The Wire: Omar speaks
-
- January
- 13
In honor of tonight’s second episode of the final season of The Wire, I figured I’d share some excerpts of an interview Michael K. Williams did with New York magazine.
Who is Michael K. Williams?
He plays Omar Little, perhaps one of the most intriguing criminals I’ve ever seen portrayed.
He’s a bad man, to be sure. But he is his own man, absolutely. Completely unafraid to take on the biggest, baddest men in Baltimore — Marlo Stanfield, Prop Joe, the Barksdales — but not by standing up to them, just by doing to them what he does to everyone else. Sticking them up with his shotgun.
That scene where he held up the poker game that Marlo was playing in last season was fabulous. Here was big bad Marlo, metaphorically caught with his pants down and embarrassed by it.
Did I mention that Omar’s gay?
As I said, Omar’s a pretty intriguing guy.
One thing I did not know — Williams is responsible for one of my other favorite characters on the show. he discovered Felicia “Snoop” Pearson.
We met in a local bar in Baltimore; she had just come home from prison [for attempted murder]. And, man, I just had this feeling. Something told me to get in on her life — God told me to be a part of her life. I was like, “Jesus Christ, they dumped you on the streets of Baltimore as a little girl to fend for yourself? And you are still alive?!” I was like, “Baby girl, whatever you want, if I can help you get it, you gon’ get it.”
Williams, it turns out, had a pretty rough run of it in his teens — “drugs, rehab, all that crap” — but pretty much got his life together in his early 20s, going to community college, working for a pharmaceutical company and then got all inspired by Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation. He ended up appearing in a whole bunch of music videos, apparently.
And from what he had to tell New York mag about Season 5, we should basically expect the final nine episodes to be as intense as the season opener was a week ago.
It’s really dark and explosive. Everyone’s off the hook; no one trusts anyone. Everyone questions the way things are operating on the street level, in the police department, in the newsroom. Like McNulty, he’s way off the hook this year. He’s doing things that are totally outrageous, questioning authority, and trying to find the truth. He goes way off the deep end this year.
But one thing he wants is for The Wire to really resonate with people.
What I really hope the show’s done is struck a chord with all the hoods in all the cities of this country. Because, really, what The Wire is, is an American story, an American social problem. There’s a Wire in every f*****’ city.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 12:14 pm by Amy Vernon.
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like all viewers, i think, i l-o-v-e omar.
well, i hated and feared him at first, until i kept watching the wire and fell in love w/him. [should i add that i'm a 60-yr-old white woman? not that there's anything wrong with that …..]
as if omar weren't a great enough character, so is mr. williams: a couple of weeks ago, i saw him in judge hatchett's court [on tv], working w/ a troubled kid from the projects. he made an appearance in the televised courtroom, walking the walk as well as talking [it].
whatta guy!! michael, the next time you're in d.c., i'd love to buy you a drink. or dinner. or both. truly, whatta man.