(AllHipHop News) Many television watchers first became familiar with Michael K. Williams because of his portrayal of Omar Little on the classic HBO series The Wire. However, it may not be as well known that a legendary emcee played a big part in Williams eventually becoming a star.

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During an interview with The Lowdown with Diana Madison, Williams talked about how Tupac Shakur helped him get a role in his first major movie. The Brooklyn native was tapped to act in a 1996 crime drama with 2Pac.

“He was a very passionate, intelligent, charismatic, talented young man. We can only wonder what he would have accomplished had he lived to become an adult. We forget he was just a kid, 25 years old,” said Williams about Pac. “He saw my Polaroid in an office, and he saw that I had a scar on my face. He went to [director] Julien Temple and said, ‘Go find this guy. He looks thugged out enough to play my little brother in Bullet.'”

Williams continued, “The first or second day of work I showed up ‘fashionably late’… [Pac] cussed me out, asked me if I was okay, and put me to work in like 10 words… I’m grateful to him. He changed the trajectory of my life literally.”

Up next for Williams is Hap & Leonard on the Sundance Channel. He also appears in the forthcoming Ghostbusters reboot starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones.