'The Shield' Writers On Breaking the Rules of TV Production
During the ATX TV Festival The Shield reunion, creator Shawn Ryan and writers Kurt Sutter, Glen Mazzara, Scott Rosenbaum and Chic Eglee took a look back at the series, and it's fair to say there's plenty of nostalgia.
Ryan said of Kurt Sutter, “I remember writing down, ‘Really good writer, wonder if he has enough edge to do the show.’ And then I met him, and I was like, ‘Yes, he’s got enough edge.’”
Sutter then said of Mazzara, “As f—ed up as I am, I grew up with all women and the camaraderie was really difficult with men because it was just unfamiliar territory, and I just so desperately wanted to be Glen’s friend. And he wasn’t down with it!” Sutter says the first time the pair met. Sutter went on to say the two eventually became friends, though Mazzara denied ever feeling negatively toward his co-writer.
Eglee describes a particular instance the summarises the show's unorthodox style, conceding that they never had enough time or enough money. Eglee said that one hustle on-set was to capture extras in scandalous moments, with one young woman as his prime example.
“She’s walking down the street and in the middle of the take a car pulls up,” he said. “She leans into the car, starts talking to the guy and gets in the car and drives off and comes back about 15 minutes later and gets dropped off in the next shot. We had one of our extras tricking on set! And that was The Shield.
“That same episode there were these two quite hefty Latina women who were in a brawl at the location that we were at and they were drawing blood and really pounding each other. I was standing next to [director] Clark Johnson and he goes, ‘Are these our people? Can we get a camera on this?’ And we filmed it.”
Ultimately, he said that the show was “a roller coaster ride where there weren’t any rules, and if there were rules they were being broken."
“They were the best several years I spent in my career ever. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to match the experience I had with these guys." His fellow writers shared the sentiment.
Source: Deadline
