Top star truly Wired into Duchess of Sussex
The Duchess of Sussex may have had to cope without her father, Thomas, for her May wedding to Prince Harry, but she has, at least, had one dad walk her down the aisle. In April, actor Wendell Pierce did his paternal duties in US drama Suits, when he accompanied Markle’s character, Rachel, in the climactic marriage scene, which marked her exit from the show.
And though she was yet to be engaged at the time of filming, Pierce was astute enough to know that something was afoot.
“From the increased security I saw around her, I figured something might happen,” he says.
“I was sitting with Meghan in her wedding dress, as we waited for a set-up. We were alone. I said to her, ‘Your life is going to change. It’s going to be amazing and I’m very happy for you but I want you to know that I’m your friend, and no matter where you are or what’s going on – if the fishbowl that you’re in ever starts getting to you – you can call me’.”
He and his on-screen daughter’s bond was forged in the face of obnoxious online attacks. When Pierce first appeared, in the second season, there were racist tweets from bigots who had not realised Markle was mixed race.
She has written about the experience and said that “the reaction was unexpected”. Pierce was less surprised, however. “The ignorance that is racism is a given,” he says. “Like gravity, it’s there, it exists. You should always be vigilant for it and prepared for it.”
I ask her TV father about her real father, who has just given an interview to Good Morning Britain when we meet. Pierce’s body language suggests that he is decidedly unimpressed: his head drops, his shoulders slump, and he heaves a big sigh. “If you care about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, then that should be first and foremost in your mind before you say anything. If you love your daughter, just love your daughter. It’s not for public consumption.”
Pierce was not present at her real-life wedding in Windsor in May but enjoyed it nevertheless. “I watched it at home. Got up early, had champagne and strawberries and cream. I got into the details. Meghan’s veil embroidered with flowers rep- resenting all the countries of the Commonwealth – that was cool. And, yeah, I shed a tear.”
This image of Pierce crying over embroidery is at odds with that of his most famous character, cop “Bunk” Moreland, who polices the mean streets of Baltimore in the groundbreaking US drama The Wire.
Despite Pierce’s long list of TV and film credits, David Simon’s series gave him his first star moment, in his forties, and, since then, his career has continued to flourish: his latest role, which he’s flown to London to promote, is in Amazon’s new spy thriller series, Jack Ryan, based on Tom Clancy’s CIA analyst character.
Pierce was born in New Orleans in 1963, to a teacher mother and an army veteran father, and credits his choice of profession to a school trip to the UK aged 16, when he was taken to Stratford-upon-Avon to see an RSC production of As You Like It.
“I thought, ‘You can do this with acting? Oh my God!’ That’s when I knew what I was going to do with my life.” He was later accepted at New York’s Juilliard drama school, after giving one of Clarence’s speeches from Richard III as an audition piece.
As well as appearing in more than 100 films and television series, Pierce has performed Shakespeare, Chekhov and Beckett on stage. But, on the street, well-wishers rarely hail his work in classical theatre. What they yell is “Hey, Bunk”. “Yeah, it happened just today, actually,” says Pierce. “Every actor hopes for something like that. I cherish that show and what it did for my career.”
Although now recognised as one of the greatest TV dramas ever made, The Wire was slow to catch on with audiences – and, indeed, its cast.
If The Wire was a slow burner, Pierce has no such early doubts about the prospects for Jack Ryan. He plays James Greer, Ryan’s sceptical boss, newly demoted to the department after being in the field in Pakistan where he, according to office rumour, “went all Colonel Kurtz in the desert”.
As well as being entertaining, the show looks like a statement of intent from the streaming service. “Amazon is showing that it has the resources to do it, and the facility to do it,” says Pierce.
Such is Amazon’s faith in Jack Ryan – or, rather, determination for it to succeed – that the show has already been renewed for a second season. — The Daily Telegraph
The ignorance that is racism is a given. Like gravity, it’s there, it exists