Michael K. Williams.Photo: Jesse Dittmar/ReduxIn his upcoming posthumous memoirScenes from My Life,The WirestarMichael K. Williamswrote about his life in 1991 when he was in the midst of a successful modeling and dancing career and about to head to London on tour. But on the eve of his 25th birthday, a friend called to invite him out to a club in Queens to celebrate. By midnight he was drunk, showing off his moves on the dance floor.That’s when Williams stepped outside for some air and spotted a group of men encircling an acquaintance from Brooklyn. He shouted at them, and the friend told him to go back inside.What happened next would change Williams' life forever.When he eventually went to leave the club for the night, Williams encountered one of the threatening men, who was now standing alone.“In a flash, he smacked me across the face,” he wrote. “I put my hand to my forehead. Then I saw the dark liquid on my fingers. The guy hadn’t been slapping me. He had been cutting me open.“The man had been holding a razor, cutting Williams “from my forehead, across the bridge of my nose, down my right cheek almost to my jawbone.“Michael K. Williams.Arturo Holmes/GettyAs Williams bled profusely, his friend sped him to the emergency room, where he waited in excruciating pain all night for a plastic surgeon to come on duty, knowing what the wrong set of hands could do to his photogenic face — and his career.Eventually, “the cut healed into one big swollen line and I never felt more ugly,” he wrote. But over time, a curious thing happened. “Strangers would stop me on the street and say they found my scars striking. I began to get gigs in music videos, not even to dance,” he wrote. David LaChapelle asked to photograph him;Tupac Shakurcast him from a headshot to play his younger brother in Williams' first movie, 1996’sBullet.“I guess the scar gave me an “edge,“wrote Williams, whodiedin 2021 of afentanyl overdoseat age 54. “It made me look like the tough guy I wasn’t.“Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free weekly newsletterto get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.Scenes from My Lifeis available everywhere books are sold on Aug. 23.
Michael K. Williams.Photo: Jesse Dittmar/Redux
In his upcoming posthumous memoirScenes from My Life,The WirestarMichael K. Williamswrote about his life in 1991 when he was in the midst of a successful modeling and dancing career and about to head to London on tour. But on the eve of his 25th birthday, a friend called to invite him out to a club in Queens to celebrate. By midnight he was drunk, showing off his moves on the dance floor.That’s when Williams stepped outside for some air and spotted a group of men encircling an acquaintance from Brooklyn. He shouted at them, and the friend told him to go back inside.What happened next would change Williams' life forever.When he eventually went to leave the club for the night, Williams encountered one of the threatening men, who was now standing alone.“In a flash, he smacked me across the face,” he wrote. “I put my hand to my forehead. Then I saw the dark liquid on my fingers. The guy hadn’t been slapping me. He had been cutting me open.“The man had been holding a razor, cutting Williams “from my forehead, across the bridge of my nose, down my right cheek almost to my jawbone.“Michael K. Williams.Arturo Holmes/GettyAs Williams bled profusely, his friend sped him to the emergency room, where he waited in excruciating pain all night for a plastic surgeon to come on duty, knowing what the wrong set of hands could do to his photogenic face — and his career.Eventually, “the cut healed into one big swollen line and I never felt more ugly,” he wrote. But over time, a curious thing happened. “Strangers would stop me on the street and say they found my scars striking. I began to get gigs in music videos, not even to dance,” he wrote. David LaChapelle asked to photograph him;Tupac Shakurcast him from a headshot to play his younger brother in Williams' first movie, 1996’sBullet.“I guess the scar gave me an “edge,“wrote Williams, whodiedin 2021 of afentanyl overdoseat age 54. “It made me look like the tough guy I wasn’t.“Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free weekly newsletterto get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.Scenes from My Lifeis available everywhere books are sold on Aug. 23.
In his upcoming posthumous memoirScenes from My Life,The WirestarMichael K. Williamswrote about his life in 1991 when he was in the midst of a successful modeling and dancing career and about to head to London on tour. But on the eve of his 25th birthday, a friend called to invite him out to a club in Queens to celebrate. By midnight he was drunk, showing off his moves on the dance floor.
That’s when Williams stepped outside for some air and spotted a group of men encircling an acquaintance from Brooklyn. He shouted at them, and the friend told him to go back inside.
What happened next would change Williams' life forever.
When he eventually went to leave the club for the night, Williams encountered one of the threatening men, who was now standing alone.
“In a flash, he smacked me across the face,” he wrote. “I put my hand to my forehead. Then I saw the dark liquid on my fingers. The guy hadn’t been slapping me. He had been cutting me open.”
The man had been holding a razor, cutting Williams “from my forehead, across the bridge of my nose, down my right cheek almost to my jawbone.”
Michael K. Williams.Arturo Holmes/Getty
As Williams bled profusely, his friend sped him to the emergency room, where he waited in excruciating pain all night for a plastic surgeon to come on duty, knowing what the wrong set of hands could do to his photogenic face — and his career.
Eventually, “the cut healed into one big swollen line and I never felt more ugly,” he wrote. But over time, a curious thing happened. “Strangers would stop me on the street and say they found my scars striking. I began to get gigs in music videos, not even to dance,” he wrote. David LaChapelle asked to photograph him;Tupac Shakurcast him from a headshot to play his younger brother in Williams' first movie, 1996’sBullet.
“I guess the scar gave me an “edge,“wrote Williams, whodiedin 2021 of afentanyl overdoseat age 54. “It made me look like the tough guy I wasn’t.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free weekly newsletterto get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.
Scenes from My Lifeis available everywhere books are sold on Aug. 23.
source: people.com
