HBO's True Detective

If you are a character actor, getting in with the HBO casting directors is huge. From The Wire (realizing a lot of this is Simon using the same actors) you've got Clarke Peters in True Detective and Treme. Domenick Lombardozzi in Entourage, Boardwalk Empire, the 61* movie. Michael K. Williams in Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos. Chris Bauer in True Blood and 61*. A bunch of others from that show I'm sure.

Lots of other HBO shows are the same way.

 

Absolutely. There have always been connections like that for character actors. They have certain casting directors, producers or even locations in common among multiple shows and it helps them to get work.

 

Add Dierdre Lovejoy (Rhonda Perlman from the Wire) ... she showed up in Girls this week. Hadn't seen much of her since The Wire.

 

If you watch the film "Cop Land" and then watch "The Sopranos," a lot of the same actors --- major characters and minor --- appear in both. That's because David Chase was so impressed with the casting of Cop Land that he hired the same casting agency for The Sopranos.

 

The Wire, too.

 

Yeah, I was listing Wire regulars who have been in other HBO productions.

 

In that case, Wendell Pierce was in both The Wire and Treme.

 

Yep, the Sopranos priest was the hospital pharmacist in "Nurse Jackie."

 

The guy that is playing the lawnmower, spaghetti-faced guy was George Remus in Boardwalk Empire. George Remus likes spaghetti.

 

Shit, didn't even recognize him.

 

An old Grantland piece on the topic:
http://grantland.com/features/the-hbo-recycling-program/

 

Oh, hell yeah. Good pull!