"Omar!"
It's more than a name, it's a salutation among devotees of the beloved,
just-completed HBO dramatic series The Wire. Explaining the phenomenon to those
unaware can be difficult, but try this: Over the course of The Wire's five seasons, Michael Kenneth
Williams' complicated, violent character, Omar Little, somehow gained more love
and respect from audiences than even the show's ostensible heroes in the
Baltimore Police Department. Introduced in season one as a drug-dealer-robbing
gay thief with a prominent facial scar (a real souvenir from a bar fight Williams
had in his 20s), Omar quickly became a pivotal character—a surprisingly
ethical thief and killer with a fierce devotion to the code of the streets. By the
series' end, that devotion made Little the last of a dying breed. With The
Wire's gritty, realistic
portrayals of Baltimore street life, no cast member was guaranteed a happy
ending. That went double for Omar Little, whose job—robbing drug dealers
with a shotgun—routinely put a price on his head. By the time season five
began in January, many Wire
fans were so invested in Williams' character that each of his scenes felt heavy
with dread. They wanted the murderous Omar to live through the series'
conclusion, but most surely knew that the show wouldn't allow such a life to
end happily. [Spoiler ahead, and many more in the interview.] Omar Little's
strangely noble life met an ignoble end, shot by a child gunman in the back of
the head while buying his usual pack of Newports. The scene disappointed many
fans, but it stayed true to The Wire's almost impenetrable search for truth. Regardless, for
Williams it was a happy ending. The Wire has provided a breakthrough, iconic role for the New
Yorker, who started his career as a dancer-choreographer in the early '90s.
He's currently involved in several projects, including Spike Lee's upcoming
WWII drama, Miracle At St. Anna,
and John Hillcoat's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, co-starring Viggo Mortensen and
Charlize Theron. Just before The Wire ended, Williams spoke with The A.V. Club about life as Omar, The Wire's thematic arch, and R. Kelly's
prolificacy.
The A.V. Club:
Do you get called Omar a lot?
Michael
Kenneth Williams: On the
regular. It's like Omar is my alias name. I get called Omar more than I get
called Michael—it's crazy.
AVC: When did
you get the sense that people were getting attached to the character?
MKW: In the beginning people would come up and
tell me how much they love the character, love the show. I didn't really
believe it. I just took it as "Oh thanks, I'm just a guy on a TV show. I'm one
of many people on
this particular TV show doing as great a work as you think I'm doing." After a
while I started to listen to what was being said. One lady, she grabs me and
says, "No you don't understand.
We needed this. This needed to be said. We needed The Wire, and we needed Omar." One time, this
gentleman in L.A. at an audition, he grabbed me, and you could tell this man
had been to hell and back—to hell and back. And he grabbed my hand, he looked in my eye, and
he said: "I know you
a real thug, nigga. I know!"
I was like, "Dude, I've never even bust a gun before The Wire. I've never even held a gun before The
Wire." I didn't have the
heart to tell him. I realized then that when people see me, they really see
this character.
It
was a little scary in the beginning because I don't want people thinking I'm
some… They start testing me and shit. But I see it like, "You know Mike, don't
even think negatively about it. This is love." I'm going to embrace it for what
it's for, which is love and admiration. I'm gonna look at it like that. I just
started embracing it. And from that point, I listened to everything people said.
They say, "I know you hear this a thousand times…" I don't treat it that way. I
treat it like it's the first time I'm hearing it, and I take my time, and I
listen to what they're saying, and I concur, and we have a real conversation.
And I started realizing that this is something happening here. This is not just
another television show. This is doing something to the community and for the
community. People are responding in a way that I've never really seen people
respond to other television shows.
AVC: So was
it after the first season that you noticed?
MKW: I would say third season. First season I
was oblivious. Second season I was too busy, worried at the fact that they had
all these new actors in, white actors. I'd never seen that before in a
television show. "What, you're gonna change the whole cast?! What is this?!
After the great season we had last year, why would you not want to bring us
back?" I realize, looking back, what they were doing. They had a story to tell,
and had they not told that dock story, a big part of this puzzle would have
been left out. Because we all know what brothers are doing in the 'hood, with
the work. We all know who sold the drug, who used the drug. But what we never
really focus on is where the work comes from. We're not on them docks or ports,
you feel me? And then it opened up a bigger picture, like who's watching the
docks? When you say there's a war on drugs, what the fuck is that? What is this
war on drugs when the work comes in fresh off the water, right into the harbor,
right into the city? So looking back I realize what was going on, that season
two was very necessary. But I was too caught up in my own matrix of wanting to
just work and stay working. But by the time season three came along, I started
to get it.