“The industry vultures with nothing to feast on…The Industry plays in the dirt, stays in the dirt—test the wrong one in the industry and you will get hurt.

“The industry wanted, dead or alive, new artists to sell their souls…to survive. The Industry don’t give a fuck about you! But the industry couldn’t make a dime without you!”

That was actually the case with Michael K. Williams. If Williams had a decent job, a good wife, a decent and honorable job, and a decent family, he would almost certainly not have found himself in a situation where he had to sell himself in films like The Wire in order to survive. Williams was addicted to cocaine he was playing a gay man by the name of Omar in The Wire, the television series which lasted from June of 2002 until March of 2008. Williams remembered:

“I had to slip away to do drugs. I had to hide it. I’d be gone for days at a time. I was lonely in that part of my life. I was broke, broken and beat up. Exhausted. Empty. I finally said, ‘I can’t do this no more.’ I didn’t want to end up dead.”[1]

Williams would almost certainly not have been engaged in “an everyday struggle” with drugs if he didn’t embrace moral corruption in movies. Williams likened his drug addiction to sticking his head in a lion’s mouth. He said in 2012 that he was “playing with fire.” Williams again admitted:

“I suffered from a huge identity crisis … But when I look at the characters, I got to exorcise my demons, a lot. In the end, I was more comfortable with Omar’s skin than my own. That was a problem.”[2]

Williams’ identity crisis was a result of living an immoral life.

“When he wasn’t filming, he would go to Newark, New Jersey, to get drugs, spending much of his earnings from the series supporting his addiction.

“It was just a matter of time before I got caught and my business ended up on the cover of a tabloid or I went to jail or, worse, I ended up dead. When I look back on it now, I don’t know how I didn’t end up in a body bag.”

Williams continued:

“I had to slip away to do drugs. I had to hide it. I’d be gone for days at a time. I was lonely in that part of my life. I was broke, broken and beat up. Exhausted. Empty. I finally said, ‘I can’t do this no more.’ I didn’t want to end up dead.”

In February of last year, Williams gave a talk to former prisoners, during which he said: “This Hollywood thing that you see me in, I’m passing through.” Well, Williams passed through, but not in the way that he was expecting.

When people like Williams began to possess more money than they needed, they started to live a life that is completely foreign to the moral order. And immoral life leads to spiritual death.

“They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” 2 Peter 2:19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-areUvyBvA&t=1313s&ab_channel=LogosWars

[1] “Michael K. Williams Was Addicted To Cocaine When He Was Playing Omar On ‘The Wire,’” Huffington Post, Sepember 4, 2012.

[2] Ibid.