The Stars Of Power Sit Down With The Source Magazine
In addition to our sit down with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson & Courtney Kemp Agboh – the creators of Starz new crime drama oriented TV show “Power” – we also had the opportunity to speak with the show’s lead actors Omari Hardwick & Joseph Sikora. The actors , who play “Ghost” & “Tommy” respectively, spoke to us about how their real life relationship influenced the bond their characters share on the show, the similarities and differences between their real life backgrounds and personalities compared to their on screen counterparts and a lot more. Check out our exclusive interview with them below.
The Source: Did the two of you know each other before you began the show?
Omari Hardwick: No, we met at the audition.
The Source: Considering the two of you have such a close relationship on the show and it’s such a part of the story, have you done anything to build that bond outside of filming?
Joseph Sikora: Omari is impressively strong, we’ve worked out together, it’s very difficult to keep up with him, but he inspired me to get in pretty good shape for the show.
Omari Hardwick: We’ve hung, we definitely hung, I don’t know if you could cast somebody that doesn’t feel like you’ve grown up with them. So hats off to our casting director and our producer and creator obviously, because I don’t know if I could work the thing they needed out of Ghost if you didn’t give me something out of him that felt like we grew up together
Joseph Sikora: There was a bond, we were very blessed to have a bond very early on.
The Source: Right, because in the show your relationship is very important and it’s built on them having spent their whole life as friends. Is there anyone in your personal life that you based your relationship with each other off of?
Omari Hardwick: I used Joe, I don’t know how to do that whole transfer thing, I come from method [acting] . I just used Joe, so I had to get to know Joe.
Joe: I feel that’s been a luxury to have a partner in the show that you trust, and I think that it’s been just really relaxing, we were talking the other day, I have three scenes with Omari tomorrow, thank goodness, it’s very relaxing.
Omari: Well we have one thing in common, we’re both one of three boys. Were both middle sons of three boys, as far as transferring reality of our connection. There’s always a similarity when it comes to friends, and that’s what draws people near. Joe will maybe say Omari reminds me of a friend that I had, but just a little.
Joe: We do use our relationship, and our dynamic, obviously it changes through the filter of the amazing writing of Courtney [Kemp Agboh], but we use kind of our relationship in the characters. In a way that we obviously trust each other in real life and we use that in the show as well. But we also challenge each other, I think Omari is always bringing his A Game and …
Omari: Joe does the same thing.
Joe: Bring your A Game!
The Source: Speaking of The A, Omari you’re from Atlanta right, Decatur specifically? A big theme of the show is moving up to the big city, what are the differences in New York vs. Atlanta?
Omari: Decatur is a lot of Harlem, a lot of Brooklyn, Decatur is Andre 3000, Decatur is Omari Hardwick. Atlanta is a piece of a Chicago or a piece of a New york. I went from a very Afro-American influenced lower to sometimes well enough to do familial environment, a lot of drug dealing, gang banning in Decatur. That’s were the sarcasm comes from, “Decatur where it’s greater”, because it wasn’t necessarily greater. That’s where that came from and ironically I went to a high school where I was one of thirteen blacks, so there’s the range, and then I went back to that black neighborhood where there’s gang banging and then I went back to a white high school. So Courtney has created a really good vibe for me to show the range that I found in my life from 13 years old to at least 18 years old. In that this guy goes to an environment where he’s very different and then he goes back to an environment and that environment not being the neighborhood, and then Joe’s character comes in. Home for him is Joe’s character. It doesn’t matter that we don’t look the same, we look the same to me because that’s all I know. So the way that I was brought up was extremely similar, in the loyalty that I grew up on, but venturing off and finding those other things in other places and other colors of people can be just as much flavor for me.
The Source: Joe what was your background like, have you found any similarities or challenges?
Joe: You know you definitely bring in things from your life or from your experiences for the character, and you know just a lot of just using your imagination. I definitely have a different background from Omari, I grew up middle/lower middle class on the outskirts of Chicago. I grew up only about a mile and a half from the suburbs , like a very cop and fireman, city worker neighborhood, and I kind forced myself upon the underbelly.
Omari: You didn’t grow up that different from me.
Joe: I definitely know the world, and have seen these scary scary guys, I think that I try to bring some first hand knowledge into it.
Omari: I think we’re both afraid to not tell the truth, we’re really afraid to not tell the truth, to be found out. It makes for a really good actor when you just don’t know how to not tell the truth, so Joe and I will be up till four in the morning, even if we’re on the phone with each other, we will try to figure out what the truth of the story is to us.
Joe: Calling each other up, talking about – what do you think about episode three, what about episode four, you got any clue how to handle this or that? Omari has been a great captain of the ship that way, in that he’s kind of fielded questions from other cast members, too and concerns that I think have allowed people to put a lot of faith in his kind of running of the ship and his trust as a leader. It’s been great, and just the kind of brother dynamic that we’ve always been able to feel.
The Source: Omari we know that your character is not necessarily a bio of 50 Cent, but what has it been like learning from him, as far as working on your character.
Omari: What I think I’ve learned is that he and I are very similar. I think given different opportunities in life we wouldn’t know that this was sort of a similarity between him and his up bringing and to what you’re now watching. He didn’t get those opportunities that I got, you know, my father was a lawyer who didn’t make a lot of money so we weren’t able to live in certain environments, but we were able to live comfortable enough. He had three sons and a daughter and my uncle as my brother, so really 4 boys and a girl, so what I’ve learned I think that if I would of put Curtis in the same upbringing that I was able to be a part of, then this wouldn’t be as biopic because I wouldn’t connect it to him. He’s a really bright, deep, sensitive poet at heart, who’s got an eight year old spirit but who’s got the mind of the wisest business man you’ll ever meet. There lies Curtis 50 Cent Jackson, so the dangerous element , or the “bad element” as the show is portrayed I think the greatest thing for me to learn was to really play the truth of those parts, the danger and the bad and what have you. I think the greatest lesson has been just to learn how good a person he is, I think to play the “uglier” colors you have to first learn how pretty someone is, and he’s a really good man, he’s a really good person he’s trying and I think at the end of the day I’m really attracted to that word try. I don’t think we nail it today tomorrow or on that day that God calls you home, I think you’re trying the whole way, I think he does a good job of trying. I think I’ve learned from him, to make this Ghost guy try, and I don’t nail it, I just make him try to be better make him try to be good, you know try to get out of drugs, you’re not going to execute then, try, just try.
The Source: Omari I know your involved with the Blue Apple Poetry project. Have you ever tried your hand at rapping, or putting your poetry to a beat?
Omari: Yeah a little bit, you know there’ve been emcees that have told me Omari you should rap, and Joe and I always say that the common thread between Joe and 50 of course was that they we’re both Golden Glove Boxers, and me being an athlete, so the three of us can put ourselves categorically into one pot of athlete meets hip hop junkie. Obviously 50 has made money being a hip hop junkie, but you know Joe and I, Joe’s a graffiti artist, that’s hip hop, Omari’s a spoken word artist, that’s not just a poet that’s hip hop. I’ve definitely had emcees tell me to try.
Joe: Rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live.
Omari: W’ere very hip hop influenced, you know we’re the better part of almost 4 decades, all three of us, we are KRS-One all the way to Mos Def and everybody in between, so yeah I’ve thought about rapping, I’d just rather leave that to the emcees.
Power premieres this Saturday June 7 on Starz Network. You can also watch the first episode online HERE.
