“You know gay people f—, right?
“There was lots of touching hair and rubbing lips and things like that.
I felt like if we were going to do this, we should go all in.
Michael K. Williams in ‘The Wire’.Alamy Stock Photo
I think we should just do it.”
Darnall then requested that Williams make their kiss “spontaneous so it looks natural.”
“Twenty years ago, men especially men of color were not kissing on television.
I don’t mean it was rare; I mean itdid not happen.”
The move took Johnson by surprise.
Williams starred as Omar in all five seasons of the HBO show, which ran from 2002 to 2008.
I made Omar my own.
He wasn’t written as a key in, and I wouldn’t play him as one.”
Instead, Williams recalled, he tapped into what he and the character had in common.
“Omar is sensitive and vulnerable and he loves with his heart on his sleeve.
He loves absolutely, fearlessly, with his whole entire being,” he wrote.
“After clicking with that, I understood him completely.”
Scenes From My Life(Crown) is available now.
