Letitia Wright Says 'Amazing' Michael K. Williams Was 'Beautiful to Work With' on His Final Film (Exclusive)

Letitia Wright chats with PEOPLE about working with the late Michael K. Williams on their upcoming movie 'Surrounded,' which she stars in and co-produced

Working alongside Michael K. Williams on Surrounded, his final film before his death, was nothing short of an honor for Letitia Wright.

She and the late Williams, who died in September 2021 at age 54, share a particularly tense scene in the movie. As she tells PEOPLE, she was over the moon to work with such a prolific talent.

Wright, 29, says she knew the "amazing artist" from numerous projects — The Wire, of course, but also HBO's The Night Of with Riz Ahmed — and that Williams' name came up when the filmmakers were on a Zoom call together trying to figure out who would fit the mysterious character opposite the two leads, Wright and Jamie Bell.

"[Director] Anthony [Mandler] was like, 'What if we get Michael K.?' And I texted him, I was like, 'If you get Michael K., this will solidify the whole film,' " she tells PEOPLE. " 'Me, Jamie Bell, Michael K. — it'll be great.' "

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Related: Michael K. Williams Career in Photos

According to Wright, after they contacted Williams about appearing in Surrounded, "He left whatever he was doing and he said, 'Look, I got you. I got you guys. I want to be a part of this.' "

And the "energy" and work ethic he brought to the set, even between takes, "was beautiful to see."

"He was so beautiful to work with, honestly," Wright says. "I think he was going to the Bahamas or something after [shooting]. We were in the freezing cold in the desert. He's like, 'I'm going to the Bahamas.' I was like, all right, bet."

Asked whether the cast and crew did anything special to honor Williams after his death, Wright says they "were all in different areas in the world" art the time, "and we all spoke to each other online and tried to share condolences with his family, with his friends."

"We've yet to do that as a team," she adds. "But when we all see each other, it'll be the main thing we discuss and we talk about, and I feel like we'll get to do that."

Wright stars in Surrounded as Moses “Mo” Washington, a character who was inspired by Buffalo soldier Cathay Williams.

"Five years after the Civil War, freedwoman and former Buffalo Soldier Moses 'Mo' Washington travels west to lay claim on a gold mine — the summation of years of toil for Mo and her community," reads an official synopsis of the film. "It is a mean, dangerous world for an unaccompanied Black woman in 1870 America, and so Mo travels into the deep frontier disguised as a man."

"After her stagecoach is ambushed by a group of murderous thieves, Mo is forced to hold legendary outlaw Tommy Walsh (Bell, 37) captive while the remaining surviving passengers seek out help," it continues. "What ensues is a battle of wills, blurring the line between captor and captive, as they both try to survive the harsh western landscape."

The film, which was written by Andrew Pagana and Justin Thomas, was something that appealed to Wright in large part due to the character she would be playing.

"[It was] something that I had never seen before for myself as a Black woman leading a film, and the strength of the character really," she tells PEOPLE. "Her journey just really inspired me, and I wanted to be a part of it and to be the one to tell it."

Related: Letitia Wright on Handling Controversy: 'Have to Keep Going Strong with What You Believe In'

Asked her biggest takeaway from Surrounded in terms of a message, the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star says, "When you have just a belief for your future to be different and just to never give up on that."

"Never give up on believing that you deserve something beautiful in life, something that could be your own," she adds. "Mo was fighting for that and she did that until the very end, so that really stayed with me."

Aside from Wright, Bell and Williams, the movie also features Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) and Stranger Things star Brett Gelman, with executive producers Aaron Ginsberg, William Green, Jason Cloth, Richard McConnell and Suraj Maraboyina.

Wright serves as co-producer alongside Mandler, 50, plus Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Michael Berman, Derek Iger and Ade O’Adesina.

Surrounded will be available On Digital everywhere June 20.

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