more news today in harlem says once again flared up. these are the images. on the street understanding that. giant corporations are. on mary jane now the stars of boardwalk empire michael j. williams and michael shannon all miss the boys clone in a week when we nicknamed the show to sammy and to michael's like is a good job you have to be named michael to go on the show this to me michael's mazing a lot of people know about so if he were i'd probably you know in the lives. right now he's skinny. plus or you're out playing all keep guys i don't know i like. playing characters that i think are complicated as all ahead on larry king now.

you're watching larry king our guest is michael kind of williams one of the stars of boardwalk empire he plays the self-made crime boss chalky white he's also known for his revered character omar little on h.b.o.'s the wire what do you make of the success of boardwalk empire that they did this as cons from the his to the. at the covering you know just american gangster is the birth of the american gangster and the fascinated by that you know as you get the role just auditioned for myself on tape i was actually in south africa shooting a shooting of a series n.b.c. and i got the call i put myself on state sent it in you send it dot com i'm over for. endorsements but what are their skill to do on the tape. you know it was a mock interviews michael addition of the scene had nothing to do with with was

never entered in this show was them a mock audition they just as you questions no i had to i had to run and i was actually never campbells he was on the show with me she ran the lines on for me and it was the mark mark in a michael addition who came up with anything truckee that had to be down at terry winter you know when it was in his mind how do you or how would you describe chalky white what izzy. chalky was a self-made man he's a user and it's an indicator by society's standards you know he's literate he's a has a lot of paints in this is a man who's seen his father hung from a pepper tree and he swore by any means necessary he would have he would create a better life for his children and he made the best of what he had which is a street life do you like him or loves rocky yeah how do you prepare for something life being what you're getting into

a character mode for me getting into character always involves some sort of music i may play lists or my characters to invoke whatever emotion the character is going through i do the backstory i give the. siblings whether their only child they're the middle child the oldest child i give them a birthday a sign that anybody who went on here should be that their father think about who what was this guy like as a kid absolutely and you know what what made him when he was and you i understand truck is now on good terms with mickey right not not the times is that going to last. is it's going to be challenged their relationship is definitely going to be challenged by other characters played by jeffrey wright which is a doctor in our cities is it a funny set. that show all the characters all get on of mass the boys' club you

know we really need to name the show to sammy and the michael's like it's like a joke you have to be named michael to go on the show that requires you know it's a boys' club we all we all love each other we support each other and steve you know i believe in it trickles down hill and stays the tone for how we buy the trees each other and he's always so humble gracious hardworking and we we care about one another we we're there for each other we run lines together is just surreal everybody comes a day a gain and we just come to work and have fun he's a great actor who finally got the success of the great act and he had great man is very stand up to the unknown you know what was the working more when you get the script we get the script. on a monday on a tuesday it never is never the same as i mean we've got rewrites the day of the scene is being shot and they try to keep the schedule at least about a week before we shoot we get it we get to get in the spirit are you going to remember in lines you know i don't yeah i am because i don't look at it as

remembering lines i attack the story like if i told you something that was that you found very interesting i can say that one time you would go home and be like you go to the white like you know what michael told me today so i i approach it from that aspect i look at it as the story what is the story and then once you digest it once i've digested that the lies a kind of because it makes this is logical that this would be the dialogue as you're going at it. you know on acting chose me i was as a history dancer on the street there please i'm from the dance and then every club in new york city and i got lucky and started asking for a recording artist to call them commercial dance has been going tore. my jaws consisted of house music art is like krista waters techno tronics sissy palings to and i got into the world of music videos it was shortly after. i cut my face i want to detention of various photographers and directors like david la chapelle james

mentioned marcus n'est randy st nichols and they said it put him in his music videos and it was doing what dance and dancing in mosul acting out with these vignettes that were played these scenes in music videos that's when the music video world was changing when it was you know you create the scene the acting world is the scenes in the music video and it was actually on the set of george michael madonna enjoys michael's video was when i really knew that i was on to something you know was on the george michael set and mark is nestle was telling me to remote and i was like what the hell is remotely and when i realize that it was acting without words as when in my bubble of the my head. and you liked it yeah it was bit like being other people that's another story but yeah he did comedy too right. you know i i will community has to laugh at myself he's. going to throw out the wire in

the next segment but tell me about this coming movie twelve years a slave such as a slave is based on a true story it was a man who was a free slaves he had a he had a wife a family he was a fluent violin player he lived as will i guess what they considered back then as a middle class lifestyle in saratoga new york i believe and he was offered to go on the road with this with this group i go on our show and he got kidnapped drugged and sold back into slavery and it's a can swell vias to get his life back or you play i play a character by the name of samuels and this is the first time that. the lead the lead character to get into the name of the lead character the budget to tell plays him when he first gets onto the slave ship and they put us on in new orleans and i'm being brought on to the ship as well and i'm revolt and we're on this ship and we're we're planning

a mutiny to take over the ship and to to free ourselves and it doesn't go well we worked on the wire president obama once that omar little character you played was his favorite character on t.v. is it and be here or tell me about that role how you got it you know my process is no different in the allowed to put myself on tape with alexa fogel she is a casting director and i was once one shot as to i know that they were telling me to report to baltimore just like that just like that now these guys had all the dark pasts right how did you view him how did i view omar. i viewed omar as a man who was in a tremendous amount of pain. i also viewed him as a man that could have been you know very easily president or more little had he been given the opportunities i looked at him as a person who was a product of his environment and the lack of opportunities that was given him he

just made the best of what he had is it true you can first see using grays were playing that role the script out about how. it's a cool j. z. he has a line as as you you were who you were for you got there and that was pretty much the issue that i had to tackle long before the wire oh you have before them yeah how did you get. that i just woke up one day and this i didn't want to die at least not that way and i got down to that point where you have a stone wall playing a part absolutely. and you get through that. got. me had to think to yourself yeah i was and i was dreaming to do this you know of you know i got a break with omar you know the fact that this character was almost pain. it

paralleled my real life and it became the character became cathartic for me i was able to to execute a lot of my usual i used it. did it work you know what i was a was a user get the scar i got the scar on my twenty fifth birthday. i was highly intoxicated as we call it the liquid courage when too many and. entertained a conversation that i normally am i right my i would have ignored and i got jumped . almost. is that a glass no he he spit a razor in prison you know people know how to hide raises either in their mouth on their rectum you know like i know people who could have a conversation right now with the with the with the book a razor in their mouth and you would never know and then you get up there's

a movie of above the red and that the late great to partially core he does that he callout plays a little it's a kind of in a state of his mouth and to think is it as pretty what it was what happened it's called spitting raises and he held it between his fingers here and country he at that he was smacking me. we have some social media when we have some social media questions for you as study brother go what is something you want people know about trucking white that no one does know. mazing i want people know about saudi wide and probably no one knows right now he skid don't pay for him that there's a good him how badly levada spots on facebook how badly be a mess the wire do missed the wire because of what we had in baltimore you know i mean a lot of good friends people i consider my family know and i missed as

a city i miss having to go down there spending my summers in boston was this a beautiful city grow a lot of this great people love the orioles that you know but. you know you can't go back this is it was a place in my life time that i'm very grateful for but i do miss the city of baltimore. again g.m. tensei sheen wants to know what we can expect from your character in twelve years a slave it's only the parts only six minutes your part is six minutes long approximately it will remember right i believe it all should in that movie steve mcqueen it was. had a i guess what you would call out of body experience it was a scene where you know my character's being brought to the slave ship and he was vaulted you know and they. the. beetle. and he beat him to the point where he. and so we we kept filming that over and over

again and around the fourth of fifth taken with steve mcqueen's shoes he doesn't take long breaks between takes and i'm on the fourth or fifth time i looked about the sky and something came over me and for a quick second i got a glimpse into what it must have been like so much and sisters and. i broke down and i could not stop screaming and crying and i remember the still coordinator who was a white man he key got on the floor with me he cradled me in his almost in iraq he is going to say let it out it's ok let it out that it out and it was like bob i don't know how many seconds that that and that is to know i jumped up and i would say let's go. back to war as i can't wait to see that. and you must thank you that my son ten of the millions one of the stars of boardwalk empire not

chat with michael's costar michael shannon right after this. crossed opera was in effect got into can jump in anytime you want. at the problem it was

a problem very hard to take a look again at the among the flight pattern that had sat with the make their lives let's play. lists lists lists lists lists lists lists look. upon. some may disagree. but i believe america is exceptional.

just requires. some of. this weekend luck little leg lifts. leg and up there let alone sees them up there in a. little let me look here comes the sun. back in new york with oscar nominated actor michael shannon best known as nelson van all than the hit h.b.o. show boardwalk empire that airs sundays at nine pm on h.b.o. he's also play the villain general zod in the summer superhero blockbuster man of steel he played the jersey mob hit man rasheed culkin ski in the iceman out on

d.v.d. now tell me about this role on the boardwalk empire how do you see him nelson oh wow well he's been through so many changes. and he's a pretty good example of somebody who. has got their beliefs handed to him on a platter you know he started out very rage is a crusader against drink drink yes and. basically because of all the corruption. and lennox city was not able to do much about it and eventually just gave up and his life crumbled apart and now he's just trying to survive he's had it. he's a fugitive he's had a run away and they can add different name for himself joy easily michael the success of the show i think part of it is the way it looks the period the detail they rebuilt hard ladies the labor way they sell the boardwalk yeah they built

a boardwalk although i think it's been. decommissioned i don't know if we even used a more and you know they build the on the on the shore of the east river and. but i think people are really drawn to. the period you know it's. it was it was a great idea to explore that time twenty in particularly in atlantic city and this character you know is based on a real real man who basically ran atlantic city for most of the day as you get the role it's it's a mystery to me i worked in i had a meeting with terence winter martin scorsese and steven levinson who was one of the producers. at the waldorf. and i didn't even do an audition or anything we'd not just sat there and i think terry

turns when i had seen me in a play. that at left quite an impression on him and kind of it almost seemed as if you wrote the part with me in mind but on them i really have that in scorsese hands on that. i know he he watches all of them and he gives notes and feedback but he's very busy and you're out playing or keep dimes if you like if you like playing little bits. i don't know i like i like playing characters that i think are complicated for example someone like generals i think is very it's a very complicated character because he's not necessarily a villain he's just. as different interest than than most people on earth because he's not from here you know krypton he's a hero you know he's basically trying to save his civilization i like that the stakes of that the stakes are very high as a fun movie to do. yeah i was it's

a lot of fun to work with zack snyder he's he's a wonderful man and he's just a lot of fun the to be around. and we're going to be in superman batman and i have no idea i've heard anything yet still there's you know a board walk so those are the next is. kind of stumbled into it in high school when i was a little boy i didn't kentucky lexington kentucky you know when i was a little boy i never thought i would be an actor never occurred to me i actually started with with music a long time you know i played an orchestra and played to string bass like johnny depp from kentucky oh yeah played guitar. yeah there's a lot of george clooney is clearly in there from the heart of country i guess some crews and some breed actors i don't know i don't know and jennifer lawrence is from louisville kentucky she's the biggest star normally you know and i knew true is

roles in other words do you have to like it right away what's your modus operandi it's it's kind of different for each for each project sometimes it's there's a certain people i want to work with for example there's a director i work with jeff nichols we're about to do our fourth movie together and he's just an artist that i really admire and believe in and like working with. something like iceman. what drew me into that was the person himself you know seeing the interviews that he did and the challenge of trying to figure out what made him tech you know how its mind operated. and it's something like man of steel is just you know at the the exhilaration of being in. such a massive movie if the like the person who play.

i usually wind up liking them yeah. being awfully kind of you know defending them you know because they like themselves mostly yeah although they may be you know tormented i mean someone like dan all that i think is full of guilt and remorse i mean it as even a certain amount of self loathing i think i mean when you've got a guy he's with him self in fact was enough that you have to walk in his shoes oh yeah i guess he'd be regarded as a character actor that's kind of a strange term. as opposed to someone who's a star vehicle you see is over in that role you can see is of a character actor or i'm certainly not in a. position where someone is going to run out and spend one hundred million dollars making a movie you know starred me you know going to see my face plastered on the side of

a building or do you want that. really i mean i like being able to. walk down the street and take the subway and i want to after right around it but people must go by and say oh yeah yeah yeah i get my share that . but i don't mind as long as it's not too invasive you start in theater i did yeah i started in chicago doing theater in chicago i was there for i mean it's all relative i guess but quite some time you know like the other i do i do i love doing theater i always. i always do at least one show a year. if not more but it's hard it's hard to find time for it's very time consuming and not as well rewarding financially yeah well yeah financially although i did a show on broadway recently and that's a pretty good gig was

a show called grace as a play called grace oh i was in. and my partner carrington the four of us in the play fun oh yeah i mean it was it was really pretty thrilling i had never been on broadway before so and i get in the stardock i walk by the theater the court theater knowing he's getting them many times yeah now they got that thing in macau and attics to record so did you was groundhog day your first movie that's how i got my sag card yeah yeahs get the put you know they date shot that movie just outside of chicago and they cast a lot of the you know the smaller roles in chicago and yes when you read for harold amos and i loved him yeah he's a lovely man it was this scene because if we shot the movie in the summer but as opposed to the wintertime it was the ground so that they took over this little town

in illinois woodstock illinois was in pennsylvania no and they covered it with fake snow and there are people walking around heavy coats on even though it's like the middle summers very surreal if. you would those who did you did funny or die and i've done that a few tall havea close one but i will what did you do on that as a crazy i read that as sorority letter. was kind of famous recently this girl freaked out what was your name rebecca. yeah she freaked out on our sorority sisters and wrote this really nasty letter and i read it you read it that was funnier don yes we have a social media question coude malaki of instagram boardwalk empire as a period show how much the just time did you spend in research to prepare for the role but i think we all there was a book called boardwalk empire that we all read. to kind of get the facts of

the period and what not but. the thing about my character is ease completely a figment of the imagination some of the other characters are sure obviously based on real people but you know terry told me right away when i met him that this was somebody he had made up so. honestly i use a lot mostly my instincts the tall ships tweets what directors would do i do work with in the future if you haven't worked with oh. well i'd love to work with david lynch a law enforcement i think he's moving away from heard that making movies the people with all their quitting you know sort of. things i feel my yeah howard was not only are they keep that arm's length calm spare of instagram wants to know what did you find hardest about playing the iceman just thinking about you know killing i'm not a violent person and. it's very upsetting would bother me to play

a game of if you only knew we just as quick question was your favorite movie of all time the king of comedy scorsese and jerry lewis yes jerry lewis what's your favorite role debate. take shelter in my movie take shelter i made curtis the character of curtis is probably the one that i have the most emotional connection to have a pet peeve obliviousness. remember the first girl you have a kiss me god. yes there was no name and all you i was. thirteen kentucky yes it was it was orchestra thing although he was in the office and yeah we were at our youth orchestra retreat what i have and angela had no idea that year

three years was there a moment you knew that you had made it that this was your profession. probably the first time i came to new york and did a show here that was of. pretty amazing it was back in ninety eight as a killer joe i did old scott glenn and the man who did it was a killer joke that movie and c.b.s. . we just did interviews on that yeah that was was you play them was on a roll no i played a meal hirsch role oh yeah because i was you know i was when i was a little bit younger you know oh god what a play yeah yeah it's crazy that he bought me a scene that lays. great seeing you mike thanks larry thanks for having me thanks to our guests the stars of h.b.o.'s boardwalk empire michael shannon and michael k. williams and remember you can find me on twitter at kings things see an x.

time. one of the new will strong arming allies and the polish face just like you know a little. pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researcher. wealthy british scientists on the spot on the.

markets why not gamble find out what's really happening to the globe. with mike's concert for a no holds barred look global financial headlines kaiser reports. more news today. these are the images cold world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing up for a shelter on the day.