What do you think you'll miss most about the show once it's over?
All my coworkers, just seeing them and knowing that no matter what, I'm going to see them for six months out in Baltimore. We run around that city getting in trouble. We've had a great time. I've had a great time working with all of them. Every year, you get a new shipment, a new breed of actors that come to the show for the new storyline and there's a bunch of us that have been around for a while and we get introduced to our new family. I'm just so blessed to be a part of that process.

From everybody from Chris Bauer to Pablo Schreiber and all of them in season two, season one with Wood Harris and Idris Elba and Larry Gilliard Jr., Michael Jordan Jr. All of these characters are gone now. In a sense, it's kind of sad because I know where this road leads you to, but at the same time, I've built relationships with these people. When characters get killed off, it's like, "That's one I'm not going to see next year." It really hit me this year. We lose another character this year; you'll see it in the finale.

Every year, I feel a little saddened when we wrap. Although we say, "Oh God, it's killing me. I can't wait for this shit to be over. I want to go home." When that shit is over, we're like, "Oh my God, I'm going to miss you."

You mentioned you all like to go out in Baltimore and get into trouble. Any stories you want to share?
Man, I could be here all night. We really did the city of Baltimore. I'm going to leave it at that. Andre Royo, Sonja Sohn, Seth Gilliam, those are my brothers, yo. In case y'all didn't know, we're the brat pack. Me and my brothers at The Wire, we are definitely the new brat pack. Dominic West, Domenick Lombardozzi, I'm going to miss all of them.

We have to admit, we were surprised to see you pop up in R Kelly's "Trapped in a Closet" video. How did you get involved in that project and what was it like working on such a unique endeavor?
I got hooked up with that through Shelby Stone. She was one of the producers on Lackawanna Blues and was working on that project at the time. I don't know if everybody knows this, but in the original 1-5 that he first released, the cop was a different guy. When he went to go back filming 6-12, the gentleman who did the cop was doing a Broadway show down in Chicago and couldn't get out of his obligations. That's when Shelby was like, "I've got a friend. He might could do it." Then, she was like, "Mike, get your ass down to Chicago now."

I went down there. Me and Robert, we hit it off instantly. That's a good brother right there. We had a ball. We had a lot of fun shooting that. Just as stupid as it looks, when I say stupid, I mean that in a funny way, that's how much we acted up off camera making that damn thing. We'd have to call cut just from laughter. I'm hearing rumors that we're supposed to go back and do some more chapters. I think he's going to 18 or something like that.

Last time we talked, you mentioned that you got your start as a dancer. Do you think you'll do more music videos down the line or are you done with that at this point in your career?
Oh hell yeah, you're going to see a music video coming from me real soon. But I ain't gonna be dancing no more. I'll be rhyming.

You have your own music coming out?
I got permission from HBO to put Omar on wax. Look out for that real soon. I've got a whole team working for me. Basically, it all started when Jam Master Jay, his business partner, whose is a good friend of mine and I got in a three-way phone call back around the first season of The Wire.

They said, "We've got this concept. We're going to put Omar on wax. We think it will be crazy."

I was like, "Oh shit, that does sound kind of interesting."

In the process of us working on that, he got taken from us. But we fell back with it for a minute and started picking it up a little bit and I started getting all this response from the hip hop world. There's a connection here that I don't see with other actors with the hip hop community. I know the hip hop community has love for all our brothers that be doing it, but I was feeling this surge. We started getting back in it and going hard at it and I caught the attention of Jimmy Henchman over there at Czar Entertainment and I'm in the studio.

I'm not signed yet, but I'm on some mixed tapes right now and we're definitely in the recording process. We'll see what happens, but I'm having fun right now recording it. Its interesting going into character in the mic booth as apposed to being on set. I use a lot of the same tools to get into character. When they hear the music, people get the same chill as when they see him on screen and that's what I want to do.

You're involved in a movie called I Think I Love My Wife, directed by Chris Rock. Tell us a little bit about the movie and your role as Teddy. Also, what's it like working with someone as funny as Chris Rock?
Chris is one of the people I respect. Coming from Brooklyn, like myself, where he's taken his career and himself is very inspiring for me. It was an honor to be in his presence, actually. He's a hard working brother. I had a great time working with him. He knows what he wants as a director. He wrote and directed and produced this and he wears all three hats extremely well.

He had the lovely Kerry Washington there, we had a great scene. It was really just one scene where he and his wife were on the outs and Kerry Washington plays his little hottie girlfriend and her character left my character, but she was saying, "Let's sneak back to the house. Let me pick up some more of my things and move out and I'll get the rest of my stuff later." She comes into my character's house with her new boyfriend, Chris' character. While she's getting her stuff, my character comes in and it's a huge fight and Chris and my characters get into an altercation, we start fighting. While my character is like stomping on him, literally, police come in and it's just crazy. It's extremely funny, but it's crazy funny.

He's cool to work with. I'd really like to work with him again; I'd actually like to really work with him. Possibly play brothers or some crazy shit. I don't know.

If working on a Chris Rock movie isn't random enough, you're also in Gone, Baby, Gone, which is directed by Ben Affleck. Can you tell us a little bit about that movie?
Ben was a whole other type of entity to work with. It's a serious piece. A dramatic piece. He is really hands on. I love how he will come and work with you. You'll have a scene down, ready to come in and lay your scene down and right there, he'll just change it all up. He likes to keep a certain freshness. It just works, but you've got to stay with him. I think he has a big future as a director. He's excelled at everything else, why not directing, right?

Where would you like to see your career headed? What sort of films would you like to do in the future and what actors or directors would you like to work with?
I'm on a five-year plan. I'm ready to pull back a little bit. I'm going to turn the lights on y'all now, turn the cameras around. I've got a production company, Freedome Productions, and I've got a bunch of things in development right now. I want to create some opportunities for some young, up and coming talent I've got my eye on. One being Felicia Pearson, who plays Snoop on The Wire. I've got a big hand in her career. I want to stay hands on with her. There's another young brother from East Flatbush, Brooklyn, by the name of Fly Williams, he's been in a bunch of stuff, his first film was Finding Forrester with Sean Connery and he was in Freedomland with Samuel Jackson. He's like my little nephew from my hood. I've got a lot of little up and coming youth that I want to help develop some projects for them. Let the young kids do it, I'm getting old.

What actors out there today impress you? Who would you pay money to see in the theater?
I pay money to see Denzel, he still gets my dollar. Sam, I love Sam. I'll still go to see a Sam movie. Those two right now, I definitely go out and catch their movies.

What would you be doing for a living if you never got into acting?
I don't know. It's even bigger than acting. I don't know what I'd be doing if it wasn't for the business of entertainment. But, we ain't going to focus on that.

Interviewed by Joel Murphy, December 2006. The season four finale of The Wire airs Sunday on HBO and the fifth and final season begins filming next spring. For more information on Michael K. Williams, visit his official website. To read our original interview with him, click here.