TV PREVIEW
“Power,” 9 p.m. Saturday, Starz
For years, Decatur native Omari Hardwick has accepted life as the No. 2 guy, the supporting role player in films and TV shows.
He did so on two TNT dramas, “Saved” (behind Tom Everett Scott) and “Dark Blue” (behind Dylan McDermott). He was an excellent supporting cast member on films such as “Kick-Ass” and “Sparkle.” Earlier this year, he was the philandering husband longing for Gabrielle Union’s lead character in BET’s “Being Mary Jane,” shot here in Atlanta.
But now Hardwick, 40, is taking on the No. 1 role for the first time on the new Starz drama “Power,” debuting at 9 p.m. Saturday. He plays a big-time New York City drug dealer trying to go legit by owning nightclubs.
“I was always extremely aware of my talent level. I often ran from positions of No. 1.,” Hardwick said during a Q&A at a screening of the first episode of “Power” at Duluth Studio Movie Grill last month. “I was comfortable leading from No. 2.”
But while shooting “Being Mary Jane” in Atlanta, he learned “I had that leading man thing. I had that leading man gift,” he said in an earlier interview at White Oak Kitchen in downtown Atlanta.
Hardwick’s character, James “Ghost” St. Patrick, is complex and conflicted. He’s been doing dirty-work drug dealing for years with his childhood friend Tommy (Joseph Sikora) and his supportive wife, Tasha (Naturi Naughton). His move into nightclubs is a way to perhaps get out of the illegal drug world. Tommy and Tasha aren’t exactly thrilled.
Ghost, to Hardwick, “is quiet and brooding but very physical. He needed to be secretly enraged at all times. I made him a very quiet lion who didn’t really let his roar come out. … I saw him as an eagle and a lion.”
He read “Catcher in the Rye,” tapped into Holden Caulfield’s rebellious nature. He watched “The Cosby Show” because Ghost has three children.
“The darkness and bad part of this guy is often easily accessible,” Hardwick said. “It’s fun for an actor. But he was a father, too. I wanted to tap into that childlike quality good daddies have. In the end, Ghost is (notorious Colombian drug dealer) Pablo Escobar meets Cliff Huxtable.”
Ghost deals with Latino gangs frequently and speaks solid Spanish. Hardwick credits his time at local private school Marist. “That was money well spent,” he said.
There is also a scene in the first episode where he is at opening night of his hot new club Truth and has to take off his suit and tie to handle some drug-related business in the basement. On the way back to the club in the elevator, Hardwick quickly and expertly puts on his tie in a matter of seconds with a steely, determined look on his face.
Ben Carter, his best friend at Marist, said they had to wear uniforms every day and learned to how to tie their ties in less than 30 seconds after PE class.
And since this is a pay cable network, the show has nudity. The good news: Hardwick is cut. His brother Malik said “one of his sanctuaries is the gym. It’s part of his process. It’s part of his life.”
But Carter says Hardwick “is more than a pretty boy or a jock. (He played football at the University of Georgia.) He loves poetry slams. He’s very thoughtful, very introspective. This is a great role for him.”
