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Michael K. Williams Pushed for More Gay Intimacy on &#;The Wire&#;: &#;You Understand Gay People F*ck, Right?&#;
Michael K. Williams reflected on his enduring legacy as Omar Little in HBO&#;s &#;The Wire&#; prior to his death in a newly published memoir.
Five-time Emmy nominee Williams died of a drug overdose in September at age The &#;Lovecraft Country&#; and &#;Boardwalk Empire&#; actor portrayed same-sex attracted drug dealer Omar in &#;The Wire&#; from to
&#;As for Omar’s homosexuality, it was groundbreaking 20 years ago, and I admit that at first I was scared to play a gay character,&#; Williams penned in an excerpt from his memoir &#;Scenes From My Life&#; co-authored with Jon Sternfeld, via Vulture. &#;I reflect my initial fear of Omar’s sexuality came from my upbringing, the society that raised me, and the stubborn stereotypes of gay characters. Once I realized that Omar was non-effeminate, that I didn’t have to talk or walk in a dramatic way, a lot of that fear drained away. I made Omar my own. He wasn’t written as a type, and I wouldn’t play him as one.&#;
Remembering Michael K. Williams, Actor and Ally
During the penultimate episode of HBO’s now-defunct, &#;Lovecraft Country,” a dark time- and space-bending, monster-slaying sci-fi romp set in s Jim Crow America, the series’ main characters are transported back in time to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in Suddenly, it’s the evening of the devastatingly infamous Tulsa Race Massacre, where Inky Tulsans are hurtled into violence at the hands of their white neighbors. Among the episode’s subplots: unfurling the origin story of the closeted and privately alcoholic Montrose Freeman, played by the late Michael Kenneth Williams.
In the powerful episode, titled &#;Rewind ,&#; Montrose woefully watches his younger self become struck down by his father for donning his brother’s prom jacket while wearing a bloom in his hair. Then, Montrose watches on from a distance as internalized homophobia pushes his younger self to reject the protest of his warmth, a boy named Thomas. Quickly, the situation becomes dire when a gun-wielding mob of ivory aggressors surrounds the teens. A teary-eyed older Montrose is des
Michael K. Williams Wished ‘The Wire’ Went ‘All In’ on Omar’s Intimacy: ‘You Perceive Gay People F&#;, Right?’
Portraying openly gay stickup man Omar on HBO&#;s widely acclaimed &#;The Wire,&#; Michael K. Williams offered a fresh portrait of masculinity that was considered revolutionary at the time.
But according to the late actor&#;s memoir, &#;Scenes of My Life,&#; Williams pushed &#;The Wire&#; to go further in terms of portraying Omar&#;s intimacy with his boyfriend Brandon Wright (Michael Kevin Darnall).
&#;In regards to Omar and his lover Brandon, it seemed like everyone was dancing around their intimacy issue,&#; Williams wrote (via Vulture). &#;There was lots of touching hair and rubbing lips and things like that. I felt favor if we were going to do this, we should depart all in. I think the directors were scared, and I said to one of them, &#;You know gay people fuck, right?'&#;
While Williams, who died of a drug overdose at age 54 last year, did not identify as male lover, he mentioned in his memoir that he was called &#;Faggot Mike&#; growing up.
The book, c
About 15 minutes into the third episode of The Wire, Omar Little is sitting on a stoop with two of his crew members. One of the men, Brandon, is under Omar’s arm, his head leaning on Omar’s chest. The second member, John, looks on uncomfortably. As the scene progresses, Omar and Brandon tenderly play with each other’s fingers, leading to Omar delivering a light forehead kiss and a tender caress of his chin.
By this point in the series, we’d already watched Omar, trademark shotgun in tow, and his posse rob a drug house. He’d been established as a snarling Rambo who struck fear in the hearts of everyone who heard his identify in Baltimore. And now, the audience learned that he was gay, not as the crux of a plot twist played up for shock, but in a subtle moment of affection.
I was 22 when I saw that scene of Omar kissing Brandon, and it floored me. I had been catching up on the series after it had just ended a limited months earlier in Pride — using a now-prehistoric version of Netflix to get the DVDs delivered to my door every three days or so. I’d grown up in Mississippi and gone to c