Brian Tyree Henry explains the end of Ray
Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for the final of the limited series “Dope Thief”, entitled “Innocent People”.
At the final of Friday of Peter Craig’s Apple TV+ Drug Conspiracy Drama Limited series “Dope Thief” gets Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) near To a happy ending. He finds the man who hunts him and his now deceased best friend Manny (Wagner Moura) was mixed in a real drug cartel the entire season after they were mixed during their fake-thea agent schedule.
But at that moment Manny died of an overdose of heroin, and the life of Ray is irreparably damaged by the choices he made and those who were made for him long ago – he just struggles to survive and who he loves to love. But the fight is over and he can rest, thanks to his unlikely team with DEA agent Mina (Marin Ireland). It appears that the man on his way to get Ray and Manny was a high lieutenant in the Dea himself, hidden behind his badge to lead his business.
Read VarietyThe interview with Ster and executive producer Henry who dissolves Ray’s choices in the ‘Dope Thief’ final, in which he also discussed his current favorite TV program ‘With Love, Meghan’.
As the season progresses, it has become more difficult to say whether Ray hallucinates the person after him, or whether it is all real and the people around him do not believe him. Was that because of a design?
There is a certain form of mania that happened to Ray. You saw him make a lot of decisions that affected him and his psyche at the same time. Such as, regardless of whether he is trapped, I don’t think he has seen like so many dead bodies. To be honest, Ray has had his considerable part of the loss, right? You have to see a flashback from him, as a baby, see his mother, and not really know how to process that as a young mind that is new to the world. But then his girlfriend killed in a car accident that sits next to him, that he takes on all the guilt, and then go to Oxville, and it just becomes a damn shit show, and it seems to be body after body after body. And I think that is exactly what is happening for Ray is that Mania takes over, on top of the fact that you are also dealing with an addict, who at the same time tries to hold a form of escapism.
So he loses sleep, he doesn’t sleep so much, the days go together because he spends all the time to take care of this person and to move this here, and then he is in Amish Country, then he is in a warehouse and then he provides shermia. And we want you to feel confused about which day it is; How long has it been since the robbery? How long has it been since Ray has slept? We deliberately made it that way, so that you were also in a place of your own mania, so to speak.
What was it like for you to film the last episode of this show about two best friends who struggle to come together from this mess after the death of Ray’s best friend, Manny, in the previous episode? How did you only approach Ray?
Losing Manny was the hardest thing to do, just because I love Wagner so much and even think about doing the rest of the show – granted, there is only one episode – knowing that he and his character are just not there, was really difficult. It is so funny, because I made it a point to be on the set for his actual scene where he ODS, and I would literally sit outside the prison just on the floor with my hands wrapped around my knees, just as I know it is coming. So to make it feel less painful, I threw him a party, because that was also his last scene. So I have all this Brazilian food and all these cakes, and I have, like balloons – and he is still in all his scars, such as mutilated. You can see the wounds on his arm. But this man was the happiest person you have ever seen in your life. We still wanted to make it joyful, because we just knew what the loss of that would mean and how Ray would change forever.
I just knew that there will be no return for Ray – and for me – emotional and physical, because, that is my husband, that’s my best friend. And I remember that I was a kind of: “Peter, should we? Like, I don’t know if this is the way to go …” But I think Manny should be the last piece to push Ray in this absolute place of despair and loss. It was difficult and people are angry with me. People are angry with me, but I understand, because I was angry: I didn’t want to lose Manny. But there is only one way to pack this story. They are really fleeing their lives, and unfortunately there are victims on the way.
In the final we learn that the man who has tormented Ray and Manny from the start, the head of this massive drug cartel, is in fact one of the highest leaders in the DEA who was in various interrogation scenes around Ray and Son during the episode. What was your response to the turn?
It was great, because Peter directed the final and I went to watch the monitor, and I had something like that: “And you just ran it away enough. You are a sociopath, sir.” But it’s strange, things like that, if you have a show built on a mystery, we try to solve who this man is who has this power. We are merging the puzzle pieces to find out who is in charge and who pulls the strings – and you realize that they have been there all the time. I think that just contributes to an extra element of tension and telling Peter Craig, how he thinks about these things and how threats appear forever and never really that far away, and what the commitment is. Who thought they robbed a Valhuis would bring a whole cartel down? But that is also just the story of Ray: he ends up in places that are incredibly indirect. And he meant that things were one way, and then they turn out to be something completely different, and they have so many consequences that are accompanied by it.
The last line in the show is the exchange of “you’re clean” from Mina to Ray, while she wipes some food from his face in a parking lot, and his reaction is: “Hallelujah.” What was the greater meaning of ending on that note?
That day we had just blown up a camper. And Marin does a problem as no one I have seen; This vulnerability behind her eyes is just so fascinating, but at the same time so threatening. And we just pull innocently to get breakfast in breakfast, such as, just continue with a normal day. And it is a bookmark by me not to be able not to get any food in my mouth. There is ketchup about my beard, and here she has to wipe it. Or don’t have to do it, but make the choice, help me and help and get this thing – and “you’re clean.” I think Ray really didn’t want to be alone to clean the crimes and be under the umbrella of a criminal and death and loss, but also literally clean, because he is now sober and it looks like a rebirth. And if there is something that is celebrating the rebirth more, it is “Hallelujah.” During the show you hear Ray say “hallelujah” in such an ironic way, from Like, “Oh, thank goodness!” But this one, I really believe he is grateful that he is still there. And I find it amazing that the very last word is heard in the series; That it is really a gratitude that Ray survived, and that he has made it, it is done and that there is something on the other side. But also, what does that mean at the same time?
It is behind you and your “Panic carefully” co-star Elizabeth Olsen invested very much in looking at Meghan Markle’s “With Love, Meghan” Netflix series while you were filming in London together. I was told that the Duchess of Sussex sent you a care package as a thank you when she heard it?
She did that! She sent me and Elizabeth Olsen beautiful, beautiful – as always – boxes. I am not missed at all the care that goes into what this woman does. I started my day off with a beautiful Hibiscus tea that she sent. I believe that there was a handkigraphy on the box. And let me tell you something that jam is jamming. Like, the preserves are where it is. And of course there are flowers of sprinkles that I don’t know why I am so careful to use! Because I want to use them well. Like, I don’t want to put it on fries alone, you know what I mean? It must be the right one, I don’t know why. But I’m going to support this woman. She has found her niche and it is delicious. In short, it is delicious. It is really, very friendly for her to do that. And when I came back from London and saw this, I immediately called Elizabeth and said, “Did you get your box?!” We are both incredibly grateful and it is really cool.
With “Dope Thief” over, the next handful of your projects that are discussed are films. Are you planning to come back to TV afterwards? Maybe in a series of regular role?
Of course I come back to TV. There is nothing I love more than knowing that I can be in the living rooms of different people at the same time – I like to be intrusive. But it must be the right thing, because I really shot on TV on TV, and I really think I want love. I am in this place, now that I have done the work, where I can actually show people that I want to see myself in love. I am not saying that it should be a cheese -like, Cornball species love – it can still be a trauma, I could be a serial killer looking for love. But I just think I want the element of love to be something in that. This is not an exodus of television. Television has a huge, huge place in my heart, but it just has to be the right one.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
