I Talked To Michael K. Williams About The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Expectations and More
This was an interview I was super pumped about not just because I am a fan of Michael K. Williams work across the board, but because he is a thoughtful guy. Man, did that ever prove to be true. Just to give you some behind the scenes of the interview process, I usually write a sheet of questions that is condensed enough that we should be able to hit all the points in whatever the given time is. Sometimes, though, the person has a long-winded manor of responding with scripted answers. This is usually a pain, because then the sheet has to get adjusted on the fly so that we can get to the big questions in time. This hurts the flow of the interview in the end.
When Williams starting going long on his answers, I was afraid that the interview might be going in that direction. It could not have been more different, though. He put so much thought and care into each question I asked him that I basically threw out my sheet and just talked with him person-to-person instead of interviewer-to-interviewee. It was seriously like therapy (in a good way) in how open and honest the conversation was.
One of the highlights was the part in that clip. I assumed hearing that 'The Wire' the President of the United States' favorite show and that Omar was his favorite character would be a huge point of joy and pride. I never really considered how scary that really must have been for a bunch of reasons. Not only was he carrying this weight and expectation from the black community, but also now the leader of the free world. Outside of that clip, we talked about how he got lost in the role of Omar, which lead to addiction which he is still in recovery from. We also talked about the much warmer TV Academy reception that 'Boardwalk Empire' received than 'The Wire' (Boardwalk got 57 Emmy nominations and 20 wins compared to only two nominations period for The Wire, which is fucking insane). We touched a bit on the Lord & Miller cut of 'Solo', his new movie 'Body Brokers' and more.