Lunch With Omar In Our Cafeteria
He sure turned heads, too. The Wire’s (and Boardwalk Empire’s and Community’s) Michael Kenneth Williams grabbed a quick meal with GQ’s Mark Anthony Green to talk about being funny, getting a shoutout from Obama and keeping that scar. Click here for the full read. A small sample below:
GQ: After working on The Wire for two seasons, you were evicted from your apartment. What happened?
Michael Kenneth Williams: When I booked The Wire, I was in a very dark place. I was searching for a way out, period. And I didn’t know what my next move was going to be. I had left the [acting] business, and I was working at my mother’s daycare in Flatbush. It was a point where I didn’t care about much and that was my state of mind when I went in to read for Omar. When I got the part, it took the focus off myself and my personal problems. With that came a lot of irresponsible behavior, especially financially speaking. I had a lot of time on my hands and wasn’t working as much in the second season, so I started getting into some reckless behavior. Lots of partying and a little too much spending money and at the end of season two, I had to put my shit in storage and move out. But one thing I didn’t do was give up my apartment in Brooklyn, so at the end of season two all my shit was in storage in Baltimore and I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the projects of Brooklyn. And that hurt.GQ: You were 25, right when the incident…
The fight.GQ: Yes, the fight, that left you with that infamous scar. Did you have plastic surgery?
Yes I did. But not to remove it, just so I wouldn’t keloid.GQ: So could they have removed the scar permanently?
I never asked that question, really. When it first happened, I had to maneuver some things to be eligible for a plastic surgeon. I didn’t have health insurance at the time. So he just stitched me up. That was my main concern.GQ: If you could have it removed today, would you?
No.
A Friday Video Gift From Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs
Here’s a frisky behind-the-scenes video of our “pin-up” photo shoot with the two Community ladies from our August 2011 special Comedy issue. You’re welcome.
So…This Photoshoot Happened
Daniel Riley talks to Community actresses Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs:
They spend a lot of time together, these two, making their scrappy, genre-warping sitcom, “Community,” posing for instantly viral almost-make-out TwitPics, and hanging off-set with their lace-tight castmates. What we’re saying—as if the photo isn’t evidence enough—is there’s sugar between these two, they’re a team. “With a shoot like this,” Alison Brie (left) says, “you’re negotiating these positions together: ‘Can you move your crotch a little to the left? Really get it up there.’ “
“The next day we were texting each other,” Gillian Jacobs adds. ‘Are you sore, too?’
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![Lunch With Omar In Our Cafeteria
He sure turned heads, too. The Wire’s (and Boardwalk Empire’s and Community’s) Michael Kenneth Williams grabbed a quick meal with GQ’s Mark Anthony Green to talk about being funny, getting a shoutout from Obama and keeping that scar. Click here for the full read. A small sample below:
GQ: After working on The Wire for two seasons, you were evicted from your apartment. What happened? Michael Kenneth Williams: When I booked The Wire, I was in a very dark place. I was searching for a way out, period. And I didn’t know what my next move was going to be. I had left the [acting] business, and I was working at my mother’s daycare in Flatbush. It was a point where I didn’t care about much and that was my state of mind when I went in to read for Omar. When I got the part, it took the focus off myself and my personal problems. With that came a lot of irresponsible behavior, especially financially speaking. I had a lot of time on my hands and wasn’t working as much in the second season, so I started getting into some reckless behavior. Lots of partying and a little too much spending money and at the end of season two, I had to put my shit in storage and move out. But one thing I didn’t do was give up my apartment in Brooklyn, so at the end of season two all my shit was in storage in Baltimore and I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the projects of Brooklyn. And that hurt.
GQ: You were 25, right when the incident… The fight.
GQ: Yes, the fight, that left you with that infamous scar. Did you have plastic surgery? Yes I did. But not to remove it, just so I wouldn’t keloid.
GQ: So could they have removed the scar permanently? I never asked that question, really. When it first happened, I had to maneuver some things to be eligible for a plastic surgeon. I didn’t have health insurance at the time. So he just stitched me up. That was my main concern.
GQ: If you could have it removed today, would you? No.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lslhrcJjFb1qe6vsbo1_500.jpg)
