On his first day shooting The Wire, Pablo Schreiber experienced every actor's worst nightmare
In a Q interview, the Canadian actor shares stories about some of his most iconic roles
Sleeping in for an important test or a big day at work is a common nightmare, but for Pablo Schreiber, it was a reality.
The Canadian actor had landed his big break playing Nick Sobotka on The Wire — widely considered one of the greatest TV shows ever made — but he missed his call time on his very first day.
"I'm going to my first day of big work on an HBO show," Schreiber tells Q's Tom Power in a recent conversation. "I've been waiting for this day forever [and] I slept through my alarm. This was in the early days of cell phones, where I was using a cell phone as an alarm and that was revolutionary."
Turns out Schreiber's phone battery died and he woke up two hours after he was supposed to be on set. When he saw the time, he was immediately thrown into a panic.
Everyone's sitting on boxes — nobody's working. They're just waiting for the new guy to show up.- Pablo Schreiber
"I'm like, 'This can't be happening on my first day of work as a professional,'" he says. "I run, throw my stuff together, jump in the car. I'm speeding towards the location they gave me. I get pulled over by a police officer, get a speeding ticket on my way to work. Apologized profusely. Continue on.
"I get there two and a half, almost three hours late to my first day of work. Literally, I'm walking through the set to get to the makeup trailer and everyone's sitting on boxes — nobody's working. They're just waiting for the new guy to show up. It was the nightmare you have as an actor."
With hundreds of thousands of production dollars wasted due to his late arrival, Schreiber felt shocked, horrified and embarrassed.
"David Simon, who created the show, came into the trailer," he recalls. "You could tell he was not impressed at all, but he was kind enough to say, 'Forget about it. Don't worry about it. Go do your work. We need you to focus in and get this right.'"
Despite that nightmare experience, Schreiber says it was still "a dream to work with all those people," which speaks to the positive environment on set.
"Nobody was trying to do too much. Everybody knew what they had in the dialogue and knew that all you had to do was show up and say the words and get out of the way.… For that to be your big introduction to the industry, it's hard to live up to. We'll put it that way."
Watch Schreiber's full interview with Power, or listen to it on our podcast, for more of what he had to say about his characters in Halo, Orange Is the New Black and more.
WATCH | Pablo Schreiber's interview with Tom Power:
The full interview with Pablo Schreiber is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Pablo Schreiber produced by Mitch Pollock.
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