April 24 - 30, 2022 BY JAY BOBBIN
Jamie Hector
OF ‘WE OWN THIS CITY’ ON HBO “We Own This City” mentors David Simon and George Pelecanos also were pivotal to another drama about sometimes questionable police ethics, “The Wire,” two decades ago. Do you think the new story, in which you play a Baltimore detective, could have been told then?
I do believe it could have been told at that time, from my lens, because my experience has been interesting ... and friends and family that look like me, it’s been interesting for them on the streets of New York and Detroit and Chicago. You saw officers that weren’t making decisions that are making decisions and that are leading the force now. You see the decisions that they make. They’re teaching, and they’re also the ones that are making the decisions for those that are coming up. I feel like it’s a story that actually could have been told (then) since “Serpico” was told. Is there a certain scene or moment in “We Own This City” that has a particular emotional impact for you?
You know, there was a moment where Samuel – this young boy that was walking home from work – was pulled over and harassed, and eventually, they locked him up. He had a little knife in his pocket. And when I looked at him, I saw my nephew, and the innocence of that kid. And then, it was the true vulnerability when he sat down and was explaining what happened to him and he took his hat off and we saw the scar. And he said, “You think I can still get girls?”
Tom Blyth has the title role in “Billy the Kid,” premiering Sunday on EPIX.
Tom Blyth stars as the legendary outlaw
At that moment, right there, I saw the bullseye on the back of every young Black man. What I love about it is that it’s actually put on full display by this team. It’s not in my head anymore, and I don’t think it’s in anybody’s head anymore. It’s true, just the young men and women still having to actually experience this thing, but still wanting to make it through life like, “‘OK, can we still move on? Can we still have hope?” It gave me hope, the fact that we can actually put this project out, and everyone can see it and realize that none of it is in your head. It really happened, because these are true events.
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