Omari Hardwick
We are a total of our sum parts, right? I came from a family of very strong women - black women. And if I go back as far as my great grandmothers, there was always that love and the ability to be nurturing. Then I grew up in a household where my father was the one who was more affectionate with me.
I was definitely a Daddy's boy.
I'd say my artistic bent definitely came from my father, who was a trial lawyer. And if you're smart, you know that a trial lawyer isn't that different from an actor. He was a poet as well.
I was raised looking at women who were strong, and they weren't really into playing race cards or playing gender cards. I didn't grow up around women who were like, 'Well, let the boys do that, and let the girls do that.' I didn't really see that in my house.
So many athletes who have been close to me have been everything to me.
That's the thing with me being a former athlete: in the way I attack characters and attack poetry is from the base of being an athlete.
I got in trouble for saying I would move my family to Europe, but I said it.
I'm addicted to the hotel life. It's humbling and fly at the same time.
I always have a backpack. I was a poet, so it reminds me of being a backpack poet.
Sometimes my schedule doesn't allow time to go to the hotel after I get off the plane, so I bring my Freebird boots or my old school Adidas shell-toes to throw on after I land.
I think 'Dark Blue' came to me while I was doing a project in London. I read it, and the character immediately popped out at me.
It's really rare to come across a character, a show, or a movie that allows you to completely play four or five different characters within a season, let alone a week.
It's an interesting thing to play the heroes of our society, like cops and firefighters. They're the basic heroes that, as little boys and little girls, you look up to as the first heroes of your small, specific community.
Playing a cop goes a long way. I have a lot of friends who are working as actors, and as soon as I started playing military characters or cops, and not the actual criminal that we're chasing on this show, they all said, 'You actually can have a career now.'
I'm always like, 'Well, let's not rest on a critical acclaim or on a incredible review or on a great reception.'
I tend to want to put my fingers over my ears and not hear all of that, not hear that there are so many fans.
'Dark Blue' was a really solid show, and it stopped at season two.
You don't go to church and tell the choir how to sing if you're a visitor.
As an actor, I come to set, and I have already broken the character down by writing a poem about the character. I try to write in his voice, the way he would write it.
I've approached every character I've ever played with a poem, first and foremost.
I think I'm an athlete who's trained as an actor, and when you smash it all together, you get whatever Omari is doing as a performer right now.
I think actors make for very good directors, and I would like to do that one day.
If I could remake any Eighties project, it would be less an action flick than a character-driven drama with a rich story to tell.
Like anybody who grew up in the Eighties, I cringe at the thought of these movies being remade, because of the corniness and cheesiness of the originals.
If I can just be thought of as Omari Hardwick who had a really, really solid career, and whose work is appreciated in its own right, I think that would be a great legacy to leave behind.
It's rare for artists to really stare deeply at themselves in the mirror, literally, because there's constantly a mirror on you.
I don't think there's a fan out there who hasn't had a family member or known someone personally who's been in the midst of divorce - perhaps not necessarily gotten the divorce or executed it, or perhaps they have - and still, in many cases, they found themselves back with the person that they were married to.
I grew up in a two-parent household. We all played sports, all sports, which cost a lot of money. My pops was an attorney; he went to College of the Holy Cross with Clarence Thomas. My mom worked a bit, then gradually came home and took care of us full time.
I don't make a big deal out of playing football at UGA to people who have interviewed me.
'Power' is a funny thing. Maybe it's a show that draws people in because they are watching people do things they secretly wish they could do or know they could get away with.
On 'Being Mary Jane,' I learned to embrace sex symbol.
I realized, 'Oh, it's easier to get what I want if I embrace the sex symbol thing.' Microphones are more in my face, and I can say things about the kids that I mentor and open more access to more doors.
I've definitely had my moments in relationships where I've been able to say yes, I have been heartbroken, my heart has been broken.
I think what's most important is family.
You know how you can be romantic? You can be romantic by going to a beautiful setting, sitting on a park bench, and getting good ole-fashioned golden arches, a.k.a. McDonald's. That's probably the best I can do romantically.
That point of life when I learned I could cook, that always made me understand what cooks felt like feeding other people. It's okay to receive, but it's really cool to give, so food is to me sexy because it's the fact that someone is giving it to someone else.
I've been writing for years, you know, and when I get to a particular place, city, or different locale, I find myself first of all being challenged by those that love me to write more.
'Power' is really such a good show that I forget I'm in it sometimes.
I always go into a character thinking, 'If it scares me, I can do it.'
I didn't want to just do a show where my character stood out and other characters were flat or one-to-two-dimensional. I wanted everybody to have meat.
I'm a black Catholic raised in Decatur, Georgia, which was very gang-infested. Then, I went to an all-white private high school and excelled in sports and wrote poetry, then played football at the University of Georgia, minoring in drama.
I was a 200-pound defensive back on Saturday, but after the season, I was performing 'Lysistrata' or 'Fences.'
If your character is just out there acting a fool, viewers are gonna say, 'Why am I watching this?' But if he's whispering, 'I don't really want to die,' there's a level of vulnerability cemented in these bad characters.
Poetry is almost like my foundation for everything. I almost feel I am a better actor and writer because of it.
Spike Lee gave me the greatest reaction to the fact that I was this athlete-meets-artist, because I think he saw that I was different. I learned that oftentimes, Spike directs in a sense that he might just stare at you and look at you in a telepathic way of communicating.
I would say that the woman's ability to multi-task and to be maternal in instinct, it fosters a different approach to the character that makes sense as an actor.
I kept on hearing the voice of God saying if you are going to be the minister that your mom mentioned... then you have to act. My pulpit is acting.
I would say, as loving as I am... I am definitely an extremely temperamental man who has a very large temper.
Acting is the art of being and existing, and not being fake.