Michael Kenneth Williams: Down to The Wire
With the fifth and final season of HBO’S The Wire approaching Michael Kenneth Williams tells Essence.com what’s next
By Cori Murray

The Wire - Michael Kenneth Williams
Credit: WireImage.com

Essence.com: Congrats on The Wire. You ready for the new season to start?

MIchael Kenneth Williams: I'm extremely looking forward to it. This will be our fifth and final season. We'll close out the story. I'm really excited to see where David and Ed are, David Simon and Ed Burns are going to go with it. I'm looking forward to moving on also, although I have fallen in love with the city of Baltimore.

Essence.com: What do you love about Baltimore?

M.K.W.: Oh, God, where do you want me to begin? The city and the culture. I love the food. I love the people. I love the music.

Essence.com: Is there anything you can tell us about the fifth season of The Wire?

M.K.W.: Well, I can tell you that Omar is a man of his word, and he gave his word, and that's going to be very hard to keep with someone like Marlo hot on his heels. I don't know where they going to go with that. I don't know. I'm really interested to see where they're going to go with the mayor, with Carcetti, and how is he going to deal with all these bodies, you know, and they're washing up, and how is the city going to perceive him, and how he deals with this. I'm really interested to see where they're going to go with that.

Essence.com: Now we know you were in I Think I Love My Wife with Chris Rock. What else do you have going on?

M.K.W.: Oh, I got a bunch of stuff. I am in Ben Affleck's directorial debut. It's called, Gone, Baby Gone. It's a murder mystery. I play a detective from Boston and I'm trying to find out who killed the little lady. I had a lot of fun working with that. We got some good company: Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. So, really good company. And he (Ben Affleck) was a blast to work with. Most of my scenes (are) with his brother Casey Affleck, another phenomenal actor (laughs).

Essence.com: You started out as a dancer then Tupac asked you to read for a role in Bullet. Tell us about your transition from dance to film.

M.K.W.: I was a dancer-choreographer. I was actually on tour with Chris, and we were scheduled for a three-week tour to go to Germany and Japan, and that same day I got a call, that Thursday, really that Friday, I got a call that Thursday to stay to shoot a Madonna video, “Secret.” I asked can I stay home and shoot the video and basically it was either come that Friday or miss the tour. So I stayed home and shot the video. And within that time I was home, Tupac had saw my picture and asked if I could come down and read the role of his brother in Bullet, and kind of got the ball rolling.

Williams recently wrapped Ego an independent film co-starring Eve. He will also release a record as his HBO character, Omar, in conjunction with the last season.

What are your predictions for the fifth and final season of The Wire? Share your thoughts below.

RELATED LINKS:

Our behind the scenes sneak preview of The Wire's final season »

What a Year! Our Best & Worst of 2007 »

10 Hottest Celebrity Couples of 2007 »




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-5 latest comments

I was so in awe of The Wire. I watched it from the beginning and never missing an episode, in fact watched each episode at least 10 times in a week :-).......... One of the best shows on television (HBO), I know everything has to end, but I was very upset when it ended, and actually cried when Omar and Prop Joe got it...They weren't the nicest people, but they were what they were and I gave them props for their honesty and doing what they said they were going to do... Even Snoop who for a minute I thought was a young boy, w

-Cathee

Kudo! to the producers of the wire for presenting HBO viewers with such a captativating docudrama as the Wire. It became a part of my sunday routine. It also gave some much needed insight into political corruption at it's finest. I must say the ending dissapointed me, I was expecting more people to be rubbed out and not get away with murder. I felt like prop Joe when he got the visit from Omar "ROBBED".

-just sayin in LA

The "Wire" became a part of my world. I had feelings,empathy and sympathy for the characters. If I did not know any better I would have thought that a camara man followed real people around and got the story. Thank you for giving me something to do and feal every Sunday. This is a terrible break up.

-Frederick M. Boutte

I loved the wire, hated to she the "younging" going to robbing the dope man and dukie becoming a dope addict, I hated to see Omar killed I wanted him to get Marlow. Over all I have enjoyed the series and wished it would have ended a little different. ButI guess it's act imitating life, because in real life most don't make it off the mean streets. SAD!!!!!

-Margie Byrd-Dean

to see dukie go down and mike doing his thing and prop joe having his day it was the most heart breaking thing to see! dukie not seeing his teacher again bubbles going up stairs and eating dinner marlow not hanging with the lawyer and taking it back to the street !!! a hell of a lot better than the soprano's!!

-gloria in milwaukee