Putting it out into the Universe – the Omar Story

What? No Honey Nut?

omarwireAnyone who has watched HBO’s “The Wire” will smile just thinking about that line, which was spoken by Omar (Michael Kenneth Williams). To many of us, it was probably a surprise to find out that this “avenger” who made his living robbing drug dealers liked something we all could identify with — Cheerios with “the irresistible taste of golden honey.”

It took a recent article in the print version of the Sunday New York Times to bring to my attention a few more pleasant surprises.

First, that Williams at one time had a desk job at Pfizer which was a pretty far cry from the streets. The other thing is that while at Pfizer, he discovered Janet Jackson on his television –was dressed in black talking about “Rhythm Nation.” That struck a chord in Williams.

“I know what I want to do in life.”

So he quit his day job and began his quest to become a backup dancer for Janet Jackson. The Times article talks about his journey and how he made the transition to acting.

Putting it out into the Universe:

During the shooting of a George Michael music video, the director kept yelling for him to emote:

And I was like, what does emote mean? And when I found out I was like, wait a minute, if I had some lines to go with this I could parlay this into something greater. I put that out into the universe and before you knew it, I was getting roles.

Because Michael followed his bliss, we have been able to enjoy watching him on “The Wire,” NBC’s “The Philanthropist” and soon, will see him in two movies.

“This is the test
No struggle, no progress.”

— lyrics from “Rhythm Nation”

Something Michael took to heart serves as a nice reminder to all of us.

[Photo courtesy of The Movie Network]

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