22 November 1966 – 6 September 2021
The actor, who played Snoop alongside Williams’s Omar in The Wire, on her ‘big brother, little sister’ chemistry with the man who transformed her life after spotting her in a Baltimore nightclub
I met Mike in a club called Club One in Baltimore. I’d heard about The Wire and I’d seen them shooting around the city but I’d never watched it. I didn’t know who he was. I told my homeboy: “This man keeps looking at me. He’s looking hard with a scar on his face. He’s looking mean.” My homeboy told me: “Nah, that’s Omar off The Wire. He’s not nobody to be worried about.” That’s when Mike comes over and starts asking me questions. He thought I was a boy at first. He was like: “Wow, your charisma, your swag, everything about you is so dynamic and crazy, I love that.” I don’t know how because I was drunk.
He called me the next day and said: “Come see me.” I got myself together and went to the set and was just kicking it with him. Then the people from The Wire like Ed Burns and David Simon heard me talking and they came over and started asking me to pronounce words. I didn’t know what it was for. I was kinda nervous. These white people keep asking me questions. I ain’t used to that. White people ask me questions when I’m in trouble. But it turned out for the good.
