Michael K. Williams talks about what drew him to the story and debunks the belief that
The Road is nothing but a complete downer.
Fans of
The Wire will recognize Michael K. Williams, who played Omar, the moral stick-up man, on the HBO series for five seasons. Now he’s showing more of his incredible talent in the small but pivotal role of The Thief in
The Road. Here he talks about what drew him to the story, his love affair with Viggo Mortensen and debunks the belief that
The Road is nothing but a complete downer.
What drew you to you want to do this? What drew me to want to do it was a chance to work with the cast. I’m a huge fan of Viggo, Robert and especially the beautiful Charlize. The story, I read the script, I had no knowledge of Cormac prior to reading the script, and so I took that as a chance to read it with fresh eyes and listen with fresh ears and enjoy a good story, because they’re so few and far apart, that come across my path. It was a great story. It read like a good book, even the script read like a good book and I just enjoyed it. A chance to work with these veterans, I was like a win-win situation.
How much time did you have from reading the script until finally shooting it? Oh, I had some time. I had some time to prepare. John gave me a few months to stop grooming. No more haircuts, none of this shaving, none of that stuff, and I tried to lose a little weight. You know, but when I got to the set and saw how deep in character Viggo was, I just took it to another level. And Cormac gave me a few notes––I mean not me directly but through John. He’s so direct and so easy to work with, an amazing director. Just knows what he wants. He has a great eye, and he communicates really, really well. Doesn’t oversell, say it in three, will not use five, you know what I mean?
Where did they shoot your penultimate scene? They shot my scene––or our scenes––in a place they call “Dreary” Erie. It’s in Pennsylvania. We shot right off the lake. It’s the most beautiful, depressing place you ever seen.
How is the rehearsal process different with this compared to anything else you’ve done on sets somewhere else? We talked. John and I talked, and we had Cormac over the phone and I pretty much came prepared to do what I had to do. It was straightforward. You know I didn’t, with this particular character, I didn’t do any backstory, or think about who this guy was, which I’d normally do. I just pretty much let Cormac’s cue, I took his cue, which is it doesn’t matter who you were, it doesn’t matter what happened, this is the circumstance. It kind of gave me a certain freedom.
Some of the other writers said that after they walked out of the movie, they burst into tears, and this was the first time that’s happened. They were thinking back to your scene. Did you feel that you were the emotional core of the movie? Because you’re where the emotional breakdown starts to happen. Really? No, I didn’t. I felt…I appreciated that scene more for Kodi’s role of Boy. In my mind, that was the first time you saw him become a man. He stood up for what he believed in, and he went against the most important thing in his life, Pappa, for this strange man. They had verbal blows over this homeless guy, this thief. To see him stand up to Papa like that and to defend what he believed was right, that was more pressure on him. I was looking at it more for that than what I was doing.
What do you think that scene says about humanity? You know, I think it says a good thing about humanity, that even in all that despair, you know the light still shines through, which was another thing that I read in the script that pulled me. The Boy’s infatuation with the fire. I loved that, that thing, that’s what breaks my heart. I read that, “Pappa, does he have the fire? Keep the fire, we have to keep the fire, Pappa.” That thing gets to me, that kind of got me started.
You said when you saw Viggo on the set, it pushed you to another level. Can you be more specific about what else you did to prepare once you saw the intensity that he was bringing? You know I don’t know if I can even explain it. It’s more of an energy thing, a vibration. You get in, you connect with everyone that’s on set and you become a piece of something greater than yourself. He and Kodi had been working together on this very intimate, very intense set for months before I got there. So they were a well-oiled machine, so it just surprised and impressed me with Viggo as a human being how he and Kodi were able to cut a piece open for me, and they carved it just right to fit me. All I had to do was just come in and fit in. There was no negativity on any level, even with the content of the story being on guard with everybody you don’t know except for just me and my son. You know, they were in that. It wasn’t acting. They were really in that and to let me in as a stranger to the set and a stranger in character, to make me feel so comfortable that I could take my clothes off and be butt naked in front of a bunch of people on the first day of work, it says a lot about how they made me feel. Just little things. Viggo, he’s a very small person, he takes concrete baby steps, that kinda dude. Nothing’s huge and flashy about him, but if you watch him––well you met him, dude has a charisma, he has a swagger, and I’m a huge fan of his, him being just a great dude.
Did you just drowned in the blue pools of his eyes when you met him? Because, um yeah… I had my own kind of love affair with the man. He’s such a great dude. I can say that he’s a potential friend, you know? We don’t spend much time together––he’s extremely busy––but I know that no matter where I see him on God’s green earth, I’m gonna get a hug and, if time permits, we’re gonna go get a drink, and we’ll kick it for a little bit until next time. And in this business, that’s golden.
Viggo was talking about how on this set there was more of a sense of camaraderie than you’d ordinarily find. Did you notice that at all? Absolutely, absolutely. It was just very intense, small, intimate vibe on the set. It wasn’t this––it was this huge Hollywood production, but you didn’t see none of that, you didn’t feel that, you know the story didn’t call for it, the actors didn’t call for it, the set didn’t call for it. It was just…yeah, yeah. Everybody helped everybody. It was very hands on. It was very family, a community from crew to cast.
If you were in that situation, what would you do? I don’t know if I’d have the strength to carry on. What are you striving to go on for? So that’s why the talk about the fire and the hope, and in all of that despair, you still see signs of humanity. It’s like you can’t kill love. You can’t kill what’s unkillable. But I don’t know, as Mike K. Williams, if I’d have the ability to go on. I don’t know if I’d want to.