
Its not going to happen.
He was a soulful person.
And then, of course,Melvin [Williams].
He would just tell you what it was like in federal prison.
He would say, Chad, it aint no joke in there, man.
Dude come up to you and say, Youre gonna have my baby.
I would spend time withDonnie Andrews, the real Omar.
Donnie made the hair stand up.
I knew he was a real killer.
He wasnt going, Yeah, I killed people; he would say, Heh, heh, heh.
I was like,Oh my goodness, thats a killer.
And he changed his life.
It was amazing to be in their presence.
And then Snoop [Felicia Pearson]!
Thats as real as it gets.
The condition, the circumstance, what she was up against.
There will never be a show like that again because its married to reality in a way.
And the lines are blurred with them being able to come in and act.
Was there any difference between how you played Cutty versus how you played Dennis?
Cutty understood how to leverage his power, his physical prowess.
He understood how to intimidate people.
But Dennis figured out how to negotiate with people.
Im simply calling this thing just the way it is.
I have limitations I cant.
I can only do but so much.
But Im resolved within myself with that.What I can do, I will do.
I want to ask you about your stare, which is an early intimidation tool for Cutty.
And I hadnt heard that before, but I was like,Oh, shit, I get that.
And honestly, in every hood across the land, the eye-fuck is very real.
You have to be able to freeze somebody with just your look.
I could feel it you know what Im saying?
It was almost an inner monologue of,Say something, motherfucker.
Say one thing to me.
I dare you to say one goddamned thing to me.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
