{"id":4969,"date":"2021-09-10T00:56:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T04:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=4969"},"modified":"2021-09-10T02:51:45","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T06:51:45","slug":"remembering-michael-k-williams-qa-the-wire-boardwalk-empire-12-years-a-slave-and-his-non-profit-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=4969","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Michael K. Williams : Q&A \/ The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, 12 Years a Slave and His Non-Profit Organization"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

We all shocked to learn about the untimely death of Michael Kenneth Williams, an actor known for his roles in The Wire<\/em><\/strong>, Boardwalk Empire<\/em><\/strong> and Lovecraft Country<\/em><\/strong>, has died last Monday, He was only 54. But we also remembered his magnificent performance throughout his career. So I decided to look for my Q&A coverage of Michael which was conducted by Hudson Union Society event \u00a0in 2016, to remember his legacy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Actor Michael Williams Talks About HBO’s The Wire.<\/b><\/p>\n

Q: Can you tell us why is \u201cThe Wire<\/strong>\u201d considered to be the best television show of all time?<\/p>\n

MKW: I think it\u2019s honesty. And then it wasn\u2019t trying to sensationalize anything. David(Simon=Creator) told a story about a glitch, something that was wrong in the system and it just happened to be at his home in Baltimore, But it was never about glamorizing or trying to tantalize people with sensations. It was telling an honest true story about what was going wrong with our country. And I think that\u2019s what resonated mostly with people. It wasn\u2019t a black story, it wasn\u2019t a white story, it was an American story about our cities and the breakdown in our social system.<\/p>\n

His Character Omar.<\/b><\/p>\n

Q: President Obama says it\u2019s one of the most fascinating characters of all time on television and his favorite character. Tell us about this character. He\u2019s incredible: he\u2019s an honest person, he\u2019s almost like a Robin Hood, and on top of that it brought in a new type of character that\u2019s a Robin Hood that\u2019s a drug dealer that\u2019s gay, and he does great and gives to certain elements that he robs from. He gives to other elements that need it in this really, really hostile environment. Tell us about this character. It\u2019s one of the most intriguing characters ever written for television.<\/p>\n

MKW: Omar was not a drug dealer.<\/p>\n

Q: You\u2019re right. Omar stole from the drug dealers.<\/p>\n

MKW: I think what President Obama was attracted to was not his lifestyle. It was the fact that you could set your clock by his lifestyle. He had a code, a moral code, whether you agreed or disagreed with it. There were certain things that he would not do because he did not believe in that and good, bad, indifferent, ugly, however the saying goes, that was who he was. He didn\u2019t apologize for who he was. He was honest and transparent.<\/p>\n

His Favorite Episode<\/b><\/p>\n

Q: What is your favorite episode, because there are so many amazing episodes you\u2019re in. There must be something that stands out, and why?<\/p>\n

MKW: My favorite episode was actually the one I hated the most, which was the day that Omar had to kill his friend. I hated that. I hated that for a number of reasons. One is I hated the fact that I didn\u2019t want these two dark-skinned kings — and I hated that image I had been battling with my whole life \u2013 perpetuating the problem with my art. What am I telling the kids? That it\u2019s okay to kill people that look like you? That hurt. I had a really hard time with that.<\/p>\n

And then I had to deal with the fact that I\u2019m losing a co-worker. Idris is my brother, we still kickin\u2019 when we get a chance to now and then. So it was a lot of different emotions, and this is all new to me as a thespian coming to this business.<\/p>\n

This is a part of the industry I had never seen before, and it was hard. I remember being so against the whole scene that the day we were called to shoot it, I was brought to tears. I was nervous, I was shaking. This was a very new space for me and I just did not know how to deal with the emotions of having to go to a place where I have to kill someone that in my real life I care about. I have to make that real. I can\u2019t fake that. So I have to really now turn on this energy and go there. And it was just one of the most ugly scenes I ever felt bad for that I ever did.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

His Death Scene<\/b><\/p>\n

Q: One of the most powerful scenes in all The Wire i<\/strong>s in the fifth season when you are in a grocery store and all these different characters \u2013 drug dealers \u2013 are trying to assassinate you. And the one person that ends up killing you is this young kid who looks like he\u2019s younger than ten years old just comes up behind you point-blank. And it\u2019s just such a powerful scene. When did David let you see that script in advance? Because when you see that on screen, it was just unbelievable.<\/p>\n

MKW: David didn\u2019t let you see shit in advance.<\/p>\n

Q: So it was basically like \u201cThe Sopranos<\/strong>\u201d, all surprises.<\/p>\n

MKW: You got it when it came off the presses. I remember that one of the first times that I was on set and I was called to rehearsal, it was in the projects. I was being walked back to the base camp and I saw this kid. It was a school day, at a school time, school hours, and this kid was, to my knowledge, visibly someone who should have been in school when he was out in the courtyards. And he was dangling this bag and it had all these pills in it. I remember looking at him, \u201cWow, those props \u2013 that kid is ready. Those props look real.\u201d And she(production Assistant) said \u201cWe don\u2019t know him.\u201d And that\u2019s when I knew what was happening in the streets of Baltimore.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve met this one young man during my time in Baltimore, maybe sixteen years old, and at this time he was already responsible for maybe thirty bodies. So when you see the Baltimore riots over our kids, those children out there revolted, and so when I say that, I mean the passion of the youth in Baltimore is paramount. Those kids, the young people in the streets of Baltimore are very passionate, very artistic, very outspoken. There\u2019s a lot of fire in the blood. We don\u2019t have a lot of misdirected anger.<\/p>\n

So the way that assignment had Omar go out, it wasn\u2019t about Omar. It was about the future generation. To me, it was not about Omar — it was about, we don\u2019t need any more Omars. We need to stop letting our kids down in the streets. It\u2019s like the same thing in African where those kids have been recruited to be soldiers. To me that\u2019s what Omar\u2019s death spoke to. Omar was dead the minute he left Puerto Rico. You know here he was dead, you knew he was not coming back.<\/p>\n

So it was not about everybody wanted to see two black men, Omar and Marlo [Jamie Hector] — it wasn\u2019t about seeing two black men kill each other in the street, it wasn\u2019t about any of that sensationalism. That\u2019s what David did not do. He did not give you what you wanted to see, he gave you what you needed to see.<\/p>\n

What you didn\u2019t see was that at the end of the day, \u201cThe Wire<\/strong>\u201d was edutainment. It was, \u201cYeah, everybody enjoyed these characters, but we don\u2019t need any more of these characters.\u201d These characters are based on real people and real lives. A lot of men and women died on those streets of Baltimore so that we could tell these stories, so we could become actors or have careers, and I don\u2019t take that lightly. That\u2019s just my thing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

K<\/strong>illing the Hope<\/b><\/p>\n

Q: One of the things I found incredible when you talk about the educational value of Omar being whacked. Any time something happened it would really cause a discourse. People would start talking about it, the press would start talking about it. It was so shocking and it was so powerful that a child could do this. Same exact thing with Marlo: just the amount of what he\u2019s doing with the bodies and stuff every time, every season, and you thought you couldn\u2019t be shocked anymore. And it wasn\u2019t shocking glorification.<\/p>\n

MKW: It wasn\u2019t about who died, it was about what they were trying to do when they got killed off. What David did \u2013 this may be his one little guilty pleasure to like sensationalize, but he tortured people with this \u2013 I believe he killed the hope. Every time a character was getting ready or trying to come out of the hood or tried to make a change, or revolting against the street system, they would take him out.<\/p>\n

Q: Look at Stringer Bell in the first season, a perfect example. It\u2019s the season that he gets murdered \u2013 Season Three.<\/p>\n

MKW: Did you watch \u201cThe Wire<\/strong>\u201d?<\/p>\n

Q: I sure watched \u201cThe Wire.\u201d I loved \u201cThe Wire.\u201d I\u2019ve watched it multiple times. No, when [Bell] is assassinated by Nick.\u00a0 A story with [someone] like Stringer Bell is a perfect story. He\u2019s basically educating himself, he\u2019s going to school for an MBA, he\u2019s taking [his] and Avon\u2019s money and reinvesting it in legitimate enterprises which are impressive. He\u2019s looking for the return on investment and all types of stuff. And then he ends up getting killed \u2013 like you said: the dream, the hope. There is no hope in the \u2018hood.<\/p>\n

MKW: It\u2019s not the fact that there is no hope in the \u2018hood. It\u2019s the fact that that\u2019s the work that you can put in the hood, is hope. Unfortunately, what we\u2019re most afraid of is hope — expectation and having it get your heart broken, or having things dangled in front of you and then taken away. It hurts. So sometimes hope is the worst thing . . . it\u2019s like a false thing, this false hope. This false thing you believe in. Instead of putting real, tangible situations, opportunities, programs, into the communities. Don\u2019t come with your hope, that\u2019s the worst thing you can do. So that\u2019s why I believe David Simon killed the hope.<\/p>\n

Q: People don\u2019t want to be hurt anymore.<\/p>\n

MKW: No! I know I don\u2019t. Speaking for myself as a man coming from an underdeveloped community, it hurts to dare to dream. The trick is not making it out the hood; the trick is being welcomed back.<\/p>\n

Fighting to Keep the Show Alive<\/b><\/p>\n

Q: What is the backstory of why HBO picked up this incredible show, \u201cThe Wire<\/strong>\u201d?<\/p>\n

MKW: I couldn\u2019t answer that. I really couldn\u2019t answer that. I could tell you that we fought for every renewal of the season. It was never like \u201cOh wow, we have an agreement for next season.\u201d It was always like \u201cWill it get picked up? Are they going to raise our budget, give us a raise?\u201d We had to fight for every season. So I couldn\u2019t tell you why they decided to pick the show up in the first place, but we prayed and fought for every season that we got.<\/p>\n

Q: But why would you have to fight for every season? The quality of this, it hits you from that first episode to the last episode. It hits you in the heart, like a truck going full speed at you. The quality! Why would you guys have to fight for it?<\/p>\n

MKW: Well, HBO, like every other station or studio in this business is a business, and they\u2019re in the business of selling entertainment. You have to adhere to what\u2019s happening out there, and \u201cThe Wire\u201d was the first of its kind. \u201cThe Wire\u201d was the first time I heard two phrases: \u201cedutainment\u201d and \u201cbinge-watching television\u201d. It was the first time we\u2019d ever seen anything like this, and it was \u201cwill it sell?\u201d They had a deadline and the numbers to adhere to.<\/p>\n

Q: But by the fifth season, the popularity among the critics almost universal, and audiences were really, really tuned in. Why did it stop at the end of five seasons? Because for all of us, we could have had this go on for eternity. Did David Simon want it to end?<\/p>\n

MKW: I have to disagree with you. Yeah, the critics were giving us great reviews, but \u201cThe Wire<\/strong>\u201d had a nickname: it was \u201cthe greatest show on television that no one was watching\u201d. The show didn\u2019t get successful until it went off the air.<\/p>\n

Q: That fifth season \u2013 it wasn\u2019t because David figured that this was the arc, it should end here, or it was HBO deciding they didn\u2019t want to go further anymore?<\/p>\n

MKW: Again, I can\u2019t swear to this, but I think that David had known from the beginning that it was a five-year plan. I heard him say many times \u2013 people often ask him \u201cCome on, please give us a sixth season\u201d and he would say \u201cYou want a sixth season? Watch the fifth season\u201d. That was it. He\u2019d told his story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Getting Involved with Boardwalk Empire<\/b><\/p>\n

Q: How did you get involved with Boardwalk Empire<\/strong>? Was it Martin Scorsese?<\/p>\n

MKW: Marty loves me.<\/p>\n

Q: That\u2019s what I figured. How did the transition happen?<\/p>\n

MKW: I was in Cape Town with Neve Campbell and James Purefoy, my BFF from \u201cHap & Leonard<\/strong>.\u201d We were in Cape Town from the TV show for NBC. And not to sound too hocus pocus, but I really believe in following your heart. I was down there in the show and making a shitload of money, and I was really being very disrespectful with myself and my instrument, reckless with my life. And I woke up one day and I said \u201cYou know, Mike, if this show gets picked up for a second season and you continue like this, you\u2019re probably going to die out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I spoke to my Higher Power and I said \u201cI think this job is not for me.\u201d And I wrestled with that notion, because there are a lot of black actors in America that wish they had this job. I guess I\u2019ll just suck it up and be a man and just be grateful that I got this job. But in my heart, I was like, But Mike, this is not for you. So I prayed, \u201cGod, give me a sign. If I\u2019m supposed to stay here, give me a sign, and I\u2019m going to man up and I\u2019m going to do this job. If You think this ain\u2019t right for me, give me a sign in the mouth.\u201d That same week I got the call from \u201cBoardwalk Empire<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: You got the call from Marty?<\/p>\n

MKW: I didn\u2019t get the call directly from Marty. His assistant called me. I got the call to put myself on tape and my first thought was Okay, this must be the sign I prayed for. Then I thought it was too good to be true. So I said, Right. Marty\u2019s gonna cast me from my tape, halfway around the world.\u201d My agent said \u201cWell, Mike, if you don\u2019t at least put your name in the hat, you don\u2019t get the chance. At least go for it.\u201d And with that word \u201chope\u201d, that ugly word, here we go. So I put myself on tape and sent it in from Cape Town, South Africa, and they cast me.<\/p>\n

A Character Chalky White<\/b><\/p>\n

Q: You see these scripts but you take the character off the page and you make them your own. Because when you watch Chalky White on the screen, it almost feels like you\u2019re making him so authentic, so real, that what you\u2019re watching almost feels historic. Was Chalky White based on a true-life person?<\/p>\n

MKW: First, thank you. Yeah, Chalky was scary for me. When you read them on paper, there were remnants, you could see where okay, it feels like Omar, he could have been like maybe grandfather.<\/p>\n

Q: But both of them are interesting. They have a code, Chalky dresses impeccably, in suits, everything.<\/p>\n

MKW: Well, they\u2019re definitely cut from a similar cloth. I got intimidated because I really did not want to have these two men feel alike. I wanted to make them as separated as possible. With Omar, I had my childhood and people that I\u2019ve seen come up in Brooklyn and East Flatbush to mimic after, and I didn\u2019t have that per se for Chalky. It was a different era, so I had to dig deeper.<\/p>\n

I decided to go to five men in my family, who were all deceased, who all lived in Chalky\u2019s era \u2013 were born in Chalky\u2019s era. My first was my father, my second was his brother, my Uncle Jay. The third was my uncle, my mother\u2019s brother, and then the fourth was my godfather, Julian. And the last was my Uncle Tommy, my father\u2019s brother. I picked different characteristics and ways and personality traits that I remembered about them as a kid.<\/p>\n

I used the scripts of Boardwalk and Chalky\u2019s experience as a window to see what they went through and what made them the men that they were at the time in my life when I was a child looking up at them, like in awe of these men. That\u2019s pretty much how I created Chalky.<\/p>\n

He wore his clothes like my father did. When he was with his kids, he reminded me of Uncle Jay, when I would sit on my uncle\u2019s lap and he was always scratching his beard. [Chalky] was kindof sarcastic, kindof coy \u2013 that was my Uncle Tommy. When [Chalky] murdered you and you pissed him off and he was ready to kill you, that was Uncle Parr. And that snarl and the way he walked \u2013 that was my godfather. The only thing missing was the gold teeth.<\/p>\n

Some Hard Scenes to Film<\/b><\/p>\n

Q: Were some of those episodes tough to do? Because it really goes over the issue of racism during that time, it really hits it head-on. Steve Buscemi\u2019s character really has an appreciation of you. He doesn\u2019t even want to do the club initially with you. With some episodes, even though they are fictional, they are based on a true time. Was it difficult to do?<\/p>\n

MKW: I would say that the scenes with the KKK were definitely some of the most difficult to do. That scene, \u201cThat is my daddy tools\u201d, that scene is like I time-traveled. It was very ancestral. It was real intense. We shot that scene in Harlem, of all places, in church. And to see those white hoods — I didn\u2019t even want to come on the set until they were ready for me. I stayed in my trailer. Because it is intense when you\u2019re saying those words in this mindframe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Making Kids Win<\/a>, A non-profit organization that he established.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Q: Talk about Making Kids Win \u2013 it\u2019s fascinating.<\/p>\n

MKW: Let me tell you how the whole thing got started. Professor Ogletree was the first one, to my knowledge, started the whole Wire 101 class at Harvard, and he decided to bring a few of the cast mates down to Boston. That turned into this whole thing: I\u2019ve been honored at Harvard, I\u2019ve sat on symposiums with like Skip Gates and the likes of these men. Me \u2013 eighth grader from Brooklyn, I\u2019m sitting at Harvard University, it\u2019s like wow!.<\/p>\n

And this went on for a few years. And this semester when he started the class he\u2019d bring us back down. Two or three years, this went on. Then the third year, he\u2019s like \u201cSo Michael, when are you going to start your nonprofit?\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cI guess you want me to start a nonprofit.\u201d He goes, \u201cNow you got it.\u201d I kept running from the idea. He was constantly calling me, he\u2019d call me and call me and badger me about this nonprofit. He had a vision about me with this nonprofit.<\/p>\n

One day he called \u2013 I call these three ladies the Ghoul Squad, these three young black women. They were all students, and they sat me down and they got me in a room and they said \u201cWhat is your problem? Tree told us that he big told you. What are you waiting on?\u201d And they kept poking away. And literally \u2013 I\u2019m not ashamed to say that \u2013 they made me cry. I\u2019m like [yells:] \u201cI\u2019m not smart enough!! I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing! I don\u2019t know how to spell nonprofit!\u201d<\/p>\n

And they were like, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to know what you\u2019re doing. You just have to be passionate.\u201d They said \u201cWhat would you like to change about your community?\u201d I said \u201cMan, I want to give the kids a chance. I\u2019m tired of hearing these stories about kids getting turned out in the streets or whatever have you.\u201d I said \u201cIn my opinion, there is no after school situation for these kids.\u201d I see them in Jersey, I see them in Baltimore, I\u2019m moving around, the work has got me moving from state to state. I\u2019m seeing what Dave was talking about. There\u2019s a Wire in every city. This is not a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it was always these kids after school on their way home. I call this the gray area and that\u2019s where the trouble was mostly happening. I said \u201cLet\u2019s create an area til Mommy Daddy gets home, til Mom gets home to be with the kids. They can go somewhere where the kids can be safe after school.\u201d Because I was a [latchkey] kid. But I had to fit my mother. I didn\u2019t want to get punched in the face, so I made sure I was home at 3 o\u2019clock to get her call when she made sure I was home. But that\u2019s not the case anymore. So I wanted to create a situation with kids can be safe and be free. And that means all kids, even gang kids, but no violence. My only rules for this would be no violence, no drugs, and no video games. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Working on 12 Years a Slave<\/b><\/p>\n

Q: Another really great film, and it goes back to my question with \u201cBoardwalk Empire\u201d, the difficulty of certain roles. 12 Years a Slave,<\/strong> an unbelievable movie \u2013 what did you do when you returned to your trailer or hotel, did you have a therapist? Anybody who went through that, it\u2019s a tough experience. How did you actually do it?<\/p>\n

MKW: I didn\u2019t realize what I had done, what that movie was, until I went to the premiere. And I realized, Okay, I got the full thing of what I was a part of. I can\u2019t really explain the experience that I had on the set. There was one scene we did that didn\u2019t make it into the movie. Steve shoots in series sometimes \u2013 shooting without cutting, in, in, in.<\/p>\n

We had shot this scene where I was being dragged to the boat and then they got me. My character was like the Nat Turner of the crew so he was banging out with them, and they beat the shit out of him and threw him down the hole. So we did this like four or five times, and the fifth time, he cut, and I couldn\u2019t stop screaming and crying. I went into this ball, and I just cried, and I screamed. I looked up and the clouds were moving in like time-lapse speed. It was the most surreal thing \u2013 at least, in my mind it was. If I was a betting man, I would think that ancestors came and gave me a glimpse into what really went down, what was really endured. And it broke me down.<\/p>\n

Q: Were you surprised when it went on to win the Academy Award\u2122 for Best Picture?<\/p>\n

MKW: I felt proud. One of the few times I sat home and watched the Oscars, and I just felt proud to be a part of that. I just hope that the ancestors smiled because we had told their story.<\/p>\n

But in the end, it\u2019s not about how can I endure this, it\u2019s about how could our ancestors have endured this? And I have to tell their story.<\/p>\n

Diversity in Hollywood (<\/b>Q&A is from 2016, it predates #MeToo, advancements in diversity, so it might be rather redundant now)<\/p>\n

Q: Why are there so few African American movies made?<\/p>\n

MKW: I don\u2019t want to make this like a black thing. There should be more black movies, more Hispanic movies, more Asian movies. I want to know about different cultures in the world, not just black and white.<\/p>\n

So when we talk about this diversity in Hollywood, it\u2019s not just the black thing. This business of fine line, with crossing \u2013 I just think diversity means all<\/i> colors.<\/p>\n

Q: But why do you think there is still such a lack off diversity in Hollywood of stuff being made?<\/p>\n

MKW: When I get in that board room, I\u2019m going \u2013 we\u2019ve got to get in the rooms where the checks are being cut, where the decisions are being made.<\/p>\n

We have to start creating our own studios, like Tyler Perry. We need a Hispanic studio, and Asian studio. But at the end of the day, after having recognized where I think the problem lies, I\u2019m really grateful. I\u2019ve come to the point where I realize I\u2019m a middle-aged man, I know I\u2019m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, I\u2019m very blessed. And for me to be able to say it as a dark-skinned black man in America, that I pay my bills in Hollywood, I realize that I\u2019m a part of a very, very small club. Very small.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m grateful. I just stay focused on the work, so I don\u2019t put my heart out there looking for something to validate me that I don\u2019t need. I stay detached from the awards. If they gave me an Oscar, I\u2019d take it. I would gladly take it and I would have my speech ready. But I stay focused on the work, I chase good writing. I\u2019m a sucker for good writing and good quality actors, and I\u2019ve been really blessed to be around some of the most talented people. I\u2019m growing, I\u2019m learning, and I stay focused on that. At the end of the day, I suggest everybody else do the same.<\/p>\n

About the Oscars (<\/b>Q&A is from 2016, it was conducted before Spike Lee got nomination for the best director for the Oscar in \u201cBlackkklansman<\/strong>\u201d)<\/p>\n

Q: What do you think about Spike not being nominated for an Oscar?<\/p>\n

MKW: I heard Spike Lee one day in an interview. He was talking about this whole thing with the Oscars. I believe we do ourselves a disservice when we focus our energy on an award or a statue when the real problem is in those boardrooms where the decisions are being made as to how the money is being divided, as to the quota of whatever ethnic projects are coming into the studios. I think that\u2019s where the problem is. We\u2019re watching an awards show and thinking that that\u2019s what\u2019s going to change what\u2019s wrong in Hollywood. You have to go into Hollywood and get at this core: all of this is dollars and cents. How is the money divided, who is in the boardrooms, who is in the greenrooms, who is making those decisions? That\u2019s where we need to have diversity that will trickle down to the awards shows. Because the awards shows will tell you \u201cThere\u2019s no black movies. There\u2019s no Asian movies. There\u2019s no Hispanic movies.\u201d And they\u2019re right \u2013 there are none. And it\u2019s not because there are people walking around with Hispanic stories or Asian stories or African American stories. There\u2019s a ton of African American stories. And writers and scripts about the Black Movement, the Native American movement, the Hispanic movement, the Asian movement. They\u2019re just not being made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all shocked to learn about the untimely death of Michael Kenneth Williams, an actor known for his roles in The Wire, Boardwalk Empire and Lovecraft Country, has died last Monday, He was only 54. But we also remembered his magnificent performance throughout his career. So I decided to look for my Q&A coverage of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[3987,3947,3992,3994,3990,3991,243,2296,1612,3993,3989,3988,3942],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRemembering Michael K. Williams : Q&A \/ The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, 12 Years a Slave and His Non-Profit Organization | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=4969\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Remembering Michael K. Williams : Q&A \/ The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, 12 Years a Slave and His Non-Profit Organization | Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We all shocked to learn about the untimely death of Michael Kenneth Williams, an actor known for his roles in The Wire, Boardwalk Empire and Lovecraft Country, has died last Monday, He was only 54. But we also remembered his magnificent performance throughout his career. 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