TSS Presents Fifteen Minutes With Anwan Glover

"Fifteen Minutes With..."    By Khalid Strickland on September 4, 2009 at 3:34 pm

With his towering frame, unconditional loyalty and voice of a thousand Newports™, Barksdale enforcer Slim Charles became a fan favorite on The Wire. Anwan “Big G” Glover, the Washington D.C. native who so capably portrayed the street soldier, is proud of his breakout role. But like Slim inheriting Marlo Stanfield’s coveted drug connect, Glover is ready to expand the franchise. Glover has long been involved in the music business as a member of the D.C. Go-Go group Backyard Band. Now that he’s making solo moves with Sony/BMG music producer and fellow-D.C. native Chink Santana, Glover landed a spot on a song called “Girlfriend” with Jim Jones and Juelz Santana. He’s also appeared in numerous music videos like many alumni of The Wire. In addition, Glover hosts a show every Saturday on D.C.’s #1 Hip-Hop/R&B radio station, WKYS 93.9.

Acting, however, remains one of Anwan Glover’s strongest passions. He’s starring alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs in a feature film called Shoe Dog, slated to hit the silver screen this fall. Although the gangster role is one Glover embraces and seems to be built for, the actor is vying for new types of casting. Aside from his entertainment endeavors, Glover also works with the non-profit organization Peaceoholics to provide D.C. youth with constructive alternatives to drugs and crime. After his own brother was gunned down in the streets of Columbia Heights in 2007, Glover addressed the press along with D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, stating, “We’re tired of seeing the yellow (police) tape” and called for an end to revenge shootings.

Anwan Glover sat down and chopped it up with The Crew’s Khalid Strickland, who couldn’t stop calling the actor Slim Charles. Glover laughed it off discussed his new projects, his humanitarian work and how he felt about The Wire never winning an Emmy award, among other things.

TSS: Talk about Shoe Dog, the new film you’re in.

Anwan Glover: Shoe Dog, we’re going to shoot that. We were supposed to be shooting it in July but they pushed it back to August. It’s going to be in Toronto with Michael Delfay, Dominic West (who played McNulty on The Wire) and myself, Anwon Glover. I’m playing a character (named) Jackson. It’s gonna be a good film. It’s not like my character that I played on The Wire but it’s a gangster role, na’mean? A gangster with a smile and I’m real manipulative, I just bait people into doing what I need them to do just for my purposes, na’mean? It’s gonna be a good piece for me just coming out from getting off of The Wire and moving on. Just being a young African-American actor out here in the struggle. Just trying to put my face out here for these different roles because they you’re so much getting typecast a lot. Coming off the best television show, The Wire, I get typecast a lot. I go read for a lot of those different gangster roles but I’m really trying to break out of that. You do what you got to do to get the bills paid.

TSS: Speaking of which, what’s good with the music? You’ve got something poppin’ off with Juelz Santana, Jim Jones and Chink Santana.

Anwan Glover: Yeah, it’s called “Girlfriend.” We just left satellite radio with Angela Yee. I was on her show before, on Lip Service. She got the morning show, it’s hot; we just played it on there. I got a lil’ sixteen on there, I’m killin’ it. It’s called “Girlfriend” and it’s gonna be on Jim Jones’s album. I’m trying to work out a deal and get signed with Sony, so we got stuff on the table. I’m doing magazine ads, just tryin’ to jump out there. I also got a good look on this piece (a new series) for HBO. It’s supposed to be like five or six episodes they’re writing me in for, so you can look out for Anwan on that should be like sometime in the fall. So I’m just hustlin’ right now, man.

TSS: Jim Jones made a really brief appearance on The Wire. Did ya’all meet there?

Anwan Glover: Nah, I really jumped on the project with Chink Santana. Chink is from D.C. He showed me a lot of love , he told me was going to by when he gets some time and he gets a better situation so he moving up the ladder over there at Sony and he’s doing a lot of projects. They really like my voice and they like what I do as far as onstage appearance-wise. My music in DC is Go-Go with The Backyard Band.

TSS: What’s good with the Backyard Band?

Anwan Glover: I made that band like years ago on buckets playing as a kid in DuPont Circle down by the White House and Capitol Hill and all that. We gradually kept moving. We had an underground, grimy sound; we used to play and mix in stuff like in from Onyx, Biggie and Tupac. Stuff like that. We kept moving up the ladder and I kinda got real popular with that and kept moving and pushed it into acting and theater.

TSS: Before I got over here I was talking to my boy about you and we kept referring to you as Slim Charles and your name is Anwan. How often does that happen to you and do you mind it?

Anwan Glover: (Laughs) Man, me and my publicist were just in a lil’ bodega eating a nice lil’ breakfast sandwich and a kid came up to me and was like, “Slim Charles.” I don’t mind it, man. It’s love. I just want the movie directors to look at me other than Slim; look at what a great job I did as Slim, to move the next level. I don’t want to be too typecast but it’s a lot of love, especially in New York City. Everywhere I go they really love me here. This is like my second home right here.

TSS: Are you still tight with members of the cast?

Anwan Glover: Yeah. Me, Jamie (Hector) and Felicia (Pearson) have the same management. We’re always together. Jamie just did a piece with HBO with his thing where he works with Everest Kids, Moving Mountains. They did it on HBO, real brilliant play. We’re doing “City On Gang Violence” and stuff in the neighborhood. They had this awesome piece yesterday. We kick it, we tight. Also I talked to Chad Coleman (who played Cutty on The Wire), he did something on Broadway. We stay in touch, me and a few other guys but a majority… those are my tight-knit ones that I talk to. Also Trey Cheney (who) played Poot. We just like a family. And the other bigger ones that’s out there, I talk to ‘em sometimes. Like when Wood Harris comes to town, I might say what’s up to Wood. He’ll call me and tell me to keep my head up, some stuff will come through… keep hustlin’, it don’t happen overnight. He’s always encouraging me to keep my head up and to bounce out there more. I stay in contact with those ones right there.

TSS: It’s a crime that The Wire never got an Emmy nomination. I can’t understand why, that’s kind of crazy. How do you feel about that?

Anwan Glover: I was kind of sour at first because I was a fan before I even touched the show. I came on in Season 3 and then all the way to 5. The writing was phenomenal, the actors were phenomenal. You’ll never get a show like that (again). And they told the truth. When you’re telling the truth, really they don’t give you your props too much. Once in a blue you might get it but I really don’t see how we didn’t at least get nominated. We were the best show on television, hands down. So that’s how they carry it sometimes, man. That was real life, man. You couldn’t get no realer than The Wire. I’m still kind of sour about that (Laughs). But it is what it is.

TSS: What are some of the things you’ve been doing in the community since your brother’s death?

Anwan Glover: I work with The Peaceoholics, man. I’m an outreach specialist, I work with those guys. And they were one of the movements, part of my movement, with me being successful today and off of the street life bangin’ and doing what I was doing out there. Because they reached out. They were there to stop me. Because you can’t just tell a little dude, “Come on, man. Don’t do that.” They ain’t trying to hear that. They want to see what else you got in store. What do you have around that corner that’s valuable enough for me to not doing what I’m doing on this side of the corner? Peaceoholics, Jauhar Abraham and Ronald Moten, they were a real big part of me changing my life and going into theater, film, radio and outreach work with the youth. Speaking on outreach work, I just brought two young brothers to Washington D.C. to watch Moving Mountains because we’re going to do the same thing down there in my city with the kids doing plays and have not to get them off the streets. Me losing my family… a lot of people don’t know I lost all my siblings now. Right after my brother, my sister died. It’s just me. So it’s hard every day getting up but I still get up. It’s a struggle every day, bruh. It’s hard but it ain’t nothing hard when you’re breathing fresh air. You ain’t behind that pinwall or in that casket.

TSS: I lost both my father and my brother to violence in the streets and that changed my perspective on life. What kind of things went through your mind when the incident happened with your brother?

Anwan: You want to let go. There were feelings of redemption, feelings of retaliation, feelings of hard work and struggle. Stress, anxiety, depression. When I lost my sister, I wasn’t looking for that and that’s like my moms. Waking up I talked to her every day; I’d call her to show me how to fix some type of sandwich or get my asthma medicine from her, words of encouragement. Like when my brother got killed (she said), “Look, you’ve got to do this and do that. Did you take care of this?” She was just like moms. So waking up every day knowing that they’re not around… it kills me, man. But I done got better, I got stronger. So I run in the morning, like five and a half, six miles. That helps me. I put my I-pod in then I call my manager and talk to her and she has so much positive stuff to talk about. I might call my PR agent and he got twenty different things lined up for me, we try to break it down. When I hear positive stuff it’s hard to absorb the negative. Once I’m grabbing that, it’s incredible, man. It’s like a light switch… you go on and off. Majority I just try to stay focused and keep myself busy.

TSS: What are some of the things you’ve got planned for the future?

Anwan: I want to have my own theater, music and dance corporation: G. Prince Theater, Music and Kids. In D.C. I’m getting ready to holla at the Mayor and also Council Member Kwame Brown and see if they can put me a three-story building together for the youth in my city because they’re really suffering just staying out of trouble. If they had outlets it would be better. I want to run a marathon with the Mayor and a few Council Members. Also, I want to be one of the young elites in film work coming up. I want to work with Sidney Poitier, Don Cheadle, Samuel L. Jackson, (Laurence) Fishburne. Guys of that nature, man. The older guys and really put myself out there because I have a lot to offer for film. My music too, I also want to have an album done, a book done and a lot of stuff with my kids, na’mean? It’s a lot of things I want to get done.

TSS: Any parting shots for your fans out there?

Anwan: For my fans, keep me tuned in. Just look for Anwan. I’ma be out there and I love y’all. Keep supporting me and what I do and I won’t let you down. Every time I will deliver and every time I get a character role I will be that character. You can look for me to start and finish. That’s what’s up.

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