Michael K. Williams Left His Heart on the Dancefloor in ‘Lovecraft Country’

Omar on The Wire. Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire. Bobby McCray in When They See Us, Leonard Pine in Hap and Leonard, and a storied career of countless other star turns… This is the legacy that actor Michael K. Williams leaves behind after his premature death at the age of 54. Williams was one of the rare television actors to create a character so iconic that their name sometimes eclipsed their own. Rarer still, Williams managed to leave behind a vibrant career that was much more complex, surprising, and moving than just “Omar on HBO’s The Wire.” In fact, it might be his last major television role that should define Williams’ legacy the most: his Emmy-nominated turn as Montrose Freeman in last year’s Lovecraft Country.

In Lovecraft Country, Williams navigated the turbulent emotional waters of rage, trauma, grief, shame, and paternal love. He also, in one glorious dancehall scene, got to show the euphoria of a 1960s gay Black man finally dancing his way out of the closet. The ballroom scene in Lovecraft Country Episode 5 “Strange Case” is a mesmerizing moment on its own, but it also can be seen as emblematic of Michael K. Williams, the artist. Before stunning us in serious HBO fare, the actor was a dancer and choreographer, first known for his work in New York City’s ballroom scene. When you know this, Montrose’s coming out scene doubles as the moment Williams artistically went home.

Michael K. Williams was born in Brooklyn and raised in the Flatbush projects, a neighborhood he maintained deep ties to throughout his entire life. As a young man, he was inspired by the success of friend and neighbor Queen Latifah, but knew he couldn’t follow her path as a rapper. During an interview with his pal “Dana” years later on The Queen Latifah Show, he said that Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” music video helped him realize he could be a dancer. Soon he found a home for himself in the underground ballroom dance scene of New York City. According to The New York Times, Williams didn’t identify as gay, but still “relished the sheer liberty of carousing around a space unencumbered.” This experience led to opportunities dancing for the likes of Madonna, George Michael, and Ginuwine. He even choreographed and appeared in music videos for Crystal Waters.

Ironically, his acting career was jumpstarted when someone slashed his face with a razor during a bar fight when Williams was 25-years-old. As Williams explained to The New York Times, “All my life I’m this cream puff, and next thing I know everyone sees me as some kind of gangster. It almost made me laugh.” The scar helped Williams land roles as street-hardened criminals and the vigilante Omar Little. So while Williams forged a successful career for himself onscreen portraying often overlooked Black men with nuance, his background was even more complex.

Nowhere does Williams’ lifetime come together on screen quite like in that Lovecraft Country dancehall sequence. In many ways, Montrose Freeman is Williams’ hardest role to date. He is an abusive father and grieving widower; a man who has turned to violence and rage to protect his shattered heart. Williams repeatedly spoke out about how the material changed the way he saw his own trauma. He told The Hollywood Reporter in August that working on the show changed him “for the better.”

“I understand now the importance of therapy, which I am in. I understand that I have trauma, that we have trauma that affects us that we were not even alive to see — blood trauma,” Williams told THR.

The only moment Montrose gets to be happy is that brief sequence in Episode 5. He follows his lover, a drag queen, to the ballroom. At the start of the pageant, a bruised Montrose stares at the drag queens and openly gay couples from the corner of the room. Finally, he joins his lover on the dance floor and moves freely among his community. He is not only accepted, but welcomed. The scene crescendoes with the drag performers lifting Montrose in the air. Glitter falls from the heavens and Montrose finally exhales.

It’s a beautiful moment that only a man with Michael K. Williams’s talent and experience could deliver.

Where to stream Lovecraft Country