Jeremy Renner Ready To ‘Kill The Messenger’ In Film About CIA-Smeared Journo Gary Webb

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133. 9.30.14 Michael K. Williams Clueless of Freeway Ricky Ross Until ‘Messenger’ Role

Michael K. Williams Clueless of Freeway Ricky Ross Until ‘Messenger’ Role
Sep 30, 14 by Cherie Saunders

http://www.eurweb.com/2014/09/michael-k-williams-clueless-of-freeway-ricky-ross-until-messenger-role/

Michael K. Williams Clueless of Freeway Ricky Ross Until ‘Messenger’ Role
Sep 30, 14 by Cherie Saunders
Michael K. Williams Clueless of Freeway Ricky Ross Until Messenger Role
Actor Michael K. Williams attends the ‘The Equalizer’ New York premiere at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on September 22, 2014 in New York City

*Michael K. Williams certainly knows how to leave his mark on a character.
From gay stick-up man Omar Little of “The Wire,” to racketeer Chalky White in “Boardwalk Empire,” to the rebellious Robert of “12 Years a Slave,” who fought and died on a ship bound for New Orleans, where he was to be sold,” the actor’s characters tend to stay with you long after he has shed the role and moved on to the next.
On October 10, Williams hits theaters as notorious L.A. drug lord Freeway Ricky Ross in the film “Kill the Messenger,” the true story about the CIA’s role in allowing major drug dealers to smuggle cocaine into the U.S., and using the money to arm the rebel Contras in Nicaragua.
Jeremy Renner (L), Michael K. Williams (C) in "Kill the Messenger"
Jeremy Renner (L), Michael K. Williams (C) in “Kill the Messenger”

Jeremy Renner plays Gary Webb, the real life Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose path to expose the connection threatened not only his career, but his family and his life.
“I was completely ignorant to Gary Webb, this whole Contra war…I had no idea,” Williams told us during roundtable interviews for the film last week.
“I didn’t even know there was a real Rick Ross,” he said.
Ross was 18, illiterate and turned down for a tennis scholarship when the government helped flood his community with crack cocaine in 1979. He took advantage, and through the next decade would buy and sell several metric tons of cocaine, earning hundreds of millions in profits.
He was exporting product to New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other states by the time he was busted for selling 100 kilos to a federal agent and given a life sentence in 96.
Later that year, Webb had written several articles in the San Jose Mercury News that revealed a connection between one of Ross’ cocaine sources, Danilo Blandón, and the CIA as part of the Iran-Contra scandal. Ross’ case went before a federal court of appeals, which found he was being over-sentenced and reduced his time to 20 years. He was released from custody on Sept. 29, 2009.
Williams, who got to meet with Ross before beginning the role, still can’t understand why he was on the late freight when it came to Freeway Ricky Ross and the CIA’s overall connection to the crack epidemic in America’s inner cities.

“Kill the Messenger” opens Oct. 10. Watch the trailer below.

Read more at http://www.eurweb.com/2014/09/michael-k-williams-clueless-of-freeway-ricky-ross-until-messenger-role/