Criminal lover: Michael K. Williams brings passion and larceny to HBO's The Wire in his role as a tough gay drug dealer.

Straight actor Michael K. Williams has had his eyes opened to some fundamental gay issues in the process of playing charismatic drug dealer dealer in the hit. HBO series The Wire. While taking on his first gay role, Williams learned immediately that he didn't need to affect any "gay" mannerisms to play him convincingly. "I realized that I didn't have to come outside of myself to play this character," says Williams. "I realized that gay men are everyday people whose personal lives are personal, and I don't play him differently that I would any other character."

The actor had his first face-to face confrontation with homophobia in a recent radio interview on New York City's Hot 97 with DJ and MTV personality Sway, who objected to a steamy love scene Williams had enacted with Ernest Waddell, playing Omar's on-screen lover Dante. "He ambushed me with his homophobia," recalls Williams. "He said that he was personally repulsed by the scene and said it was morally outrageous. Then I got the same thing from callers in to the show. One guy who was Jamaican called me a batty boy." (Sway later got flak for his on air behavior and, says Williams, almost got fired from Hot 97.) Williams--whose credits include Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead and lead roles in episodes of Law & Order and The Sopranos--remains philosophical about the response to his character. "It feels funny that my job makes people react so intensely," he muses. "I ride the wave and don't get freaked out."

Omar was introduced in the first season, leading a stickup crew as they attempted to rob the show's chief drug lord, Avon Barksdale. In retaliation, Barksdale's men tortured, killed, and mutilated Omar's lover Brandon (Michael Kevin Darnall), leading Omar to become a police informer as he waged a personal war against Barksdale.

This season, he's back with new lover Dante and a new crew. "He's still avenging Brandon's death, which is a big part of his pain," explains Williams.

So is there a strong gay contingent in line real-life underworld of drug wars and street crime? Williams says there is. "There are drug dealers who are as ruthless as the next man but who also like guys," he says. "It could have something to do with the fact that they have done so much jail time."

Williams's magnetic portrayal also displays the passionate side of Omar. The tenderness he has shown, first to Brandon and now to Dante, acts as a relief to the otherwise tough-as-nails drama of The Wire. Indeed, Omar is the character you root for on the show--a Robin Hood figure who steals drugs from rich bad guys to sell to other rich bad guys. "He doesn't sell drugs to users; he doesn't wear any flashy jewelry; he doesn't curse," says Williams. "He's likable because he is a vigilante who is true to himself. There are no hidden agendas or apologies. The Barksdales are infuriated at the fact that he's robbing them, but even more so because he's robbing them and he's gay."

Omar's popularity has evidently worked in William's favor, since the actor was originally told that the character would be killed off after seven episodes. "I guess the dynamic I brought to Omar and the writing in the show was a great marriage," he says, "because every time I got a new script, I found that Omar was still alive. I have now been made a series regular and am told that, if we are renewed for a third season, they have big plans for Omar."

Goodridge is U.S. editor of Screen International.