Oscar Isaac stars in “Show Me a Hero”

It’s not always easy being the man in charge. While it’s true that being a leader gives a person a fair amount of power, it can be a tough thing to wield -- and keeping everyone beneath you happy is a near-impossible task.

In 1987, former police officer Nick Wasicsko became the youngest mayor in the history of Yonkers, N.Y., at the age of 28. In his latest HBO series, “Show Me a Hero,” David Simon, creator of “The Wire” and “Treme,” relates the true story of Wasicsko’s fight for the desegregation of public housing in the city and its effects on him, other elected officials, activists and the citizens of Yonkers. The six-part miniseries premieres Sunday, Aug. 16, on HBO.

The show is based on journalist Lisa Belkin’s 1999 non-fiction book of the same name, which examines the effects of a 1985 ruling by Judge Leonard B. Sand that 200 apartments be built in Yonkers to house poor, largely minority residents in white, middle-class areas of the city. This effectively uprooted these poorer families and deposited them into more affluent neighborhoods, many of whose residents opposed and resented their presence there.

Wasicsko was elected on a promise that he would fight the demand for desegregation, but just days before his inauguration, a federal appeals court upheld the order. Persuaded by the city’s lawyers that fighting it was a lost cause, Wasicsko reversed his position and instead backed integration. The backlash from white residents was immediate and strong, and heavy fines against city council members who opposed the plan threatened to push the city to bankruptcy.

Wasicsko is portrayed in “Show Me a Hero” by Golden Globe nominee Oscar Isaac, in a rare departure from the big screen to TV. The Guatemalan-born actor has been making a name for himself recently, particularly since his title role in the critically acclaimed Coen Brothers film “Inside Llewyn Davis” (2013). He’s been praised for his performance in “A Most Violent Year” (2014), in which he starred alongside Golden Globe winner Jessica Chastain, and appeared earlier this year in the creepy sci-fi flick “Ex Machina.” Look for him towards the end of 2015 in “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens” and as the title villain in “X-Men: Apocalypse,” scheduled for release next spring.

For now, though, Isaac’s sticking much closer to reality, and that’s just the way Simon likes it.

“I find myself drawn to stories that are about people as I actually have encountered them in the world,” the writer and executive producer told “The Journal News.” “A lot of the entertainment world is about people who are bigger than the institutions they're in -- the cop who won't take ‘no,’ the drug dealer who is more evil, the guy with magic powers. For me, the real was very interesting to us.”

Winona Ryder and Oscar Isaac as seen in “Show Me a Hero”

Isaac isn’t the only big name in “Show Me a Hero.” Oscar nominee and ‘90s darling Winona Ryder (“Girl, Interrupted,” 1999) plays Yonkers city council president Vinni Restiano, an advocate of integration. Jim Belushi (“According to Jim”) plays Wasicsko’s mayoral election opponent Angelo R. Martinelli, and Alfred Molina (“Spider-Man 2,” 2004) portrays city council member Henry J. Spallone. Oscar nominee Catherine Keener (“Being John Malkovich,” 1999) plays Mary Dorman, one of the many East Yonkers residents who is fervently against racial integration in her neighborhood.

“I think all the characters appealed to us because they were not larger than life,” Simon said in the “Journal News” interview. “They weren’t smaller than life, but nor were they superheroes or rising above their moment or being more evil than required.”

It’s no surprise that the former journalist is drawn to reality, and Simon’s shows are known to focus on the friction between those who make and enforce the laws and the ordinary people who are affected by them.

Simon began his career as a crime reporter for “The Baltimore Sun,” and his experiences shadowing the Baltimore Police Department homicide unit in the late ‘80s served as the basis for his first book, “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.” This in turn was the basis for the NBC series “Homicide: Life on the Street,” which Simon wrote and produced. He’s described his critically acclaimed series “The Wire” as being “about the American city, and about how we live together. It’s about how institutions have an effect on individuals.” He also adapted Evan Wright’s book “Generation Kill” into an HBO miniseries of the same name, which is based on the author’s experiences as an embedded reporter at the start of the Iraq war.

“I’m sort of past the point where I want to do larger than life, and most of TV is about larger than life,” he said. “We’re trying to tell a story in a medium where vampires and gangsters and dragons prevail.”

For his part, Simon is far more concerned with telling a story that he feels needs to be told than he is with pulling in huge viewership numbers. If "Show Me a Hero" goes the way of his previous series, it will prove a quiet but critical success and Simon can consider his a job well done.

"Show Me a Hero" premieres its six-part run Sunday, Aug. 16, on HBO.