At 61, Wendell Pierce says he is in his third act of life. He’s been feeling a heightened sense of awareness as it unfolds.
“I’ve discovered how precious time is, and with that discovery I want to have as many experiences as possible,” said Mr. Pierce, an actor who is best known for his work in plays and on TV shows including “The Wire,” “Suits” and “Treme.”
A typical weekend in New York bears out his desire to explore. “Elsbeth,” the CBS show in which he now stars, doesn’t shoot on Sundays. That means he can, and often does, roam the city until the wee hours.
“I’m responsible about getting sleep when I know I have to work,” he said. “But I’m a night owl, and everyone who knows me recognizes that.”
Mr. Pierce lives alone on the Upper West Side of Manhattan when he’s not working for months in another city. He recently spent a Saturday with The New York Times.
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.
BROWNIE POINTERS Anywhere I’m in my journey right now will dictate the day. I’m preparing to do “Othello” with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington next spring, so right now that includes meeting with my old teacher from Juilliard, Deloss Brown, who’s affectionately known as “Brownie.” He lives not too far from me on Central Park West. I’ll get with him and start preparing. First I’ll probably stop at a cafe and have a coffee, then meet with him at his place.
THEN AND NOW I try to take advantage of beautiful weather. After my wonderful session with Brownie, I like to go into Central Park. It’s our back yard and one of my favorite places in New York for the natural beauty. I’ll meet my lady friend Erika Woods, my partner, there and we’ll get some exercise by walking across the park to the Frick museum, which is also one of my favorite places in New York.
While I’m walking in Central Park I’m thinking about Seneca Village. It’s a reminder of the amalgam of Americans that really inspired the spirit of the work I hope to do with “Othello.” The conflict of walking through the beauty of Central Park knowing Seneca Village was destroyed to create it is exactly what’s happening in the journey of Othello.
BEAUTIFUL CONTRADICTION I love the Frick, first of all, for the home itself. The building is a piece of art, and because my free days are always about inspiration, I try to take in as much art in New York as I can. That means visual art, textiles, all that stuff. There’s no one thing in particular I love at the Frick. It’s what’s in their collection. For me it’s a sanctuary and one of the most peaceful, quiet places in New York.
But it’s interesting because as wonderful and beautiful and calm and quiet as it is, it’s also contradictory, because Mr. Frick was such a robber baron of his day. I always found that so amazing — he was such a patron of beautiful art but a troubled and harsh man, the instigator of one of the greatest labor acts of violence in Pittsburgh, the Homestead Strike. I found the museum when I found out about the man. I thought, wow, how conflicted he must have been.
EVERYDAY INSPIRATIONS I love to go to the African market on 116th Street in Harlem. I love textiles. At the foot of my bed there’s a kente from Ghana, and I have a wonderful stool that I brought back from a trip I took to Zimbabwe. I like to go there and do a little shopping. So, first you have the natural beauty of the earth with Central Park, then the quiet elegance of the Frick. And then there’s the vibrant textiles and things of the African market. I try to be inspired by all the different disciplines, all the aspects of an international city when I’m in New York.
O.G.s I love Harlem on a Saturday afternoon. Erika and I both used to live in Harlem; now she’s a little farther down in Manhattan. We work together on the show “Power Book III: Raising Kanan.” We play an old gangster bank-robbing couple — we’re the financiers, the O.G.s. It’s really nice. We’ll stop and get something to eat at one of the African restaurants in Harlem. One of my favorites is Native on Frederick Douglass Boulevard. It’s West African. But my favorite African spot is in Brooklyn, Joloff. I lived in Fort Greene for decades, and Joloff started in Fort Greene. I was part of that Black artists’ group from over there — Spike Lee and Lorna Simpson. I started out living with Wynton and Branford Marsalis.
JAZZ HEAD I set this up by talking about Wynton: I’m a real jazz head, a real night owl, and now we’re headed into the evening. Jazz at Lincoln Center has great performances. In October, Abdullah Ibrahim, one of the great jazz masters, was playing and I had tickets. He’s in his 90s, so every time he plays it’s a rarity, it’s major. I’ve never heard him live, but he is carrying the brand of Bud Powell or McCoy Tyner.
It was a great experience. About 15 men walked him to the piano. The whole band surrounded him, making sure he was taken care of. At first they played his music and he sat there at the piano. Then they stood and stepped back and sat in the shadows, where he was left alone on the stage.
The lesson of the day was that music and wisdom will ultimately transcend the tumult we’re in. The beauty of music will overcome the conflict and violence.
KEEP IT COMING When I was doing “Death of a Salesman,” the routine was, rest all day, then go to the theater and prepare and do this master challenge of a play. Then I would listen to music all night. Out till 3 or 4 in the morning. After seeing a master like Abdullah Ibrahim, I’m inspired. I’ll go to Dizzy’s, Guantanamera for late-night dancing, Smalls. And there’s another place right across Seventh Avenue from Smalls called Mezzrow.
HEART SONGS I can carry a tune, but I play music like a fifth grader. Wynton once said to me: “Man, in your heart you’re a musician. All you need to do now is learn how to play.”
I pride myself on the work of an actor. There’s a very famous quote by Arthur Miller that really defines me as an actor, which is: “There is a certain immortality involved in theater, not created by monuments and books, but through the knowledge an actor keeps to his dying day that on a certain afternoon, in an empty and dusty theater, he cast a shadow of a being that was not himself, but the distillation of all he had ever observed; all the unsingable heart song that the ordinary man may feel but never utter, he gave voice to. And by that he somehow joins the ages.” That is what I aspire to be as an actor, what I’ll take to my grave — that curiosity and wanderlust.
DAWNING AWARENESS Who knows, I might bring up the sun on a Sunday. When I’m trying to sleep, my mind will wander in beautiful ways. All of those thoughts, all of those curiosities that filled me up in my day, they’re with me. That lulls me to sleep.
The post How Wendell Pierce Spends His Day Exploring New York City appeared first on New York Times.
