Brian Tyree Henry
By Kharisma McIlwaine
Brian Tyree Henry is celebrated for his versatile and powerful performances across theater, film, and television. He rose to prominence in his role as Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles in the critically acclaimed series “Atlanta,” showcasing his ability to seamlessly balance both comedic and dramatic elements throughout the series.
Henry’s career has since expanded, with standout roles in films like “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Causeway” and “Eternals.” His ability to seamlessly shift between genres has earned him widespread recognition and numerous accolades including Tony, Emmy and Academy Award nominations. Now, Henry stars in “Dope Thief,” an Apple TV+, 8-episode limited series based on the novel by Dennis Tafoya of the same name. This gripping crime drama written and executive produced by Academy Award nominee Peter Craig and directed, and executive produced by Academy Award nominee Ridley Scott is based and shot in Philadelphia.
The show centers around two best friends — Ray, played by Henry, and Manny, played by Wagner Moura — who delve headfirst into a scam pretending to be DEA agents in order to rob criminals. After robbing the wrong drug house, their plan goes terribly awry, and chaos ensues. The cast also includes Marin Ireland, Kate Mulgrew, Nesta Cooper, Amir Arison, Liz Caribel Sierra and Ving Rhames. Henry visited Philadelphia and spoke with the SUN about his love for Ray and his hopes for shifting the narrative.
After the grueling schedule of back-to-back television projects, Henry initially passed on “Dope Thief.” The opportunity to executive produce for the first time made him reconsider.
“I was introduced to the script at a time where I knew that I needed a hard staunch break from television,” Henry said. “My producing partner and my manager Jennifer Wiley-Moxley was with me on location. I was filming this series called “Class of 09” and I literally just finished the final season of “Atlanta.” I had a week off and then I went straight into this next series.”
Brian Tyree Henry as Ray and Wagner Moura as Manny in a scene from the Apple TV+ series “Dope Thief.” Photo: Apple TV+
“It was three o’clock in the morning on location. I was in prosthetics. We were in a library room, and she slid this script to me and said, ‘I think you should read this. I said, ‘Is it TV?’ She said, ‘Yeah, I said, ‘No’ and I slid it back to her,” Henry said, laughing. “I said, ‘There’s no possible way I can do TV again.’ She’s, like, ‘It’s a lead’ and I’m, like, ‘Great, but no!’ She said, ‘They’re also giving you the opportunity to executive produce.’ So, I said, ‘Let’s just see’ and in the first 10 pages or so, I couldn’t stop digesting him (the character).”
“What was also crazy was, I’m on every page,” Henry said. “This is following him. That was very appealing to me, as it would be to any actor. Knowing the show was going to follow me and my adventures, for lack of a better word, with my best friend Manny, but also to executive produce was a dream. I knew there was something there, and I couldn’t stop thinking about Ray. I couldn’t stop thinking about my body of work and the characters that I played. I’ve never seen a character like him before.”
Henry was drawn to portraying the complexity of Ray beyond first impressions to explore a flawed human still worthy of love.
“What was appealing to me was the vulnerability. It’s really easy to look at Ray and think of him as an antagonist and just be, like, ‘You’re not supposed to rock with him — you’re not supposed to care about him.’ I think that’s been my favorite thing with a lot of the characters I play.
More often than not, they’re men that you probably wouldn’t even invite to dinner, and I love that, because there’s still humanity in them and heart to them. Ray was no different. So, I found myself caring about Ray immediately and I wanted to make sure viewers did the same.”
Despite Ray’s best efforts to make the right choices, he finds himself trapped in a vicious cycle of poor decisions throughout the series.
“The crazy thing about characters like him and the part that always makes me love them even more is that he really believes that he’s doing the right thing.” Henry said. “He really believes by doing this it’s going to help Manny find the home that he wants with him and Sherry, it’s going to help his mother out, it’s going to help him. He really believes he’s doing it for a just cause. But when you realize the way he’s doing it, you’re just, like, ‘Ray, come on man!’”
“I think that’s where the truth is,” Henry said. “That’s where the vulnerability is, because then you as the viewer have to make a decision if this is somebody you root for, if this is somebody who you can actually have empathy for, is this somebody you can say, ‘I know he just stole half a million dollars. but man, I really hope he makes it to Costa Rica. That is fun to me… that’s the fun of storytelling.”
“He’s alone — he’s been carrying a lot of pain,” Henry said. “I call it Sisyphus syndrome, where he’s constantly pushing this boulder up a hill and there’s no end in sight. There’s something about that pain and that torment with Ray that was very appealing, because I wanted there to be salvation for him at the end.”
Philadelphia plays a central role in the show, laying the foundation for why the characters are where they are in life.
“We were in these streets, and so grateful that Philly was so welcoming to us,” Henry said. “We would be in South Philly, then Kensington, Manayunk and then Chestnut Hill, Amish country… truly we were all over. Ray is a product of Philly. At the end of the day, he was born and raised there. I’m always in awe of the men that I get to play that are natives of the city the story takes place in. All of them have this common thing of never leaving. Ray is on a different spectrum, because not only was he born and raised here, but he was in prison here, so now it’s, like, you definitely can’t leave and good luck trying to make it here. That was captivating. How can you dream of something bigger when you’re told [where] you can’t go, or you can’t be? That’s why you see him with his back against the wall with this scheme.”
“They’ve (Ray and Manny) been in jail since they were 15 years old,” Henry said. “Not because they were doing drugs or robbing anybody — how Ray ended up in the system was circumstantial. Then you put it in a city like Philly, where the incarceration rate is the highest in the country, where it has just as many prisons as you have museums, and then you add another layer. More often than not, when you see stories like this, there’s only one or two ways that they end — either death or being in prison. We are hoping that we’re turning it on its head a little bit, because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
While keeping audiences on the edge of their seats, “Dope Thief” challenges and reshapes the narrative associated with things that are often viewed as other — people of color, drug addicts, criminals, etc. The series works to dispel the misconceptions people may have initially while offering viewers an opportunity to shift their perception in real time.
“It’s really easy with a show like this, to see a Black and Brown man and there’s violence and drugs, and you automatically think it’s this one thing,” Henry said. “But what I hope “Dope Thief” is doing is that it’s kind of showcasing a different kind of storytelling. There’s levity, there’s humor, there’s hope… there’s pain. There are all these different things. I often view “Dope Thief” as a love story between Ray and Manny, because at the end of the day — when you unpack who they are — truly this is a coming-of-age story.”
With his exceptional talent, Henry brings depth and humanity to Ray. His love for the character was only superseded by his love for his cast.
“I never once felt tasked on this show,” Henry said. “Every day that I woke up to do this show was wonderful. I would be on set sometimes until three in the morning. Knowing that the next day was a four-page scene where Ray was shooting up or something, and I absolutely loved it. I can’t explain how absolutely fulfilling it was, no matter how exhausted I was. It was like I found a new addiction — I love this, I need this, it fills me in such an amazing way. A lot of that is heightened because of who my ensemble was. We put together an amazing ensemble. Every single person that was a part of this show I love. They brought all of their tremendous talent to this show and we created a family.”
“I felt like that was very reflective of Brian as well,” Henry said. “I’ve always been this kid roaming, trying to find home and trying to find family, what that means and what brotherhood means. I feel like Ray just gave me a place to lay all of those burdens down. I left this show a different man and a better man than when I came in.”
“Dope Thief” skillfully balances darkness and humor while exploring the multifaceted elements that exist within the human condition.
“We deal with addiction, recovery, recidivism, but then you have to find a bit of hope,” Henry said. “You kind of hope at the end of every episode Ray is going to make it, that he is going to stay sober, that he wants more for himself than he does for anybody else. I just love Ray so much and I want people to have that same love for him even though he’s making the dumbest decisions.”
“Dope Thief” is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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