Michael K. Williams Phed for More Gay Intimacy on 'The Wire' - Variety

Contents:

• MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS PHED FOR MORE GAY INTIMACY ON ‘THE WIRE’: ‘YOU KNOW GAY PEOPLE F*CK, RIGHT?’
• MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS PHED FOR MORE TIMATE GAY SCEN FOR OMAR ON THE WIRE: 'WE SHOULD GO ALL '
• HOW THE WIRE'S OMAR STAR FOUGHT FOR GAY REPRENTATN IN THE HBO SHOW
• HOW THE WIRE’S OMAR LTLE CHALLENGED GAY STEREOTYP MEDIA
• OMAR LTLE ON ‘THE WIRE’ WAS ONE OF TV’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO
• OMAR LTLE IS THE GAY STICK-UP MAN WHO ROBS DG ALERS FOR A LIVG THE WIRE
• MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS ON ‘THE WIRE’: I WANTED MORE GAY SCEN FOR OMAR
• MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS WISHED ‘THE WIRE’ WENT ‘ALL IN’ ON OMAR’S INTIMACY: ‘YOU KNOW GAY PEOPLE F—, RIGHT?’

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS PHED FOR MORE GAY INTIMACY ON ‘THE WIRE’: ‘YOU KNOW GAY PEOPLE F*CK, RIGHT?’

The “Lovecraft Country” and “Boardwalk Empire” actor portrayed gay dg aler Omar “The Wire” om 2002 to 2008. “As for Omar’s homosexualy, was groundbreakg 20 years ago, and I adm that at first I was sred to play a gay character, ” Williams penned an excerpt om his memoir “Scen From My Life” -thored wh Jon Sternfeld, via Vulture.

“I thk my ial fear of Omar’s sexualy me om my upbrgg, the muny that raised me, and the stubborn stereotyp of gay characters. Sce Omar was the “oppose of the stereotypil hood typ, ” Williams phed “The Wire” productn to showse all facets of Omar’s life onscreen, cludg his gay relatnships.

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS PHED FOR MORE TIMATE GAY SCEN FOR OMAR ON THE WIRE: 'WE SHOULD GO ALL '

I thk the directors were sred, and I said to one of them, ‘You know gay people fuck, right? Williams phed for more timate gay scen for Omar on The Wire: 'We should go all ' "You know gay people f---, right?

Williams ma wav wh his portrayal of openly gay stickup man Omar Ltle on HBO's grty, Emmy-wng crime drama The Wire.

HOW THE WIRE'S OMAR STAR FOUGHT FOR GAY REPRENTATN IN THE HBO SHOW

I thk the directors were sred, and I said to one of them, 'You know gay people f---, right? In the memoir, the actor, who did not intify as gay, exprsed that he was origally ncerned about portrayg the character. "I thk my ial fear of Omar's sexualy me om my upbrgg, the muny that raised me, and the stubborn stereotyp of gay characters, " he explaed.

Williams tails how he fought for The Wire to feature more scen of gay timacy.

HOW THE WIRE’S OMAR LTLE CHALLENGED GAY STEREOTYP MEDIA

"You know gay people f--k, right? The five-time Emmy nomee wrote that he wasn't so sure about playg a gay man at first bee of the stereotyp that he grew up wh. Oh, and he’s openly TVBefore Omar The Wire, cema and TV had a very rigid ia of what a gay man was.

Cultural juggernt shows of the 90s and early noughti were very specific how they viewed gay men, wh characters high-voiced, loose-limbed and the victim of homophobic jok. It was a sublimally effective way of limg what gayns uld be seen as. That’s not to say the shows and characters were homophobic – they weren’t; they were jt bld to seeg gayns beyond a quirk or a predomant inty tra.

OMAR LTLE ON ‘THE WIRE’ WAS ONE OF TV’S FIRST GAY SUPERHERO

The characters were gay first, everythg else after.

Wh The Wire and Omar, ’s the other way around – he’s a man who happens to be gay. That don’t mean that homosexualy wasn’t important to the character; a bounty on Omar’s head is doubled after crime boss Avon Barksdale learns he’s gay, and the early murr of a boyiend is tegral to how Omar’s storyle velops the first season. Pl Schiraldi For the first time the mastream (havg grown populary sce s release, The Wire quickly beme inic TV) gay men, and particular gay black men, had someone that was actually like them.

He was humoro, hung out wh his boyiend and smoked – the gay dream; everybody’s dream, even.

OMAR LTLE IS THE GAY STICK-UP MAN WHO ROBS DG ALERS FOR A LIVG THE WIRE

It’s a small touch, but an absolutely val one, pecially for young men nfed about their sexualy who would often be unsure as to how they uld be gay when they uldn’t relate to the more mp stereotyp on was larger than life, but offered a new type of character for young gay men to relate to. Gay men aren’t supposed to be vlent, let alone the most feared man all of Baltimore. While gay men were ually the butt of jok when me to their fightg abily, Omar challenged that perceptn, as well as the ia that homosexualy should be a taboo.

Wh a swaggerg ol – drsed a trench at, Kevlar bulletproof vt and do-rag – a ep-voiced drawl and his own theme tune (The Farmer In The Dell), Omar was the clost thg prtige TV had to a gay TVThere’s a grisly moment the first season of The Wire where the body of Omar’s boyiend is found ad the streets. It’s more than implied that the torture is phed to the extreme bee he is gay. Omar is a gay man, proudly and openly, and also a stick-up boy who robs dg alers for a livg.

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS ON ‘THE WIRE’: I WANTED MORE GAY SCEN FOR OMAR

” That’s what was like for me, watchg an unashamed gay man wh no nflicts over his sexualy stt across the screen, stroyg every stereotype built up about homosexualy ont of him. I remember readg articl (that’s what we ed to ll thkpiec, child) the queer prs eagerly applyg that sipid and blandly normalizg phrase “who happens to be gay” to Omar, as if were a prize medal.

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS WISHED ‘THE WIRE’ WENT ‘ALL IN’ ON OMAR’S INTIMACY: ‘YOU KNOW GAY PEOPLE F—, RIGHT?’

In season one, for example, dg-aler Avon Barksdale puts a price on Omar’s head – and upon learng that Omar is gay, promptly doubl . It was that the show never treated the outward signs of gayns as somethg Rickie should be ashamed of, or as thgs the dience should take as symbols for gayns wr-large.