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Michael Kenneth Williams has been added to the cast of Twelve Years A Slave. The actor joins Michael Fassbender, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Brad Pitt in the Steve McQueen-directed film. Raising Hope‘s Garret Dillahunt, Paul Dano and SNL’s Taran Killam are also in Twelve Years. Williams, best known for playing Chalky White on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and Omar Little on The Wire, will play “Robert,” a mutinous slave in Twelve Years. The film is an adaptation of Solomon Northup’s 1853 book about a free black man who is drugged and dragged to the South to be sold into slavery. New Regency is backing the film. River Road and Plan B are producing. Twelve Years A Slave is filming in New Orleans. Williams is repped by The Collective and attorney Elsa Ramo.
Related: New Regency In Talks To Co-Fiance, Distribute Twelve Years A Slave
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The only bad thing about this is I’m sure I’m going to wish Michael Kenneth Williams were playing the lead, when he stars stealing every scene he’s in…
You’re nuts. He wo’t steal anything when in the same scenes with Ejiofor. Williams is still highly overrated. There were probaly 20 actors on The Wire who were better than him.
You can just call him Omar
Omar comin’, yo.
“Williams, best known for playing Chalky White on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and Omar Little on The Wire”
Kenneth Williams could perform a sex act on Queen Elizabeth on live television and he’d still be best known as Omar. Also, what’s Boardwalk Empire?
My side just split with that one! Thanks for the laugh and the crazy image now stuck in my head.
He will be Omar forever. But you’ve got to admit, the name Chalky White on a brotha so black is great.
I always keep one in the chamber, in case you ponderin’
I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase. It’s all in the game though, right?
Yay!
What’s up with Hollywood’s (predominately white) fascination with slavery and pre-Civil Rights films within the last year? Our history did NOT begin with slavery, so we don’t need the reminder or exploitation. I wonder if this director/writer is African Americans. The odds are, they aren’t.
So the directors and writers are African American. However, we don’t need this reminder of our alleged “inferiority.” Where are the stories of us being the creators of the first civilization, monotheistic religion, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy = the originators!
The director is not an African American. He is British. But he is black.
Hey Hollywood…Im with you…but Ive learned there is no need anymore trying to figure out Hollywood and its agenda because it’ll drive one crazy…there hasn’t been ONE movie or series about an ancient african kingdom…every movie we see involving kings, queens and knights are based off of european tales.
Apparently, nothing has ever taken place in ancient africa outside of Egypt that warrants a story.
This is an independent film. Unlike Tarantino’s latest, it is not backed by a ‘Hollywood’ studio. However, I guess you don’t want such specifics to get in the way of hate …
John Ridley, the screenwriter is an African American who wrote screenplays for Undercover Brother and Red Tails. He also wrote the novel upon which the movie U-Turn is based.
12 Years a Slave, the book, is based upon the manuscript of an African American who documented his slave experience with specific social, cultural, and geographic detail with historic value which already contributed to recognition of slave participation in the building of Washington, DC.
Steve McQueen, the director is Afro British. Possibly with Caribbean slave ancestors.
I would say that 12 Years a Slave will be to Django Unchained what Roots was to Mandingo… a correction of false historical exploitation.
Forgive me… he is not African American…. he is black but he is from the UK
Irrelevant comments.
Irrelevant? You are the one who asked if writer and director are African Americans. And now you are complaining that people were polite enough to answer your own question?
Crazy, was going to Chris Santos before they went African American. Chris would have been great. A real talent.
The writer is Black American. Director is Black British. This movie is a true story about Solomon Northup.
Slavery happened. If you want to focus on only happy parts of our history then you are a fool. Part of this country was built on the back of slaves. Most of us Black Americans descended from them. Those who forget history are bound to repeat it.
How would you feel if the only stories you ever saw about Jewish people were about the Holocaust? What he is trying to say is that black people were on this earth before anyone else. We had a history, we had greatness before white people even existed. White people CAME from us, are us as a matter of fact. But that incredible story has never been told in Hollywood. If you taught your children about black people just based upon what Hollywood says, then black people were always slaves, stupid, dependent upon white people and criminals. Just saying.
So, write that book. Write it well and make it cinematic and then pitch it. A lot of bumps and barriers to pass but the first one is the story. And there are a lot of good ones out there that no one but anthropologist and historians talk about that come from a multitude of regions of this planet. The easiest thing to do is bitch.
Omar coming’ Yo
Hollywood always tries to reassure White America during tough times. Like how the world heavyweight boxing champ on screen was still Rocky, even though it was Ali in real life. Or Rambo going back and winning Vietnam.
So even though we have a Black President and First Lady, on screen it’s still The Blind Side, The Help, The Butler, Django Unchained, and 12 Years a Slave. No coincidence there at all.
Not to mention Nikes with slave shackles attached.
In the year 2012.
Those were Adidas, not Nikes.
I am looking forward to seeing this film. The cast to date is stellar. I wish people would stop knocking it before it has even been shot. I will say I’m happy that Brad is bringing another film to NOLA. I think that is 3 so far. Ben Button, Killing them Softly and now Twelve Years a Slave. That bring money to an economy and gets locals back into the job market. Even for a few weeks. So this is a win all the way around.
Brad Pitt has proven himself a compassionate man of courage. Not only has he brought industry and economic wherewithall to NOLA, he also has revealed in words and deeds that he views the African Americans in that region as real people, deserving of the very best he has within himself to offer. His conversations with Spike Lee in God Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise (follow-up to When the Levees Broke) moved me. I believe he is a man with a good heart not afraid to act upon what it tells him to do. I respect him for that. That is the difference between exploitation and compassion.
@Ignorance, did you even read my comment or are you trying to defend Hollywood (the actual industry)at all costs? Nobody can forget slavery when our U.S. educational system teaches us all (incorrectly) that our history began with slavery and thanks to this system of oppression, we have gone from being heathens, barbarians and sub-human creatures to now civilized Christians. This is not truth, and although it was a part of our history, these are not documentaries — so there will be embellishments and a lot of untruths. Our history expands thousands of years before Christ and I have yet to see a Hollywood film that tackles that era of our history.
If you want an amusing, reductionist revenge-fantasy pic about slavery, watch Django Unchained.
If you want something real and poignant and uncompromising, watch 12 Years a Slave. McQueen’s parents are from the West Indies islands… so the subject matter is likely very close to his family’s history.
In fact, I think this is the first time the subject matter has been tackled for the big screen by a director of African descent. He will treat the subject matter with the respect it deserves.
Can’t wait to see this and I completely respect Michael K. Williams for choosing 12 Years a Slave over the self-absorbed, narcissistic, egotistical idiocy of Django Unchained (Mandingo, 1975, With a German Dentist).
If you complain about how Hollywood is portrayed you need only look at yourselves. You have filmmakers like Spike Lee and Tyler Perry and I have ever seen them is make movies where it’s all gangs or silly roles like Perry. Maybe you should complain to them about the kinds of stories they tell. And by the way George Lucas just made a beautiful film about a group of black pilots during WWII. Maybe if black people had flocked to see that more stories like the kind you want would be told. And you should read 12 years a slave before you criticize. McQueen will make a great film, he deals with the human spirit.
PBS aired its own version of Solomon Northup’s story back in 1984, with Avery Brooks (of “STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE” fame) in the lead. You can find it from Netflix.
I do get tired of people complaining about movies on U.S. slavery. We’ve made more movies on other aspects of American history than on that particular subject. Why? Because many Americans even today, refuse to face that particular aspect of our past and how it still affects us today.