Andre Royo says people still stop him on the street to talk about Bubbles, the character he played on HBO’s “The Wire” starting in 2002. Royo loves that Bubbles is so beloved, but he’s moved on now. He’s had a recurring role in the Fox TV hit “Empire” and he’s promoting his new independent film, “Hunter Gatherer.”
“Hunter Gatherer” will be shown in two sneak preview screenings on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 21 and 22, at the Wadsworth Atheneum. After the Saturday screening, Royo will engage the audience in a Skype Q&A. The film opens the Atheneum’s spring movie series for 2017.
“Hunter Gatherer,” written and directed by Joshua Locy, is Royo’s first starring role in a feature film. The drama tells the story of Ashley, a reformed thief who returns to his old neighborhood after three years in prison, raring to go into a new life, only to find that nobody wants anything to do with him. Even his initially supportive mother gets fed up with him. Ashley makes a new friend and tries to establish himself financially and get his old sweetheart back, but he keeps getting dragged down by his bad reputation and his own illogically impulsive behavior.
“I’ve known a few people like Ashley,” Royo said in a phone interview. “He’s a pain … on the outside. … He’s a delusional blowhard and a little bit insane, but he’s trying to be of value, to have self-worth. He wants to be appreciated, valued, loved.
“Like Jay-Z said, ‘I look in the mirror, my only opponent.’ We get in our own way, we get defensive, we self-sabotage,” Royo, 48, said.
The HBO series “The Wire,” one of the most critically beloved TV series of all time that debuted in 2002, made a star out of Royo. His performance as the drug addict-police informant was so convincing that he was approached during filming in Baltimore and given a package of heroin by someone who saw him and assumed he needed a fix. (He later called the gift his “street Oscar.”) After that breakout role, Royo said he was typecast for a while, but he kept plugging away with his career.
“Sam Jackson was a cool mentor, a friend of mine. He would say things that kept me at bay with my depression and kept me motivated, creative-wise,” he said. “He’d say, ‘You could be typecast as unemployed. The key word is cast.’ ‘Just do what you do, keep your talent at that level, and you will get another shot’,” he said.
Royo did, and landed a long series of roles in TV shows, shorts and feature films, culminating in his long stint on “Empire,” where he portrays an attorney, and “Hunter Gatherer.”
Royo explained the film’s title: “It refers to how we proceed through our day. We leave our cave, our domicile. We gather information, gather experiences, gather a source of income. That’s what we do. We go out and find ways with the tools we have to build a world around us.”
At times, Ashley seems unlikable, but Royo insists he is not. “I know a lot of people who could not handle their dreams not coming to fruition,” he said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever played a not-likable character,” he said. “They’re just regular human beings. Any human being can be liked or be a [jerk] at any given moment.”
HUNTER GATHERER will be shown Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 21 and 22, at 2 p.m. at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main St. in Hartford. A Skype conversation with Andre Royo will follow the Saturday screening. Admission is $9, $8 seniors and students, $7 members, Insider Access members and above free. thewadsworth.org.
