The NAACP Image Awards, beyond its social function, became a black Hollywood reunion for Tyler James Williams, the star of “Everybody Hates Chris.” He said the show has transformed him in very fundamental ways. “It has changed my life completely. I had to learn so many things in so little time. [I knew] the show was going to be a hit when I read the first script — even if I didn’t get the job.”

He often unleashes the type of murderous glare that can melt bullet-proof glass. But even as Clifton Powell revels in the delicious wickedness of the sinister movie characters he’s so famous for, he dissects his artistry so precisely that it’s easy to understand why he’s won so many NAACP Image Awards. It’s why the versatile actor had a banner year in 2007 with no less than 11 film roles.

“My approach to acting is based on developing the internal psychological makeup of a character. So every character that I play, I don’t necessarily think there’s any difference, but it’s my job to find the truth,” says the Washington, D.C., native, who sounds like he should be teaching behind the lectern at Emerson College, where he attended. “I try to approach all characters with just the truth, and then you find different nuances and subtleties. That’s why I can go from playing Pinkie, [and] then go to Martin Luther King, [or] playing Buffalo Soldiers, or being a womanizer, or playing someone in Menace to Society.”