Michael K. Williams On Channeling Pain For Lovecraft Country

The season finale of Lovecraft Country aired last night and social media was on fire. While the cast of the HBO series is saying goodbye for now, Michael K. Williams, who played  Montrose Freeman, is reflecting on his complicated character. 

Montrose is the father of Atticus Black, played by Jonathan Major. He is alo struggling with sexuality and the trauma of surviving the 1921 Tulsa massacre.

The 53-year-old actor told PEOPLE, “He’s traumatized. We meet this man, and he’s already a survivor of the Tulsa Massacre. He moved to the south side of Chicago, which is kind of a war-zone in itself. This is also happening through the Jim Crow era.”

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Williams continued, “He has issues, unresolved issues about himself that he was never allowed to explore.”

In reference  to the character’s sexuality, he explained, “Montrose doesn’t know if he’s gay or straight or bisexual.”

Williams also added, “He was never given the opportunity to explore any of that. He was told by society, his community and by his family what Black masculinity should look like, and he had to stuff anything away that didn’t resemble what he was told. That’s who Montrose is when we find him. He’s in a lot of pain.”

The four-time Emmy nominee revealed he had to tap into his own pain to become Montrose, “He comes from such a broken place. I just had to find my own pain and my own trauma, which was a very painful experience for me. All the generational pain that had been passed down through my own personal experiences, I had to dig deep down in that for Montros.”

There is no word if there will be a season two of Lovecraft Country.