10 Quotes From Michael K. Williams That Had Us Reflecting On Our Existence

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Williams On Deciding to Be Sober

“I have the scars. I’ve stuck my head in the lion’s mouth. Obviously, God saved me for a purpose. So, I decided to get clean and then come clean. I’m hoping I can reach that one person.” – NJ.COM

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Williams on Being Bullied While Feeling Uncertain About His Sexuality

After being molested at a young age, Williams struggled with defining his own sexual orientation. His peers noticed and proceeded to tear him down.

“They had two nicknames for me: Blackie and Faggot Mike. I was very soft, very fragile.” –New York Times

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Williams on Why He Settled in Brooklyn Instead of Los Angeles

“We’ve been taught success means leaving the communities that made us, but this is the only place in the world where I feel free. Trust me, it gets lonely for a man like me in Brentwood, California.” –New York Times

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Williams on Drawing the Line Between Who He Is & Who Omar Was

“Omar was life-changing for me. I went so deep into his psyche that the lines of reality as to who was Michael and who was Omar got blurred. I had low self-esteem. I was, like, Mike is corny! I’m gonna be this Omar dude. It was like that was my Spider-Man suit. Peter Parker was the corny kid in glasses, but he put that Spider-Man suit on, it was on and poppin’.” –New York Times

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The Difference Between Montrose Freeman of Lovecraft Country & Omar Little of The Wire

“Montrose was different. He didn’t have the freedom Omar had or the confidence. He comes from such a broken place. I just had to find my own pain and my own trauma, which was a very painful experience for me. All the generational pain that had been passed down through my own personal experiences, I had to dig deep down in that for Montrose,” Williams says.- People Magazine

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Williams On Portraying a Black Father on Lovecraft Country

I would hope that after watching Lovecraft, people walk away with this understanding of the beauty and necessity of a father-son relationship in the Black community. Black fathers have been ripped away from their sons for so many years, mine included. That was the main thing that attracted me to this to this role was the opportunity to play dad to that amazing Jonathan Majors and for us to explore what father and son bonding looks like and how we can rebuild that and treasure it. There’s an absence of the Black male in our community for a lot of reasons and some of it isn’t our fault but the need is there. It’s a beautiful thing to look at. I hope Montrose will remind us how much little Black boys need their fathers.” –People

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What Williams Wanted White People to Take Away From Lovecraft Country

“I would hope that Black America can look at this and realize we come from greatness and I hope white people look at this and feel anger and pain for what their ancestors did to mine.” – People 

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Williams On Not Being Stereotyped By Hollywood

“I will not allow Hollywood to stereotype or to desensitize my experience growing up in the ’hood. This is my job as an actor, to show the integrity, to show the class, to show the swagger, to show the danger, to show the pain, to show the bad choices. Those things exist in everyone’s community. But no one’s asking those actors if they’re afraid of being typecast.”- Esquire

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Williams On Wanting The Approval From The Central Park Five Regarding His Role in When They See Us

“I have never desired approval for my performance in my entire career the way I required these men’s approval,” he said. “I was so worried. What was going to be the vibe, especially with Antron?”

Of course, he loved it.

“There’s no award accolade that could top the feeling that night at dinner when they gave me the thumbs-up.” –Vanity Fair