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"\n\nMichael Kenneth Williams is the self-described \"cool-ass dude\" behind two of the most beloved criminals ever on television, The Wire's Omar and Boardwalk Empire's Chalky White. And recently, the Brooklyn native added comedian and fashion designer to his resum\u00E9. Williams swung by our cafeteria in the Cond\u00E9 Nast building to give us some insight into his journey, his acting heroes, and whether he'd renew President Obama for another season.\n\nGQ: You were hilarious on Community. What was that experience like?\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: Community was awesome. Those dudes are crazy. I tell people all of the time, Joel McHale, Chevy Chase, and Donald Glover need meds. They're straight crazy. And I love them. They were very nurturing with me. Danny, the writer, gave me a platform to come in and do what I do. Right now, I play a biology professor who gets his degree in prison, so he's a little intense. It's been a really good experience. Any chance I can get to laugh at myself, I'll take it.\n\nGQ: In 2009, you said you weren't afraid of being typecast. Do you have the same feeling?\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: I don't believe in typecasting. I'm not afraid of typecasting, I'm afraid of not eating. My goal as an actor, as an up-and-coming actor in this business is to stay consistent with the work, you know, and if you do good work, and stay focused on the work, writers and directors will pay attention. Writers will see your work and want to try you in different things but I think you have to stay true to your vehicle. We all have a vehicle. Whether it's a thug, or a school child or the babyface or the sex siren or the video vin, whatever it is ride that until the wheels fall off and eventually, if you build your foundation then you can branch off. I use De Niro as an example. At the beginning of his career when he was doing those thugged-out movies\u2014The Godfather Part II, then Goodfellas and Casino\u2014I guarantee you he wasn't thinking about doing no Meet the Fockers. What he did was build his foundation, his catalogue and then in time he was able to branch out.\n\nGQ: After working on The Wire for two seasons, you were evicted from your apartment. What happened? \n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: When I booked The Wire, I was in a very dark place. \u00A0I 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.\n\nGQ: You were 25, right when the incident...\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: The fight.\n\nGQ: Yes, the fight, that left you with that infamous scar. Did you have plastic surgery?\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: Yes I did. But not to remove it, just so I wouldn't keloid.\n\nGQ: So could they have removed the scar permanently?\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: 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.\n\nGQ: If you could have it removed today, would you? \n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: No.\n\nGQ: Why not?\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: It's a part of me. I have embraced it already. And it's a reminder or how reckless I can be. I was in a bar and entertained something I probably would have ignored had I been sober. I got what I was looking for.\n\nGQ: You're first two most well known characters, Omar from The Wire and now Chalky from Boardwalk Empire, have some similarities. Both are guys who do bad things, yet, viewers consistently pull for them. Do you think you, yourself, are like this?\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: Absolutely. I am the epitome of the underdog. By societies standards I should have been dead a long time ago, and I was nobody's gangster, I wasn't a thug, I wasn't selling drugs on the corner\u2014I was scared of that. The streets would have chewed me up and spit me out and I knew that, but I found my own ways and different knacks for getting in trouble and being reckless with my life. And I've overcome a lot of personal demons and to be alive today is really my greatest achievement.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nGQ: Tupac Shakur discovered you. What was your friendship like?\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: It's so funny that you asked that because when I woke up this morning I was in a Tupac state of mind. I just woke up and put on Me Against the World. I often wonder what he would have thought of me now knowing that he put me in the water. He saw me first. When I was around him I was in awe. He was larger than life and I was like a kid around him. I said very little and I listened to everything he said. I just couldn't believe I was in the presence of Tupac. My main goal, starting out as a young actor, was to carry the reins that Pac left off and to reach the depths as an actor that I know he would have reached had he still been here with us.\n\nGQ: President Obama once said that Omar was his favorite character on television. How do you feel about the President's performance so far? Would you support him in a second season?\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: I'm a huge supporter of Obama. I don't dabble in politics too much. \u00A0I'm really ignorant to the world of politics. I'm not that smart, I'm not that cunning, it's just too much smoke and mirrors for me. I just don't want to play that game.\n\nGQ: More than acting?\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: Way more than acting!\n\nGQ: You often talking about studying your craft. Who are some of the actors that you look up to? \n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: I look up to a lot of people. Samuel Jackson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Sean Penn, Edie Falco, my sister Angela Bassett, but you know I'd say on the top of my list\u2014Lawrence Fishburne. I've always admired his stuff.\n\nGQ: We heard you're starting a clothing line. True?\n\n Michael Kenneth Williams: Yeah! it speaks to my eye and style, you know it's like, I don't consider myself a person of fashion because it's too sophisticated. My thing is I look at style like swagger. I like things that pull me, that I gravitate to. It could be like three seasons ago and if I like it I like it, you know? So my line speaks to that. It's about a spirit, a vibration, and my partner Rob Walker came to me with the T-shirt that read, \"Just A Dude from Brooklyn,\" which is the name of the company. Matt Mahern, the director of my second film, is helping a lot with the graphics. There is a lot of history between us and Matt Mahern. We made beautiful music back in '95 with Mug Shot and I know we are going to do it again with this line."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/michael-kenneth-williams-boardwalk-empire-wire-community-interview>