Michael K. Williams Used to Make Idris Elba Nervous on ‘The Wire’
Actor Idris Elba got his breakthrough role by starring in the hit television series The Wire. But Elba was surrounded by a cast of other talented performers, with one in particular making him nervous.
Idris Elba found this actor incredible to work with
Although Elba looked back at his time on The Wire fondly, he confided that he never revisited the show. This was partially due to the fact that, similar to many actors, Elba wasn’t keen on watching his own performances.
“In truth, to this day, I’ve never really watched The Wire,” Elba once told Sports Illustrated. “I haven’t seen it–I’m not very good at watching myself. But I’m always really touched when people talk about the performance and, essentially, the whole show.”
However, he wouldn’t have minded rewatching The Wire for the sake of one actor’s performance. The critically acclaimed series saw Elba’s crime lord Stringer Bell at odds with Omar Little, who was played by Michael K. Williams. Elba had such a high regard for Williams’ acting abilities, that at times Williams left him feeling anxious.
“Wow, the late, great Michael K. Williams,” Elba said. “He was one of the most incredible actors, and one of the only actors in the world that made me nervous to work with. Just this reflection makes me want to revisit the scenes that he and I did. He was so good and so in the moment.”
Why Michael K. Williams once avoided Idris Elba on ‘The Wire’
Elba didn’t last as long on The Wire as even he thought he might’ve, as Elba learned of Stringer’s fate on pretty short notice.
He described it as a terrifying moment in his career. But although Stringer’s fate bothered Elba, it bothered Williams just as much. Williams’ character would end up being the one taking out Stringer Bell. But Williams wasn’t too big of a fan of the decision at the time, and stayed away from Elba the day of their inevitable clash.
“I remember the day toward the end of season three when we shot the scene where Omar kills Stringer Bell,” Williams once wrote according The Guardian. “It ate at me, and I avoided Idris Elba, who played Stringer, all day. I was troubled by it, the message. Why is this the way two Black men settle their differences? It bothered me, especially since Stringer was making his way through college, setting up in real estate, trying to get out of the game. And I had to kill him.”
Williams seemed to even go as far as consult with the showrunners about the decision to write off Elba. But in the end, Williams realized the storyline was a reflection of the world the characters were brought up in.
“I talked to the writers about it, about why that had to happen. Dramatically, for story purposes, I understood. But as a Black man who felt he was representing his community, it bothered me. There was a larger problem than maybe I could articulate at the time. But it stayed with me,” Williams remembered. “The Wire was real in the sense that those characters whose lives were in the street could be killed off at any time. That’s how it really is. Guys like Stringer Bell get killed. Guys like Omar Little get killed. The realism of that world demanded that Omar too meet his fate. So when the time came for him to go, I’d had enough preparation. But it was not easy.”
Idris Elba didn’t like the way Stringer Bell was originally written off
Stringer Bell’s demise at the hands of Omar was initially supposed to be more graphic than it ended up being. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Elba felt what the writers originally had in mind went a step too far. Omar was supposed to desecrate Stringer’s dead body in the initial drift, which Elba felt was a disrespectful send-off to his character.
“He then whips his d*** out and pisses on him,” Elba recalled. “I was pissed.”
Elba brought up his concerns to showrunner David Simon, who was convinced to change the scene.
“I told him it was absolute tragedy, that it was sensational, and that it wasn’t going to happen,” Elba told the showrunner.
