Omari Hardwick: I would love to always be able to look back and go that was my first brand that I was attached to, so if I can be somewhat forever connected to this while building other brands that would really be cool to me.

 

Lucas Hendrickson: Omari Hardwick has wrestled with duality most of his life, and certainly throughout his creative career. A standout athlete growing up, he also directed his energy into creative pursuits, such as poetry and acting, jumping back and forth between what can sometimes be very different worlds. On this episode of Around the Barrel, we travel to Chicago to talk to the star of Starz' long-running drama series "Power," about creativity, mentorship, the skills needed to survive the business of show, and the merits of being a devilish angel turned into a gentleman.

 

Welcome back to Around the Barrel, the official podcast from the makers of Jack Daniel's. I'm your host, Lucas Hendrickson. Omari Hardwick knows the power words can have, they can transport one out of their present reality, or bring one back to solid ground in an instant. Over the past 15 years as an actor, Hardwick has brought life to words on screens big and small, and this July will mark the beginning of the fifth season of "Power," Starz Networks intricate crime drama where he plays James "Ghost" St. Patrick, the embodiment of a man living life in two very different worlds. Right now, Hardwick is lending his abilities and visibility to the second annual filmmaking competition Real-to-Reel (R-E-A-L to R-E-E-L) a contest sponsored by Gentleman Jack. It's a showcase for short films from creators of color, giving them a platform and opportunity to take their creative careers to the next level. We met with Omari in Chicago on the second stop of the Real-to-Reel screening tour, where he revealed himself as a man of deep thought about show business and the emerging roles of young professionals entering the world of filmmaking.

 

Omari:. I am Omari Hardwick. I have a day job of being an actor and by night I am a brand ambassador of sorts for Gentleman Jack, I double up my efforts in terms of where I call abode as Denver, Colorado and then New York City, respectively.

 

Lucas: Omari Hardwick. Thanks for joining us Around the Barrel.

 

Omari: Thank you for having me Around the Barrel.

 

Lucas: Let's set the scene real quick. We are at the end of a fairly long media day for Real-to-Reel here in Chicago. This is the what the second or third stop on the stop along your tour of Real-to-Reel, tell us about the origins of it. How did it get started? How did you get involved? And what's the goal for this project? 

 

Omari: There was a friend of mine who was attached to, obviously under the Brown-Forman family, Jack Daniel's Gentleman Jack, and they had this idea of knowing that I was involved in a program within their respective city, that being Florida. Okay, which also is home to the American Black Film Festival, right, which is one of the partners and so he just had this idea that you know, it would be a great look for you to be not only a part of a strong liquor and a strong brand, a classy, classy brand that gets no classier in terms of Gentleman Jack, but also a brand that therefore looks even classier in terms of what they're trying to do right for young filmmakers that you know are of brown, black culture. In terms of in front of the camera, that being actor, in terms of behind the camera, that being producer and director, and really trying to actualize their dreams, and make their dreams happen. And so they told me that they had this idea, this is obviously being our second annual idea to do a competition yearly where we solicit submissions from all of these young filmmakers and they turn in basically 10 to 15 minute shorts, covering the gamut of genre that film covers, and that being dramatic, comedy, love, thriller, horror, documentary. And so we've done the best job we think we can and in terms of bringing in a fraternity of very competitive films done by very qualified people who are doing quality work, and hoping that we find the next great Ava DuVernay or Ryan Coogler or Omari Hardwick or whatnot. So it was a no-brainer for me at that point Lucas to just be a part of it. I was like, well, that's a brand within a brand. I mean that, it gets no better than that as I said, that's literally branding. High level quality, quality figurative branding at the same token. 

 

Lucas: You've been a working actor for a while, and you're getting ready to launch the fifth season of your Starz series "Power" comes out and starts in July, right? 

 

Omari: That's right. 

 

Lucas: What kind of conversations do you have with young creative people, young professionals in this space? What are those conversations like for you? 

 

Omari: Awesome question, I feel like the conversations are a lot more hopeful and fruitful in terms of what we think we can get from the different desires and objectives that all of the people in the conversation have in terms of what they want to be or story they want to tell within the industry because of technological advances. So sometimes the conversation as much as we know Instagram is hurting the thirteen-year-old and literally at times, in terms of the bullying that that you deal with, in terms of trying to keep up with the Joneses in a very different way than our grandparents were trying to keep up with the next door neighbor, we know that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and the like were on to something when they've created opportunities for cameras to become their own little robots and film making machines, and that if we can simply be a cog in that machine then after a while the industry is paying attention to people that are telling great stories and it's not as much a political party as much, in terms of that you can only really get in the door if you're connected in a nepotistic way to this person, or you can only really have this opportunity if you look like this, metrically the industry has become a little bit more soft for the taking in terms of you going look, I did this with a phone, and a documentary I want to turn into, you know, an actual story. And what do you think, and you can imagine that those conversations for your fly-on-the-wall a lot of the conversations I have with, and it reaches the the wide variety of the diaspora of human beings, meaning white men, Irish brethren of mine, black buddies of mine, you know, Jewish friends of mine. All of all of these people, Asian friends of mine. We've all been sort of in a conversation. That's this ongoing reality of it's probably stronger in terms of our impact if we all can figure out how to corroborate our stories and our desires together, so the conversations tend to be a little bit more about that. You know, I've got a development deal with Starz. And so then that becomes a conversation because for me Lucas, I'm then reaching back to the seven writers that I've known when we were all broke, who I think always had a very rich and wealthy pen, even if their bank account was less or insufficient and the conversation now goes to we have some opportunities guys, because of the position that I'm in, so there seems to be a little bit more hope and again we kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel and I don't know if there weren't people that saw that prior but what I do know is that, you know, the actors of yesteryear were owned, of course by distribution houses or owned by, you know, production houses and being Universal Studios or... 

 

Lucas:  The barrier of entry was there based on who controlled the checkbook and who had access to the technology now that everybody has the access to technology I think it's even more important that storytelling be excellent as part of that, because if everybody can do it then nobody does it well until you do it well. 

 

Omari: Which ironically, it would speak to the reality that the generation of this present conversation that you speak of which is really a great thing. That's super cool that you brought that up, if that conversation is so ongoing then it has to be a conversation separately that is about challenging people to tell stories that are kind of out of their wheelhouse. It's an interesting conversation that is presently being had amongst a lot of the entertainment friends of mine. 

 

Lucas: One that's imperative that keeps evolving and going on and going. Do you think that there is a most important skill that creative people need to learn as part of this business of show business?

 

Omari:. Oh absolutely, tough skin, first and foremost. And the reality is there's a lot of brilliant artists who have not as tough skin, part of the reason their brilliance is displayed is because there's a level of sensitivity. Yeah, but the negative side of that level of sensitivity is not being able to actually put food on your table because you never got over the bitterness of the first "no" that you heard, you know, so first and foremost that to me and then I would say increasing your business acumen, and if gaining tough skin is within that or under that auspices or that umbrella then so be it, but more importantly understanding that, and you perfectly coined it, or you italicize business, but in reality perhaps it should precede the word "show." Yeah, and it should be called "business show." And I would just imagine telling young people to start very early at understanding numbers and money, and what somebody of Universal Studios or Disney means when they say you have to sell at an overseas market at a rate that we also sell here in the country. Like understand what that truly means.

 

Lucas: At the same time though. It's all gotta start with the art. 

 

Omari: Got to.

 

Lucas: Do you remember the first moment that you went, "I want to try to act. I want to be on a stage or I want to be in front of a camera." What was that moment? 

 

Omari:  The first moment for me was, gosh, well, yeah, I guess there were four separate moments. Okay, you know if I can give you that. So at around the age of four, and I've said this in prior interviews, but perhaps not the way that I'm going to say it now, pre-sport, which I became very involved in all sports, track included, but baseball, basketball, and football. I told Moms that I wanted to be a part of Hollywood, and I was around four years old and she said, and I grew up in Decatur, Georgia really 10 to 15 minutes outside of Atlanta, and she said "There's some classes around the corner at South DeKalb Mall" or whatever. And Lucas, I remember going "No, South DeKalb Mall's not Hollywood." 

 

Lucas: You wanted to go straight to the top.

 

Omari: Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. We're not, the family's not moving to Hollywood?  No, your father has a job and we have a, so that kind of went on like I said, that was the first initial foundational moment and then I went so heavy full throttle in the sports that it didn't necessarily come back around until High School being as young African-American kid who grew up in a very black neighborhood. I didn't see any body that didn't look like me because Atlanta knows white flight, blacks who are doing okay move into a neighborhood and whites leave the neighborhood, so it was an all-black neighborhood but I went 45 to 50 minutes away to an all-white high school that had maybe 13 blacks. Okay, and so I'm heavily involved in sports at the time, was recruited as a football player, and so I'm 14, 15 years old and they were doing a school production of the West Side Story, and I couldn't be in it because of the involvement in sports. I went to play college football and went and tried out for the league. So yeah, I was pretty good on the football field. So when I was playing baseball at the time and track so I had given up basketball about my sophomore year, but it just was too much to also be involved with the rehearsal time that would have conflicted with you know practices and so I didn't do it, and then at the University of Georgia, once I was at Georgia I got my feet wet with, it was funny, Kenny Leon from Atlanta's Alliance theater, who was also very much a teacher of August Wilson's plays. "Fences" included, which obviously Denzel and that team brought.

 

Lucas: They did okay with that.

 

Omari: Slightly.  So August Wilson, you know was being introduced to us at that time. I was a part of the black theatrical ensemble at the University of Georgia while playing football at the highest level, that being Southeastern Conference football, but I was this 200-pound artsy-fartsy athlete that wanted to give it a try and so not just in the theatrical ensemble, I wanted to be in one of their plays, and so we did "Fences" and I played Lyons and I didn't play Cory I played Lyons, and I remember going, "Uh oh..."

 

Lucas: You got the bug. 

 

Omari: I feel like it bit me, and I went off and graduated and tried out for the NFL and that didn't work out and I thought about maybe trying to commentate for Headline News or ESPN or whatnot but like still thinking that would have just been used as a ladder or staircase to get to acting, so at 23 years of age after having gotten cut from my attempt at the NFL I thought, "Why would I wait? Let me just go for broke." So those were the pivotal moments. It would have been University of Georgia and flirting with it in high school and at four years old thinking that I could go to Hollywood. I made though, Lucas. I got to Hollywood.

 

Lucas:. Did you get to bring the family along with you on that journey? 

 

Omari:  Yeah Mom is there, Mom has made it. 

 

Lucas: Nice. What do you think has been, maybe hardest is too harsh a word, but the hardest lesson that you've had to learn as an actor? Is there one that jumps out as going this situation, this job, this opportunity made me better? Or this setback, sometimes, made me better?

 

Omari: Yeah, everybody you think is your friend is not your friend. 

 

Lucas: Ooh that's deep, and true.

 

Omari: That's been a tough one, Lucas, especially coming from sports, you know what I mean? Because if you're not, if you're not necessarily wanting to have a beer with one of the teammates, it's still blunt and aggressive/aggressive. And I don't mean the physicality of altercation, I mean the communication is that of aggressive/aggressive. This industry that we're in, the lesson of learning that it is a very sensitive industry and that which flies in my former world of sports, of aggressive/aggressive, which I've always honored people being that way more. In particular as a Capricorn, very direct personality, that don't necessarily fly over here homey. It's been a rude awakening of, there's a lot of passive/aggression though, a lot of smile on your face a lot of like, be careful, just do your work. If somebody at the end of the dust settling, not during the dust settling but at the end of it, if they prove themselves in their weight and worth in terms of being able to be your friend, someone you'd invite over and someone that you would take on a trip with you and if they come out the fairer or the wiser on that end of it and you go "This could be an actual friend" then that's simply icing on the cake, but go into jobs just being prepared to do your job, tell everybody that you respected what their efforts were and keep it moving and go on to the next job. That's been an interesting lesson for me.

 

Lucas: Yeah. So does that also, all those facets coming into it, how has that activated what you want to do as as a mentor to young creatives, including what you're doing with Real-to-Reel? 

 

Omari: It's easier for me. I had it, my younger brother, my biological younger brother often says, "Omari you'd be a great acting coach" and I always remind him, "But Jameel, I have to wait until I don't need my secrets anymore." So I think as it pertains to Real to Reel there's always that opportunity to sort of do what my younger brother speaking of, I can teach, but it's not exactly like standing in front of a bunch of actors.  Where you get half the room perhaps wanted to be actors because fame comes with it perhaps, and then you get another half wanting to tell a story but then maybe within that half of those who want to tell a story not necessarily knowing the business side of show, so then that leaves you out of 75 actors in a class, 3 are going to work, and now you just told your secret to three of those and one becomes your competitor, you know, so when you're dealing with Real-to-Reel, because job security does matter, we can laugh about it, but it does matter, when you're dealing with a program like Real-to-Reel you are aiding in a part of the process that you're still maintaining your leverage as a business person, but you're also aiding their dreams. It's a part of the process. It is not necessarily about specifically talking about the art of acting, it's talking about the process of filmmaking, and that's a little bit easier to speak about then specifically what I've become famous at doing. 

 

Lucas: Right, they have to find their way, and they got to take in all of those inputs from everybody they're reaching out to from a mentorship standpoint, and synthesize it into what they're going to be, and that's in any creative profession really. Going back to Real-to-Reel specifically, what does this partnership with Gentleman Jack, what has it brought how has it evolved over the last couple of years? What do you see as the future for not only this program but also this relationship?

 

Omari: I started thinking about the fact that, okay cool, so if my platform can actually expand itself, and we can start knocking on the door of not just Gentleman Jack, but it's big brother in Jack Daniel's, we can start to get it to where well Omari is almost looking like he's sort of a face that Frank Sinatra was able to be sort of, that's where I'm thinking about it going, then the program of Real-to-Reel specified now under the umbrella of Gentleman Jack solely, can actually also expand. So those are my thoughts, that the program gets big enough where the prize money increases, where the stakes get higher, we start to bring in and solicit competitors that are a little bit more competitive, not saying that the ones that have won last year or won last year excuse me, in Janlatae being our first winner as a director, not to say that she wasn't where she needed to be as an aesthetic or as a craftsman, right, but that there's more of her competing.

 

Lucas:  You get the deeper pool of applicants.

 

Omari: You get the deeper pool of applicants. So those are my thoughts and in terms of the limits of where it can go. I think it has no limits to where it can go, it can become one of those things that particularly because of the positives of social media, it can be blown out of the water in terms of what it can reach in and those are my thoughts, I would love to always be able to look back and go that was my first brand that I was attached to and that brand is still very much my manager or my agent if it's analogous to that. So if I can be somewhat forever connected to this, while building other brands, that would really be cool to me. 

 

Lucas: What excites you about filmmaking these days?

 

Omari: New characters. Producing is exciting me, present participle. But what excites me in a very bold declarative way would speak to the fact that I don't feel like my work is not only not finished as an actor and I just joined William Morris Endeavor agency, but as they aptly said in many ways, oh, you've had a 15-year career, but I feel like it's just starting. You know, you're lucky, you're aging well and you're physically still in a level of shape that could really confuse people, and you choose so many different characters to play, that I think, you know again, present participle would have it as I'm in an exciting way trying to find producing and what that will do for me, but I am excited about the fact that certain roles are about to be afforded to me because of the likes of power and what Curtis and Courtney gave me as a Derek Fisher lob to my Shaquille O'Neal ability. I mean my Shaquille O'Neal ability to play Ghost the way he was played has honestly Lucas afforded me rooms man that I am so humbled to be now in and vying for those roles that I was outside and looking at while they were, you know, being won over by other actors or competitors or colleagues of mine. 

 

Lucas: Well, I will say this, I've been told, and he has actually poured me one, the Master Distiller, Jeff Arnett is fine with anybody who wants to you know, put a little cola, put a little Ginger Ale...

 

Omari: Oh, he's ok with it?  He doesn't judge it?

 

Lucas: Oh yeah, he does not judge it, because he started out that way.

 

Omari: So it's busy man, I'm just trying to get a vacay.

 

Lucas: I was going to say, how do you relax?

 

Omari: I've done it, but it's been with the five and three year old and so that's not necessarily...

 

Lucas: Oh no, there's no relaxation there

 

Omari:  Thank you. Thank you Lucas for saying that. 

 

Lucas:  I have a six year old so I know. 

 

Omari:  So I need a moment away with with the person that I helped make the kids with. 

  

Lucas:  Right, Absolutely.

 

Omari: And then just trying to be Poppa as much as possible. Get back to the Denver house as much as I can, but I told my wife I'm so missing the motorcycle rides that I did prior to becoming a father that I would allow her to just follow me in a parking lot somewhere in Denver, to just get a ride in. So if I can, you know, and then I want to take a trip up to maybe Telluride, you know, do Denver a bit since I'm there, like really do Colorado. So it's a busy, busy summer and obviously once I add another film to the plate then that slows things down a bit but I have to focus on the character and the press might go a little bit on the sidelines and allow me to do that, but at this point Lucas, I'm running brother.

  

 

Lucas: Well you're a very busy man, but we appreciate your time. Thank you for joining us Around the Barrel.

 

Omari:  Oh man. I appreciate it. Thank you, Around the Barrel and Gentlemen Jack and Lucas and the team.

 

Lucas:  Around the Barrel is the official podcast of the Jack Daniel Distillery. Follow the podcast on the web at Jack Daniels.com/podcast. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, and review at Apple Podcasts or wherever you gather your on-demand audio. Always remember, with great podcast and great whiskey, please enjoy responsibly. Join us next time for more conversations Around the Barrel. Your friends at Jack Daniel's remind you to drink responsibly. Jack Daniel's and Old Number 7 are registered trademarks, copyright 2018, Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey, 40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof, distilled and bottled by Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around the Barrel is intended for listeners 21 years of age and older.