More than two decades ago, actor Michael K. Williams had asked Felicia “Snoop” Pearson to accompany him to the forum of the series “The Wire” after she brazenly accosted the actor at a dive bar in Baltimore, Maryland.
Ed Burns, who along with David Simon created the show, admired Pearson's distinctive tattoos and thick Baltimore accent. Burns promised him a place on the series if he would limit any illicit activity.
On the day Pearson was to appear in the box, Burns received a frantic call. “I didn't know the car was stolen,” Pearson began.
He had gone to New York with friends and the driver of the car had no idea that the vehicle he had purchased was stolen. Police searched Pearson, found a knife on her and detained her.
Burns gave him another chance and Pearson became the heartbreaking character also called Snoop, a distant and calculating street warrior who is part of a group of drug dealers.
To create this character, she reflected on her tough upbringing in Baltimore, conjuring up a fictional version of herself that horror author Stephen King described as “perhaps the scariest villain ever to appear on a television series.”
And Burns, whom she affectionately calls “Pops,” became her confidant.
Recently, the two wrote a limited series, “AKA Snoop,” based on Pearson's life, which explores the environment she endured growing up in a poor, racist society.
“I am black, gay and have a criminal record,” Pearson said.
The series would show crucial moments in Pearson's early life, beginning with his birth three months premature to a crack-addicted mother. Later, there is Pearson, 4 years old, wearing a new dress and expecting to meet her absent mother who quickly locks her in a closet and strips her of her clothes to sell and buy drugs. In third grade, the uncontrollable Pearson breaks a bottle over a bully's head.
When Pearson was 14, she murdered 15-year-old Okia Toomer, who had chased her with a baseball bat into a crowd, she claimed. Pearson was convicted of second-degree murder and served nearly seven years in prison.
Upon her release, she earned her high school diploma and got a job manufacturing car bumpers, only to be fired when her employer found out about her conviction, she recalls.
Shortly after, he was on the forum for “The Wire,” which many consider one of the best series ever made. The program came to an end in 2008, and afterward, Pearson couldn't avoid getting into trouble. In 2011, she was arrested on drug charges and received a seven-year suspended sentence.
Pearson, 43, now lives in New York and, although she admits that the search for new roles can be fruitless, her acting career is more than she could have dreamed of when she was in her twenties with zero experience.
“I come from Baltimore, so there is no pressure because it is the story of my life,” he said.
By: JONATHAN ABRAMS
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/7143314, IMPORTING DATE: 2024-03-06 02:48:03
#Actress #39Snoop39 #Pearson #story #39I39m #black #gay #history39