Michael K. Williams Admits He Was ‘High’ While On Set Of The Wire

For a while “Boardwalk Empire” actor Michael K. Williams admitted that his problem with drug abuse got real, so real that he used on the set of “The Wire” in 2004. “The Wire”, a show that captured the Baltimore drug scene ran from 2002 until 2008. Williams, who now has a role as Chalky White on “Empire”, had a situation of art imitating life as Omar Little on HBO’s “The Wire”.

The Brooklyn native opened up to the New Jersey Star-Ledger about his time using cocaine and marijuana on set of the HBO drama. Williams admitted that he was putting himself in some dangerous situations by dealing with criminals in bad neighborhoods of Newark, NJ.

On his troubled past Michael K. Williams said:

“Eventually, I got so sick and tired of this charade. No one who was in my circle, who knew me as Mike, was allowing me to get high,” he said. “I had to slip away to do drugs. I had to hide it. I’d be gone for days at a time. I was lonely in that part of my life. I was broke, broken and beat up. Exhausted. Empty. I finally said, ‘I can’t do this no more.’ I didn’t want to end up dead.”

Michael K. Williams decision to come clean about his own drug abuse is appropriate given the timely news about the death of his “Wire” co-star DeAndre McCullough, who died of a drug overdose in August. Of his double life, Williams continued, “It was just a matter of time before I got caught and my business ended up on the cover of a tabloid or I went to jail or, worse, I ended up dead. When I look back on it now, I don’t know how I didn’t end up in a body bag.”

Now sober and completely clean, Williams says that he was “playing with fire.”

Do you think more people should come out about their past drug abuse in hopes to help others with addiction?