Chat with "Oz's" Kareem Said

HBO presents

August 31, 2000

Actor Eamonn Walker answers questions about his role on HBO's hit television series, "Oz."

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HBO: Welcome to "Oz" Chat! Tonight's guest is Eamonn Walker who plays the strong, yet vulnerable, Kareem Said. Eamonn's just completed his fourth season with "Oz," and he's here to answer your questions about his career and his unique experience portraying Said.

Eamonn Walker: Hi. Hope you enjoyed last night's episode.

Wenwick: How do you manage to keep such a low profile, and yet be one of the strongest men in OZ?

Eamonn Walker: I spend a lot of time observing everybody in that prison, and Said doesn't make a move until he's absolutely ready or he absolutely has to. He normally makes a move when he's ready--after he considers all aspects of it.

Mina: Being that Said is so devoted to Allah, how could he lie to Adebisi in the name of Allah, even if it was for the good of other? Lying in the name of God is a major sin in Islam. And by the way, I think you are incredible in every way.

Eamonn Walker: Thank you. It was not something that he did lightly. He had an idea, a plan, and the consequences of not lying were too grave for the situation. So he made a decision that he would say, "Sorry" to Allah after he had achieved his goal.

BUMBACLOT: Eamonn, big fan. What do you think Tom Fontana's reason was for turning Said to murder? Are you satisfied with where your character is going?

Eamonn Walker: The way we work at "Oz" is nobody knows what's in the next script. We trust Tom to take the character on an interesting journey, bringing up all the issues that society has to face. "Oz" is a catalyst for making the audience think about what is happening outside their front door, as well as those people in prison. So when Tom writes something, the trust that is there is also very exciting. And whether you enjoy the journey, that's not the issue. It's about whether we forced the audience to think.

Jfc: Tom Fontana once said he is not interested in God, per se, in his scripts, but only in what his characters think about God. In terms of what he has written for Said, do you think Fontana views God as just an idea in Said's mind, or as an "Oz" character who lurks behind the scenes? Do you think the difference would actually matter in understanding Said?

Eamonn Walker: I think it is very hard for anybody to understand Said. One, because Said does not understand himself. He has an internal journey, which is very conflicted. That makes me, Eamonn Walker, the actor, very excited to play. I disagree with what Tom says when he says I'm not interested in God, per se, because when he writes these characters and makes people think about their relationship with God . . . why they use God when they go to prison. Some people who never believed in God start praying to God because their situation is desperate. So Tom achieves two things with the character, Said. That is, he is forcing people to think about God in their lives. He is forcing people to think about people who they consider to be 'with' God. And the exciting part of that journey is to see God just right through a program that is so dark--that God is very present in it--and that he is interested in God.

Jfc: In your HBO video, you said you intended the blurred-out "Soul On Ice" you were reading in a scene to be a clue for the viewers about Said's journey. Can you say more about what clue you hoped they'd see?

Eamonn Walker: I remember now. It was in reference to the relationship that he was having with the character, Patricia Ross. The writer of that book was very honest in a way that I don't think a lot of black people have been honest. It was hard hitting to read in the same way that "Oz" is hard hitting, but it told of starting with one opinion and ended up in a situation like "Oz," and then really changed as a human being. The beginning of that book is about his attitude as a young man living in America, where it just seemed unfair to be a black man living in America at the time--this time being . . . I think it was 1960s. So I suggest people read it to get the full message that I am trying to convey.

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