On the Awards Tour podcast this week, Rotten Tomatoes Awards Editor Jacqueline Coley chats with Oscar-nominated actor Brian Tyree Henry to discuss his gripping new series Dope Thief.
In the show, Henry stars as Ray Driscoll, a reformed drug dealer who teams up with his childhood friend Manny (Wagner Moura) to impersonate DEA agents — with violent consequences. In their conversation, Henry shares how he got involved with the project, what it was like collaborating with legendary creatives Peter Craig and Ridley Scott, and how he formed unexpected bonds with the cast.
Jacqueline Coley for Rotten Tomatoes: Congrats on the Oscar Nomination and all your recent film work, but let’s talk about that and why you wanted to go back to television after a bit of an absence after Atlanta.
Bryan Tyree Henry: It’s funny because I was getting my ass handed to me by television for quite some time. I mean, every character I played over the last few years just really took a lot. It took a lot, and I knew I wanted a departure from television, and I think our relationship just needed a little break. I made this decision just to step back. I didn’t want to come back to television unless it was really passionate, something new, something that excited me, because TV takes a lot of work. It does.
You grow with these characters and become very close to them. The ensemble you become close with. It is a lot of work, and so here comes Peter Craig with this fantastic script to Dope Thief, and not only is the script and the world of this story so incredible, but it was giving me a chance to be a lead, which I had not been offered before.
Dope Thief is streaming now on AppleTV+.
