The best acting lesson Michael K Williams ever received

Late actor took an unconventional approach to getting into character as Omar in ‘The Wire’

Michael K Williams is best known for playing the gay, shotgun-toting stick-up man Omar Little inThe Wire – but his preparation for the role was quite unusual.

The late actor, who was found dead at his New York apartment on Monday (6 September) aged 54, was cast in the Baltimore-set crime drama 20 years ago.

On the show’s first day of filming, when a prop person gave Williams his character’s signature shotgun, the star is said to have stared at it with utter bewilderment.

“He didn’t know which end was which,” David Simon, the creator and showrunner of The Wire, told The New York Times in 2017. “Mike is a beautiful man, but a gangster he is not.”

According to the publication, later that week, Williams left the set and returned home to East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and enlisted a local drug dealer to show him the ropes. Standing on the roof of the Vanderveer Estates, the man demonstrated how firearms work by “spraying a hail of pellets into a steel door”.

“Best acting lesson I ever had,” Williams said.

Michael K Willians as Omar Little in ‘The Wire’ (Paul Schiraldi Photography)

Barack Obama once named Omar Little as his favourite character in The Wire, his favourite show. “That’s not an endorsement,” the then-presidential candidate added. “He’s not my favourite person but he’s a fascinating character.”

Williams was twice nominated for the NAACP’s Image awards for his role, which he played from 2002 to 2008.

Celebrities, the actor’s co-stars in The Wire and his fans have flooded social media with memories of and tributes to Williams. Find out how the beloved performer got his distinctive facial scar here.