It's been a few years since Wendell Pierce attended a drama class at the Juilliard School in Manhattan.Forty years, to be exact.
"I remember it well.High windows and gray floors!" he laughed.He's said that nothing in his career gave him as much anxiety as training at Juilliard: "Yes, the anxiety of, you know, am I doing the right thing? I'm going into an unknown world.
Will I have what it takes to be just a working actor? And so, I was reminded looking in that class, it was very touching to see these young people at a point in the journey that I recall with fondness – and with a lot of anxiety, too! But I knew I was exactly where I wanted to be."And it's where he belongs.At 61, Pierce is among the most prolific and respected actors of his generation, with standout roles in "The Wire," "Treme," "Suits," "Selma," and now, the quirky CBS drama, "Elsbeth." Later this year, he'll play editor-in-chief Perry White in the newest Superman movie.
He'll also take on Othello at the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, D.C.No matter the part, Pierce brings his own humanity to it.He said, "In every role, there's a little part of Wendell in it.
At the end of the run, I turn the lights down low in the dressing room and I just see the silhouette in the mirror.And I have a good cry and say goodbye.
Right? I say, 'Man, you taught me so much about myself.I've learned so much from you.
I hope I see you again.And I know there'll be times where I will see you again.'"That sense of self-discovery began in his hometown of New Orleans, and the historical Black neighborhood of Pontchatrain Park.
"It was like a Black Mayberry," he said."The first Black mayor came out of there, the first Black DA.
Lawyers, doctors, postal workers, maintenance men.That was the community I grew up in.
It was absolutely wonderful.And it was totally destroyed.
We were destroyed by Katrina.We were part of the deepest flooding.
And we brought it back, and now we're on the National Register of Histo...