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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.