“Power” is the highly anticipated new series is executive produced by 50 Cent. 

“Power” tells the story of a visionary crime drama set in two different worlds, the glamorous New York club scene and the brutal drug trade. James “Ghost” St. Patrick has it all: a beautiful wife, a gorgeous Manhattan penthouse, and the hottest, up-and-coming new nightclub in New York. His club, Truth, caters to the elite: the famous and infamous boldface names that run the city that never sleeps. As its success grows, so do Ghost’s plans to build an empire. However, Truth hides an ugly reality. It’s a front for Ghost’s criminal underworld; a lucrative drug network, serving only the wealthy and powerful. As Ghost is seduced by the prospect of a legitimate life, everything precious to him becomes unknowingly threatened. Once you’re in, can you ever get out? 50 Cent and Omari Hardwick participated in a press conference on set to discuss their new show.

Q: How much is music going to be a part of the show ongoing? 

50 Cent: It’s a big part of it since it’s an actual nightclub environment. Also, you gotta have different things to capture the moment and feeling and that’s become things that they can use for instrumentals … of course since the very first portion of the music  that I created that I played in the meeting … that’s some of the things that they could use for instrumentals and small portions of the chorus’ and stuff like that. And then now, to mirror the things that are actually out and hit records at the moment. The show itself has to feel like…now…with hit music playing. So we went back and actually created some things … I used writers that wrote those hit records that you hear playing. I did it in a different way. I didn’t just call anybody.

Hardwick: He could call anybody. Everybody’s on speed dial for 50.

Q: You’ve got such a diverse background, especially with the music, and for us we know you as being incredibly ambitious and we only expect greatness from you. So where do you see this process of “Power” going? What do you expect to see?

50 Cent: You can expect at least seven or eight seasons. I think that it’ll be on for a while. I watch, day to day, I watch the daily’s everyday and I see…

Hardwick: He’s very hands-on.

50 Cent: It came all the way together. I feel like, when you…when I see things that are real, like real people and their performances … you could forget about the actual character itself and the person that’s actually playing the role and just know that that’s real, like what the person is doing the response to different things that are happening in the show…you leave like…okay let me look at the next episode… I know people are gonna go home to watch it. Like, be junkies.

Hardwick: But after all of that I don’t think he knows what he’s created, if that makes sense. Because it’s hard to know, he’s so in it. He’s Ghost in the sense, in this regard. He’s Ghost in the sense that this is a commencement, a graduation for him going to another place in life. But there have been Mark Wahlberg’s who have done what they’ve done producer wise, Mark just got his GED after being incarcerated and somebody that I look up to. But he’s an actor. He was never musically was what 50 was musically. Marky Mark…

Q: It’s not the same.

Hardwick: But as an actor and as a producer, he’s been quite gifted. We went, ‘That’s what you should do.’ For 50 to have dominated musically, he didn’t just…he dominated…to come over here and we just haven’t seen anybody do this kind of thing and produce this magnitude…with the quality of stars as a grandfather and then the actors that he compiled…I don’t think he really knows the gravity of it all.

50 Cent: No I do!

Hardwick: Or not!

50 Cent: Master P did a lot of great things in film production. Not just the quality of the material…when he saw it he would do the same numbers. The hustler in him took advantage of it. Business is business. You’ll see interesting collaborations.

Q: What excites you about TV the most?

50 Cent: Well I mean…TV’s changed a lot. You see Academy Award winning actors…

Hardwick: It’s film now.

50 Cent: They’ll spend more money on production value so it’s like getting the chance to make eight films instead of an episode on television. When you would watch the show and it would have two rooms…two different places they were in the entire time. And now you have the chance to shoot the entire New York City and everything’s moving around. It’s expensive to shoot in New York City. That’s why you don’t see a lot of people shooting here. They go to Atlanta or Baton Rouge.

Q. Talk about what is was like developing this show for Starz and the casting process finding your lead actor?

50 Cent: When we actually started the development on the story … we talked about what the big thing that was misinterpreted by the main character and his choices. When you grow up in low income situations, the restraints that you see and are always present are financial. So you look around and you’ll see people make choices because it seems like a limitless opportunity verses Burger King or McDonald’s. And the object would be to earn to the point that you had the ability to be in business. Really be in business. A lot of people that they see standing on the corner are standing there with an entrepreneurial spirit. They’d like to earn enough to be in a legit business. To move away from that lifestyle because the dead-end… what you see visibly at the end of the street … they see it also. … Maybe I could get enough before I get to the corner. And then stop and do something completely different. This is what ended up in the art of Ghost’s character in the story. And then Omari … immediately as we started to talk about possibly people to put in the film to play it. He came to mind and I said things to Courtney she’s like ‘Look let me show you the list of things that we already at.’ And he was already on that list and I was like, ‘Let’s cross our fingers and hope he’s available,’ because the first person that you want in that actual role, like the first choice…it’s very rare that that person is actually just free. By the point that they reach your radar they’re working at that point. So it’s a high probability that you meet this person while they’re actually on another project or in the middle of something so to be lucky enough to catch Omari at that point … it really started to make me feel like the stars were lining up for us.

Hardwick: Pun intended.  Down to the network.

50 Cent: And then the first time we met with Starz I felt like I sold the show, like we sold it!

Q: What happened during that meeting that made you feel like you’d sold the show?

50 Cent: I actually had music that I created for the show and in the very early stages of the actual project that I felt had Ghost’s character and Tasha’s character…it was a representation within the actual music and because Courtney explained the actual story to them in detail I went to just playing the actual music so it was an abnormal pitch for a television show, it already had a record. So it was already connected there.

Q: Omari, what spoke to you about the part when they presented it to you?

Hardwick: Well, you know, honestly for me…I always knew … having touched football, trying to make it go further, then God wanted football to go for me and then having been this theater cat in school…this artsy, weird athlete…I kinda always knew the money wasn’t a big deal for me. You tell a black kid that we’ve got economic downpour and we don’t know where the money will come from…and you go really? We’re born in that. So in my pursuit of becoming an actor I felt financially the same way. So when I would look at characters I was just really into that which scared me and what made me fearful was the same thing that I used to gravitate towards. So when they created this character and I thought…well, it’s been a lifetime or at least a humble 11 year career of characters that have led to this but it’s always been one of those things where, for me, even if the character’s bad, it’s possible. I go in and just unapologetically playing it and I try to bring whatever humanity or empathy you could bring to that character. At the end of the day everybody’s just a mere person. And so even when you guys are interviewing us right now we might say something that leaves you driving home thinking, ‘Oh I guess I have played that devilish side of my angel.’ Whether it be a relationship, whether it be whatever.

50 Cent: You heard how he said that? ‘Devilish side of my angel.’ It’s different things that you say and it’s almost…it’s already written. It feels like something that was written somewhere. I got like four or five different Omari quotes.

Hardwick: I just thought…I could live in this guy …I  just think every average to good actor is a lot of who they play.

Q: Omari, I know that I’ve seen you in Ava DuVernay’s film ‘Middle of Nowhere’ and it’s really cool to see that you’re gonna get this opportunity to play out a character of this caliber with the same type of skill set that you played in that film. Can you kind of talk about that a little bit?

Hardwick: That was the big thing…when 50 says the stars align and you go, ‘Oh I hope the person that’s your first choice is available,’ for me there were other options, but it’s rare that you get the opportunity to…I remember reading something…Bruce Springsteen wrote something some years ago in a magazine and I’ve held onto it. Bruce said, ‘You must always remember the conversation that you started with your fans.’ When I thought about that I thought 50 and Courtney have created a character that now is allowing me a bigger stage to maintain or sustain the conversation I started years ago being this indie guy that could do “Kick-Ass” and “A-Team” and was an athlete. And I could jump in there and do things on movies that had green screens set up but I enjoyed “Middle of Nowhere.” Because It was about character.

50 Cent: He’s outta there now.

Hardwick: He brought me something now that I was able to go…okay, on bigger platforms now we can see what I’ve, in a smaller way, have been up to. “Next Day Air” had a lot. There was a guy, Shavoo, he had a lot of that. I know 50 looked at “Next Day Air” and thought, ‘This kid is different.’ But I chose it, maybe, Benny Boom, the great director, there weren’t enough people that watched it but I think your question is perfect and it’s apropo to the stars aligning and 50 going, ‘You were doing the work but the trampoline wasn’t big enough for folks to see how big you jump.’ And then he went like this and that’s when it went great for me.

Q. What valuable lessons have you learned from 50 so far, being that you’re working so closely with him on this project?

Hardwick: He’s taught me a lot about patience. Curtis has taught me a lot. Some days the lesson comes from 50, some days it comes from Curtis. But he’s taught me a lot about…there was a plan. When you think about his life, the reason why everybody’s so fascinated with it is because when you look at 50 there’s so much more that meets the eye. When you look at him, you look at him. When you get to know him you go…holy shit. So I think when he’s able to see that in other people…maybe the greatest part about him is he’s secure enough to go, ‘Lettme give this guy a shot.’ You don’t find that a lot.

Q. There are a lot of moving parts on this set, what would you say is a major difference between filming in New York opposed to filming in L.A.?

50 Cent: New York actors are different, they know how to say no. The difference between people from New York and Los Angeles…well the’re completely different. In Hollywood, they don’t want to say no because then they’ll remember them as the person who said no. So they said, ‘Yeah I’d love to work with you until you see the film roll.’

Q. Omari, how did you prepare for this role and what spoke to you about the project?

Hardwick: 50 envisioned this two-three years ago. This entire show was his brainchild. Courtney came and she put a blueprint to what he already envisioned. To me, as an actor, I immediately think you dress an actor first from head to toe. You start with a hat, you start with shoes. That’s how you create a character. You put everything on in between. But if you have a backdrop in New York…you almost don’t need to worry about your hat and your shoes. It’s fuckin’ dope. It’s bricks, it’s snow, it’s concrete, it’s sexy at night, odd looking during the day. It’s ominous. It’s Gotham City! But sexy at night…it’s just, it’s power. As ominous and as cheesy as that word could have been, our objective was to make this show with that name attached to it be not cheesy and be just really something that only the likes of The Sopranos are.

50 Cent: I mean, if you look at the city at night we show you the extreme of buildings and Harlem and the not so high income to the bussiness district, we show you the entire skyline.

Hardwick: Yes, all the way across and it looks so different.

50 Cent: Across the skyline. Power is just that. It’s the business district. It’s someone who aspires to do it on the highest level possible. It’s just the route to it that creates all of those different conflicts.

Hardwick: But he’s from Jamaica, Queens. The characters from where 50 grew up, you know?

Q: I see a lot of similarities.

Hardwick: A part of our work was…Tommy, played by Joe Sikora, and I went to Jamaica, Queens and found the street that 50 grew up on and we did it. It’s the only way…you gotta live up in that and be in that for a while. You can’t do that in Toronto. I’m gonna call 50 and go, ‘Yo! I’m in Toronto!’ It’s different. How can I see your street? And fly back this Sunday how do you do that?

50 Cent: It’s like Los Angeles…if you were going to the jungle there’s people, because of the actual environment, there would be people jumping down saying, ‘Who are you here to see?’ Specifically that is not culturally what goes on in New York City. You got so many random acts that people just look and say to themselves, ‘Who are you here to see?’ instead of jumping down to say it.

Q: So you went in the day time to do your research?

Hardwick: No, he couldn’t have hired someone to play that who could only go in the daytime. Joe and I did Jamaica, Queens two nights in a row. Late, late, 3am in the morning late. Talking to shorty’s on the block still on the block. They’re 14 years old.

Starz will premiere its new Original Series “Power” On Saturday, June 7.

-Chasity Saunders (@itsmechasity)