StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
No wonder you hear about fentanyl so much lately.
-
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‘The Wire’ actor Michael K. Williams found dead in NYC apartment
- Thread starter ManaByte
- Start date
bitbydeath
Member
Shame, he was a fantastic actor.
RIP.
RIP.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
In the article above (I also googled it later), fentanyl is a very powerful drug that is also some reason really cheap. So traffickers are subbing in fentanyl with other hard drugs hoping the drug user doesn't notice.
Who knew drug pushers were like Walmart accountants saving every nickel on costs.
Thaedolus
Member
It’s meant for terminal cancer patients who need 24/7 pain relief and build up an opiate tolerance. It’s highly potent for that reason but, obviously, highly dangerous. I’m not sure what effective drug policy would be around it but it does serve a much needed role
Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
RIP
I enjoyed tremendously his performances.
He will be remembered.
I enjoyed tremendously his performances.
He will be remembered.
SireSmogMurk
Banned
Actors get too much recognition and praise. He could pretend to be things he wasn't pretty well, I guess.
DarkestHour
Banned
Kindly fuck off.
Prison Mike
Banned
SireSmogMurk
Banned
See what I mean. Try to tell people that their actors are just people pretending to be thor or gangsters or spies and their reactions are just extreme. I swear there is some kind of mass hypnosis going on.
You know what, I hate actors. I'm glad another actor wanker got the great equalizer before they had more time to enjoy their obscene wealth. From pretending to be things... this world is a joke.
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Noboru Wataya
Banned
Cops have released a ohoto of the suspect rumoured to still be at large.
RIP Omar Little.
RIP Omar Little.
DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
That's not even the point! The fact that you don't get it and even now doubling down on your extreme cynicism shows that you harbor jealousy over people showing EMPATHY towards someone who gave them joy watching their TV shows or movies.
And their reactions weren't extreme. You're clearly exhibiting wanker behavior... Sod off!
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Prison Mike
Banned
Wow someone wasn't loved as a child
McCheese
Member
He was fantastic as Chalky in Broadwalk Empire, haven't seen him in anything else but man what a loss.
Jim Carrey once said he wished everybody could be rich and famous for a day, so they could see for themselves that it's not the answer to all of life's problems. I always remember that when I hear about celebrities who seemingly have it all, fame, money, women etc yet throw their life away at drugs and drink. So sad.
Jim Carrey once said he wished everybody could be rich and famous for a day, so they could see for themselves that it's not the answer to all of life's problems. I always remember that when I hear about celebrities who seemingly have it all, fame, money, women etc yet throw their life away at drugs and drink. So sad.
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Torrent of Pork
Banned
Regardless of your opinions on drugs or their legality, the reality is that virtually anything off the street today has a non-zero chance of being mixed with a lethal dose of fentanyl. Use that fact to make your own decisions.
Old interview:
www.hollywoodreporter.com
"
For somebody who’s been living in a hole for the last decade and hasn’t seen The Wire yet, how would you explain who Omar Little is?
First of all, he’s a Robin Hood — I got that from people who’ve watched the show and fallen in love with the show over the years, and I’ve decided that I agree. He’s a Robin Hood. He’s an underdog. He is someone in society that, if given the chance, could have been President Barack Obama, had he been given the opportunities — great mind, great heart, a lot of courage. But he woke up one morning, with all that greatness, all that potential, and was like, “Oh, shit. I’m stuck in Baltimore, Maryland — “Body-morgue Murder-land.” Ain’t this a bitch. [sings] A-hunting we will go!” And he just accepted where he was and who he was, and made no excuses for it, never complained, just, “It is what it is.”
What’s amazing to me is that he’s so different from you — you said that you’d never even touched a gun before The Wire…
[nods in agreement]
And here you are, playing this guy, who, on paper, would seem to be the most unlikable guy…
[nods in agreement]
And, yet, people can’t get enough of him. This was a show that featured so many heroic characters, and yet I’m sure that if you polled average guys on the street they would say that their favorite character was Omar. How do you explain that? What do you think it was about him that appealed to people?
You know, I knew that I had very little in common with Omar, but I knew that I needed to make him feel and look so believable, so I had to find something to identify with him, and I thought the best way to do that would be to identify with his vulnerability. What makes Omar vulnerable? The fact that he’s so sensitive. Omar is sensitive and so am I, and I’m passionate, and my sensitivity and my vulnerability is what makes me volatile. You know, you could do whatever you want to me, but don’t touch my mom or my kids, you feel me? And, you know, that whole thing? That’s what makes him volatile — if you back up or if you cross his line — ’cause he don’t break this line for nobody, and I share that in common with him, but it comes from a very sensitive place. “Don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, don’t do that,” you know? So I didn’t play Omar as an alpha-male; that’s not my reality, you know? Very vulnerable, but volatile at the same time. And why people identify with him? The minute Alexa sent me that breakdown and I read it, I immediately made a conscious decision to embrace every aspect of this man’s life. There was no hesitation from the door. “Everything,” I said, “I love about this dude, and I’m gonna embrace it, and I’m gonna play it with heart and believability.” You know? And, you know, it’s like I feel chosen. I feel proud to have been chosen to be a voice for people that would normally be judged by society as dangerous, or society would not want to be involved with or be in the same room with the likes of. And I got people who have never even seen a real Omar that express an undying love for him. I got people from the hood who are homophobic — who can’t stand “f—ots” — but love Omar even though he’s a “f—ot,” you know? I didn’t go into the character with all of that in mind; I had not a clue that, you know, people would embrace it the way they did. My only job was to make him— You was gonna feel him. You may not like him, you may actually hate him — that is your decision — but one thing my job was to do was I was gonna make damn sure you were gonna feel him. That was my job. That was the only thing I went in there with as my goal, going in. And I think the fact that he wore his heart on his sleeve — which came from the writing, you know — you didn’t have to wonder what was on his mind. He shot from the hip. If he said, “I’ll be here at three o’clock,” he’d be there at 2:55, you know? I think people may not agree with his lifestyle, but, at the end of the day, they respected him as a man.
He had his code…
Yeah, he had his code. And, at the end of the day, in real life, that’s all we want from each other — “Man, just be real. Be real. Be who you are. Keep it real with me. Don’t bullshit me.” You know? And I think that was the main thing that attracted people to Omar, to the character, was his honesty.
[...]
From what I understand, the creative team behind Boardwalk gave you some history about the real Chalky White, but you took it a little further.
My main goal with Chalky— Because there were some similarities, I had to make real sure that there was no Omar present, ’cause even though they’re very different, there’s also a thin line that separates the two, and I didn’t want to cross that. That was my first main thing I wanted to do. I also really dug deep into my ancestral energy with Chalky, you know? I have uncles that remind me of Chalky that are no longer here, so I pulled on their energy. And then I created his backstory — I said, “He came from the south. He came north for a better way of life. He had a gangster’s mentality, but he got to Atlantic City and he was a businessman in every sense of the word,” you know? Which is where he differed from Omar. Omar was in it for the thrill of the hunt; Chalky’s a businessman; but they both had the same code, the same morals, you know? You can see Chalky’s — you can see the morals he has — when Meyer Lansky tries to get him in that little bullshit, you know, “Tell Nucky it’s gonna cost more than ten grand for him to get me to fuck him over! I’m a bigger man than that!” You know what I mean? So that’s what they share in common. But, you know, it was so funny, I ran into Mike Tyson in L.A. a couple of weeks ago, and he’s the only one that knew that Chalky was a real person, that he was really a boxer, you know? I don’t bring much of that into the character, but it’s good to know the background, you know? He can take a hit. He’s in it for the long haul. And Chalky goes down in history as one of the one hundred greatest hitters of all time.
ou talked about your ancestry and bringing things full circle. Well, if the world ended tomorrow, and there was one guy that somehow made it, and all he had to do was watch TV, I think the scene from Boardwalk that could hold its own against anything else that’s ever been done— [Williams starts to smile] You know what I’m gonna say—
“I ain’t buildin’ no bookcase!” [laughs]
So I have to ask you: How many pages was that? How did you prepare for it? And what does it tell us about Chalky?
That scene had to be about four, maybe five pages. I prepared for that by calling — you know, don’t fix what ain’t broken — Mel Williams from Theatre for a New Generation, my director, and I said, “I need help with this,” and we worked it for several hours. My goal was to treat that like a one-act play, a one-man show. I wanted it to be so seamless, I wanted to give them the option of not having to cut it if they didn’t want to. What that said about Chalky? We got the first insight to this man and his family life, you know? We saw how he revered his father. We saw that with all of his money, and all of his gangsterism ways, and, you know, his high-yellow wife, and his fancy clothes, and everything, we see that, at the end of the day, he loved his daddy and he missed his relationship with his father. They took something from him when they hung his father, and that was probably the turning point that said, “You will never get me! You will never, ever catch me sleeping the way you caught my father!” He became a man that day.
Last question — and this is the big picture one. You’ve been a part of these two shows that will be on any list of the greatest shows ever when all is said and done; they seem like they provided two families for you; you told the stories of not only two people, but two cities. As I referenced, the president of the United States adores your performance in the first, like everybody else. At the end of the day, many years from now when we’re all gone, how would you like people to remember Michael Kenneth Williams?
Man, I just want people to remember me as one cool-ass dude, you know? Someone who cared. And I would never want anybody to say, “Oh, he forgot where he came from.” That would hurt me the most.
"
Michael K. Williams, in 2011 Interview, Got Real About His Scar, Struggles and Salvation: “There’s No Words to Say How Fortunate I Am”
The revered character actor, who was found dead Monday at the age of 54, reflected on his life and career with Scott Feinberg in 2011.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
For somebody who’s been living in a hole for the last decade and hasn’t seen The Wire yet, how would you explain who Omar Little is?
First of all, he’s a Robin Hood — I got that from people who’ve watched the show and fallen in love with the show over the years, and I’ve decided that I agree. He’s a Robin Hood. He’s an underdog. He is someone in society that, if given the chance, could have been President Barack Obama, had he been given the opportunities — great mind, great heart, a lot of courage. But he woke up one morning, with all that greatness, all that potential, and was like, “Oh, shit. I’m stuck in Baltimore, Maryland — “Body-morgue Murder-land.” Ain’t this a bitch. [sings] A-hunting we will go!” And he just accepted where he was and who he was, and made no excuses for it, never complained, just, “It is what it is.”
What’s amazing to me is that he’s so different from you — you said that you’d never even touched a gun before The Wire…
[nods in agreement]
And here you are, playing this guy, who, on paper, would seem to be the most unlikable guy…
[nods in agreement]
And, yet, people can’t get enough of him. This was a show that featured so many heroic characters, and yet I’m sure that if you polled average guys on the street they would say that their favorite character was Omar. How do you explain that? What do you think it was about him that appealed to people?
You know, I knew that I had very little in common with Omar, but I knew that I needed to make him feel and look so believable, so I had to find something to identify with him, and I thought the best way to do that would be to identify with his vulnerability. What makes Omar vulnerable? The fact that he’s so sensitive. Omar is sensitive and so am I, and I’m passionate, and my sensitivity and my vulnerability is what makes me volatile. You know, you could do whatever you want to me, but don’t touch my mom or my kids, you feel me? And, you know, that whole thing? That’s what makes him volatile — if you back up or if you cross his line — ’cause he don’t break this line for nobody, and I share that in common with him, but it comes from a very sensitive place. “Don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, don’t do that,” you know? So I didn’t play Omar as an alpha-male; that’s not my reality, you know? Very vulnerable, but volatile at the same time. And why people identify with him? The minute Alexa sent me that breakdown and I read it, I immediately made a conscious decision to embrace every aspect of this man’s life. There was no hesitation from the door. “Everything,” I said, “I love about this dude, and I’m gonna embrace it, and I’m gonna play it with heart and believability.” You know? And, you know, it’s like I feel chosen. I feel proud to have been chosen to be a voice for people that would normally be judged by society as dangerous, or society would not want to be involved with or be in the same room with the likes of. And I got people who have never even seen a real Omar that express an undying love for him. I got people from the hood who are homophobic — who can’t stand “f—ots” — but love Omar even though he’s a “f—ot,” you know? I didn’t go into the character with all of that in mind; I had not a clue that, you know, people would embrace it the way they did. My only job was to make him— You was gonna feel him. You may not like him, you may actually hate him — that is your decision — but one thing my job was to do was I was gonna make damn sure you were gonna feel him. That was my job. That was the only thing I went in there with as my goal, going in. And I think the fact that he wore his heart on his sleeve — which came from the writing, you know — you didn’t have to wonder what was on his mind. He shot from the hip. If he said, “I’ll be here at three o’clock,” he’d be there at 2:55, you know? I think people may not agree with his lifestyle, but, at the end of the day, they respected him as a man.
He had his code…
Yeah, he had his code. And, at the end of the day, in real life, that’s all we want from each other — “Man, just be real. Be real. Be who you are. Keep it real with me. Don’t bullshit me.” You know? And I think that was the main thing that attracted people to Omar, to the character, was his honesty.
[...]
From what I understand, the creative team behind Boardwalk gave you some history about the real Chalky White, but you took it a little further.
My main goal with Chalky— Because there were some similarities, I had to make real sure that there was no Omar present, ’cause even though they’re very different, there’s also a thin line that separates the two, and I didn’t want to cross that. That was my first main thing I wanted to do. I also really dug deep into my ancestral energy with Chalky, you know? I have uncles that remind me of Chalky that are no longer here, so I pulled on their energy. And then I created his backstory — I said, “He came from the south. He came north for a better way of life. He had a gangster’s mentality, but he got to Atlantic City and he was a businessman in every sense of the word,” you know? Which is where he differed from Omar. Omar was in it for the thrill of the hunt; Chalky’s a businessman; but they both had the same code, the same morals, you know? You can see Chalky’s — you can see the morals he has — when Meyer Lansky tries to get him in that little bullshit, you know, “Tell Nucky it’s gonna cost more than ten grand for him to get me to fuck him over! I’m a bigger man than that!” You know what I mean? So that’s what they share in common. But, you know, it was so funny, I ran into Mike Tyson in L.A. a couple of weeks ago, and he’s the only one that knew that Chalky was a real person, that he was really a boxer, you know? I don’t bring much of that into the character, but it’s good to know the background, you know? He can take a hit. He’s in it for the long haul. And Chalky goes down in history as one of the one hundred greatest hitters of all time.
ou talked about your ancestry and bringing things full circle. Well, if the world ended tomorrow, and there was one guy that somehow made it, and all he had to do was watch TV, I think the scene from Boardwalk that could hold its own against anything else that’s ever been done— [Williams starts to smile] You know what I’m gonna say—
“I ain’t buildin’ no bookcase!” [laughs]
So I have to ask you: How many pages was that? How did you prepare for it? And what does it tell us about Chalky?
That scene had to be about four, maybe five pages. I prepared for that by calling — you know, don’t fix what ain’t broken — Mel Williams from Theatre for a New Generation, my director, and I said, “I need help with this,” and we worked it for several hours. My goal was to treat that like a one-act play, a one-man show. I wanted it to be so seamless, I wanted to give them the option of not having to cut it if they didn’t want to. What that said about Chalky? We got the first insight to this man and his family life, you know? We saw how he revered his father. We saw that with all of his money, and all of his gangsterism ways, and, you know, his high-yellow wife, and his fancy clothes, and everything, we see that, at the end of the day, he loved his daddy and he missed his relationship with his father. They took something from him when they hung his father, and that was probably the turning point that said, “You will never get me! You will never, ever catch me sleeping the way you caught my father!” He became a man that day.
Last question — and this is the big picture one. You’ve been a part of these two shows that will be on any list of the greatest shows ever when all is said and done; they seem like they provided two families for you; you told the stories of not only two people, but two cities. As I referenced, the president of the United States adores your performance in the first, like everybody else. At the end of the day, many years from now when we’re all gone, how would you like people to remember Michael Kenneth Williams?
Man, I just want people to remember me as one cool-ass dude, you know? Someone who cared. And I would never want anybody to say, “Oh, he forgot where he came from.” That would hurt me the most.
"
They did him wrong on BE, did him
Wrong
DarkestHour
Banned
Have you seen him in "Boardwalk Empire"? He is the reason I continually watch it.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Really sad news; one of the greatest television roles in history in Omar, and he was one of the few redeeming parts of the Robocop reboot (even if his parts were brief). Lots of other great roles too.
RIP; the stresses of life (especially compounded recently due to COVID lockdowns, restrictions etc.) are probably having some unforeseen influences on tendencies of various individuals, which just makes it all that much worst. I should do a rewatch of The Wire sometime in his honor.
RIP; the stresses of life (especially compounded recently due to COVID lockdowns, restrictions etc.) are probably having some unforeseen influences on tendencies of various individuals, which just makes it all that much worst. I should do a rewatch of The Wire sometime in his honor.
Daneel Elijah
Gold Member
Putonahappyface
Gold Member
R.I.P Smokey. 
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Ian McShane - Al Swearingen
Michael Richard's - Kramer
Michael K William's - Omar Little
Lucille Ball - Lucy Ricardo
The 4 greatest characters in TV history. Michael K William's was the real deal. RIP.
Michael Richard's - Kramer
Michael K William's - Omar Little
Lucille Ball - Lucy Ricardo
The 4 greatest characters in TV history. Michael K William's was the real deal. RIP.
Well, that escalated quickly! Watched season 1. Pretty cool show with strong character dynamics, worth checking out.R.I.P.
Hap and Leonard is another great show with him btw
