Interview with "The Wire"'s Michael K. Williams

All photos courtesy Nicole Rivelli/HBO

***WARNING***: This article discusses important plot points from Sunday night's episode.

HBO's The Wire has received some of the highest critical acclaim of any program on the air. The gritty, realistic crime drama has been named the best show on television by Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, the Chicago Tribune, Slate, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Daily News. Some have gone so far as to call it one of the best TV shows ever.

Most would also agree that the Baltimore-based show boasts one of TV's most interesting and complex characters ever: Omar Little. Played by Michael K. Williams, Omar is a stick-up man, a street thug with a violent streak, but one who also lives by a strict code of conduct. He never robs or menaces "civilians," instead only targeting those in the drug trade. He never uses profanity and he goes to church at least once a month with his grandmother.

Omar is also unashamedly gay. In the course of the show's five seasons, he has had three partners, and unlike many other shows, The Wire never shied away from showing physical affection and intimacy between Omar and his lovers.

Michael K. Williams has received his own kudos for his portrayal of Omar, earning a 2007 NAACP Image award nomination for acting — an award he ironically lost to Isaiah Washington. USA Today even named him as one of the ten reasons they still love television.

At the end of the fourth season in 2006, Omar retired to Puerto Rico with his partner Renaldo. In the explosive fifth and final season currently airing on HBO, the brutal murder of his mentor and confidant, Butchie, brought Omar back to Baltimore in search of vengeance. Then in last Sunday night's episode, Omar died suddenly and shockingly. That a character steeped in so much violence died violently isn't unexpected. What many viewers found shocking was that when his end came, it came in the form of a young boy abruptly shooting him in the head in a convenience store.

We recently sat down with Michael K. Williams to talk about the impact his historic character has had on the gay community, the African-American community, and himself.

AfterElton.com: Omar got offed! What a shock!
Michael K. Williams: Yeah, they killed my dude.

AE: When did you learn he would die?
MKW: When they gave me the script. [laughs] They don't divulge any information to us even, not even as we're filming it. You learn as you read the script.

AE: So you were just as shocked as anyone?
MKW: Yeah. I mean, I may have had some hints. I knew it was gonna be a dark season. They kept saying, "Everybody dies! Everybody dies this year!" But when I actually read the script, it was a little bone chilling for me.

AE: Were you surprised by the way it happened?
MKW: A little bit, but more saddened than anything else. I've got a lot of love for O. It was a little sad. I hate to see him go.

AE: Recently, Omar brutally killed Savino. Then he in turn was gunned down by someone even younger. Do you think David Simon and the writers were trying to make a particular point?
MKW: Oh, they're definitely trying to make a point. The streets have changed, and the youth that are coming up now are more callous. Life has become cheaper as the generations go on in that arena. They definitely wanted to make that clear.

AE: Did it have to end this way for Omar or could there a happy ending in there for him somewhere?
MKW: That's a good question. I'm very close to the character, so in my heart I would have loved to have seen Omar stay in Puerto Rico with Renaldo and live to be a normal man. I would have loved to have seen that. But, you know, let's not be blinded to the fact that Omar lived by a code of revenge, he lived by the sword, and, as they say, you die by the sword. You know what I mean?

AE: There are so few gay characters of color on television and now Omar is dead. Do you think that is unfortunate?
MKW: I think David and the writers knew that Omar had to go, especially if he came back to Baltimore to avenge anybody's death — and especially Butchie's. I think his sexual orientation had nothing to do with that. The fact that he just happened to be the only openly gay African-American on television had nothing to do with it. He just had to go in their eyes.

AE: A lot of viewers are angry over the way Omar dies. They feel cheated somehow, that he should have at least gone out with his boots on. What do you say to those fans so upset by his violent death, especially after they thought Omar had escaped?
MKW: [laughs] Four words: I feel your pain. [laughs] Real simple. I feel your pain. I'm a fan of this character as much as anybody else. I look at the work, I'm totally removed from what's on the screen, and I'm a fan of Omar as much as anybody else. I'm just as angry.

AE: Omar is a fascinating character. He's a ruthless criminal, but he has a strict moral code. Is that part of what drew you to the character or did that come along as the character developed?
MKW: Those characteristics definitely kind of happened as the storyline progressed. In the beginning, Omar was only reoccurring in Season 1 and I was only supposed to have seven episodes and be gone. So I think, with whatever I brought to the table, and the way the fans responded to the writing, plus the performance, it just kind of grew into this phenomenon. I don't think anybody could have foreseen my character being as popular as it is.