In the summer of 2003, Andre Royo, known to fans of HBO’s The Wire as recovering heroin addict and Baltimore police informant Bubbles, was standing in a buffet line fixing himself a plate at a party for the premium cabler in New York, when he saw Mark Wahlberg making his way toward him.
At the time, the middle of the second season of The Wire was airing, and the actor was at the event to toast the launch of another HBO series, Entourage, which Wahlberg produced.
“I was like, oh ****! Mark Wahlberg’s coming up to me!” Royo told BuzzFeed News via phone, recalling the glint of familiarity in Wahlberg’s eyes. “And he came up to me, and he was like, ‘Hey, you’ve got a good job now. I hope you appreciate your position right now. You better stay clean and take advantage of this moment.’”
Royo was momentarily confused. “I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? I’m an actor. I’ve been doing theater for a little while.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you was a real junkie. I thought they found somebody on the street and they gave him a part. My bad,’” Royo remembered. “He definitely took a step back.”