Actor, head of a film production company and a former Georgia Bulldog football player, Omari Hardwick has a supporting role in "Next Day Air," a comedy that releases Friday. The comedy, starring Donald Faison ("Scrubs") and comedian Mike Epps, follows the delivery of concealed bricks of cocaine to the wrong address. Hardwick, 35, from Decatur and now living in Southern California, spoke by phone with staff writer Ken Sugiura about the movie and "Dark Blue," a TNT undercover cop drama that premieres in July. (Answers were edited for length.)
Q: Why should people go see the movie?
A: It's funny upon funny. It's not the typical cliché sense of humor, that would be my big selling point. ... The jokes are not attempted. The humor comes out of the dialogue.
Q: You worked with some fairly recognizable names — Mike Epps, Donald Faison, Mos Def and Debbie Allen. Who made the biggest impression on you?
A: I would have to say Donald. ... He's done "Clueless" and he's on a long-standing show in "Scrubs" that's a pretty funny show. [In "Next Day Air"], he's in an urban element of trying to push jokes, and that's not something we've seen him do. His humor tends to border on goofiness. ... He's still Donald Faison as the world knows him, but he's really, really bringing it. He did a great job.
Q: What is your role on "Dark Blue"?
A: He's sort of the Donnie Brasco of undercover cops. He's got the wife at home and perhaps the kids on the way. If we get to other seasons, hopefully that will be worked into the story line, just trying to be a really good husband, and how really good, quote-unquote, can you be when you're an undercover cop?
Q: How do you see the next five years playing out for you?
A: That's a great question. I'm head of a production company called Bravelife Films. I really see that being something that really takes off for me. We are working right now on a project that, like anybody that is in the pubescent stage of their production company, hopefully that project in the next year and a half will have more than just legs and it will be running. It's sort of a "Love Actually" type of movie.
I don't want to simply look up in five years and it only be an acting career for the past 10 years. I don't want that. I'm a writer, as well. I'm working on a one-man show that I'm trying to get up.
Q: What kind of actor would (former UGA teammate and two-time Super Bowl champion) Hines Ward have made?
A: Hines, he would have been, I think, a great actor. He would have been good at anything he did.
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