Omari Hardwick On Continuing To Hone His Craft: “That’s What Inspires Me, Just The Opportunity To Grow.”

By Okla Jones ·Updated June 4, 2023

Omari Hardwick has crafted a career that most entertainers would envy. He made his feature film debut in 2002 with Circles, and since then, the Georgia native has starred in movies such as Miracle at St. Anna, For Colored Girls, Sparkle, Sorry to Bother You, and more.

The 49-year-old rose to prominence in 2014 for his portrayal of James St. Patrick in the crime drama series Power. Now, this multi-talented actor stars in the Netflix thriller THE MOTHER, which follows a deadly female assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men. Omari plays an FBI agent who is crucial in helping Jennifer Lopez’s character, and serves as an important part of this harrowing story.

Later this year, the UGA graduate is set to star alongside Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry in The Mothership. Following the release of THE MOTHER on May 12, Hardwick spoke with ESSENCE to discuss the new film, the impact of his iconic female co-stars, and what inspires him to keep creating after so many years in show business.

ESSENCE: You’re a very versatile actor, do you find it more difficult preparing for action films, as pertaining to other films, due to the toll that it takes on your body?

Omari Hardwick: Maybe not. My answer would be, I guess to piggyback the way you set the question up, the fact that I’ve not shied away from playing a variance of characters and really starting to not only embrace, but equally appreciate, I should say, others embracing that maybe I truly am one of the rarities of leading man meets a character actor. The older I get, I realize I’m more of a character actor than I am just relegated to the look of what walks in a room and is perceived to be this leading man, if you catch my drift.

And I think because I’ve played, to your point, a range of characters, I almost get a break from having to be so physical. Whereas if I dialed into what the career said that I could have dialed into, just being, I don’t know if I would say one-trick pony, but at least a two to three-trick pony versus a 10 to 20 trick pony, then it would be a very different thing. Because job after job, maybe that demand of me being physical would be there. ‘Cause I haven’t done that and because I’m kind of unpredictable in my choices, for the most part, I get a break from having to be too physical in one role. On the next road, I find that I gotta dial that physicality back up.

How was it like working alongside those two iconic actresses, Jennifer Lopez and Halle Berry? And did you learn anything from those particular actresses?

There’s no way to not learn from two giants who, in their own different ways, have not only brought a freshness of that which wasn’t necessarily packaged as it pertains to a leading woman in our business prior. Whether you denote that is their skin color, and one obviously being Black and one being brown and Black American and Latino American, it also pertains to the reality of what they bring to the table, which is they come from the humble beginnings of Cleveland, Ohio and the Bronx. And respectively both have their own hard knocks that come with those, one a borough obviously in the Bronx, and another being a particular subset of Ohio, which is a massive state and a swing state at that, as you know, politically speaking.

But in terms of speaking in a very grounded way, they bring that to the table. And so that package of what might have been Julia Roberts prior, speaking of you now living in the hometown that raised me, Julia is the first real dramatic female actor that we’ve had come out of the greater parts of Atlanta. You have Kim Bassinger prior, from Athens, Georgia, if I’m not mistaken, or somewhere near there, where I played college ball, as you know. But Julia did so much for our city, as did obviously Chris Tucker in a different way. But these women have done so much from the perspective of people that they grew up with probably never imagining in their wildest dream that Halle and Jen would become what they became. So from that perspective, there was an immediate synergy as it pertains to the grounded nature, the humility, the salt-of-the earth upbringing that they come from. That was immediate. That connection was intrinsically already there.

As long as the three of us have not changed that much, and fortunately the three of us haven’t necessarily gotten too big for our britches in that way. So I would say that’s a common thread between the two of them. What I learned from each individually… It was interesting in a very early rehearsal with Halle. Since that movie came first, I’ll answer that more specific to Halle first. I talked about just some of the trappings that I have in terms of how I perceive myself and how I want to be perceived and how the two don’t always meet eye to eye in terms of people in power positions either hiring me or not hiring me based on how they see me. And then there’s the almighty but. But the problem is you see yourself in this lighting, you keep pushing that envelope until you quote, unquote “force people to see you” in that way.

And so I talked about certain roles that didn’t come Halle’s way that I wish came her way for her. I wasn’t speaking about me at that point. I just used it as an analogy, that she’s probably had a lot that she felt that she could do and wasn’t allowed to do. And what she taught me, I think, at this stage of my career, which that film was now two years ago, what she taught me was you do what you got to do. Sometimes, whether that’s bills having to be paid because you’ve now increased your life, and so therefore you have to increase the jobs so that money comes with the ability to sustain the life that is increased, or whether that’s simply putting in chops, even on jobs or on sets that you don’t necessarily want to be on or that you wouldn’t have necessarily perhaps prior imagined that you’d have to take the job. And taking you to use it. You use it as a moment of simply getting better. You deal with it as they come.

And as soon as your shot is there for you to not right that wrong, if writing a wrong is making sure that you only get cast for the roles that you see yourself playing, but if righting that wrong is simply getting more opportunity for the minds of people in this business to be changed or for you to take matters into your own hand and control more being a producer. Until that moment comes, you just chip away, almost analogous to golf terminology. You just chip away till you get to the green, then hopefully you sink the putt. And she didn’t say it like that, but that definitely was a lesson that I got from her. And it was a humbling lesson. And it was also filled with grace. I learned that they were both fans.

To answer your question about Jen, I learned that they were both fans. You never know who’s looking at you. And they both were specific fans of mine. And obviously I was enamored with them for various reasons. They both are very, very gifted and powerhouses in their own respective rights. So the fact that they really were fans – it’s pretty cool. But to that point about chipping away, chipping away, chipping away until you get to the green, I think what Jen brought to my close is just the business of it all. She’s definitely an artist, and there’s definitely artsy-fartsy terminology stuck inside of her and a mentality of knowing how to do research and character build a lot like the thespians whom she could call colleagues but that which evade her sometimes in credit given.

People don’t think of her as such perhaps, and they think of her more as a powerhouse who’s a business in and of herself. To Jay-Z’s point, she’s a business woman. Woman, right? So she is that. But she equally is an artist, and I think she did a great job of reminding me that no matter what age you are, and particularly now with the changes, as a male feminist it excites me because women are getting jobs not only at a chronological age they wouldn’t have prior. In the old world of Hollywood, they wouldn’t have gotten these jobs that Halle and J. Lo are getting at the ages they’re getting them, but equally kicking ass and looking 33 to 35 years old while doing it when they’re the better parts of 50 years old, bro. That’s crazy.

So I think for Jen, it’s just about always pushing the needle and keeping her foot on the gas. And I think she really brought that to my understanding that there is no time with this thing. I think about Morgan Freeman when I think about these women. And Morgan didn’t really pop until his fifties. And these women are almost in their prime, rocking and rolling, when a lot of people are 30, and they’re in their fifties. So yeah, they left me with a lot of understanding and insight on what should be expected from myself and what they expect from me.

You’ve accomplished so many things in your life and your career. What keeps Omari Hardwick inspired to create?

That’s a great question. I would say this is a full circle moment to interview with ESSENCE when you guys are perhaps my first major cover. And shout-outs to Cori and shout-outs to Charlie Penn who did that story, and obviously Susan Taylor, but just the women who have really championed me at a place like Essence. And it’s cool that in knowing that the brigade there, the platoon of sorts, the huddle, the decision-making power structure trickles down from that of females.

To the point made in the prior question that you asked and the answer that I gave, you’re there for a reason, and you’re there to continue to champion on what they started and what they’ve gotten the chip on. And I think what inspires me is the full circle of the whole thing, called this business, that God allowed me to be a part of that I didn’t necessarily ever think I would’ve been a part of. Maybe it’s operative, because I did know I had a penchant for writing. I did understand that I was a rare athlete who was a super athlete in a lot of sports, the three majors at football, baseball, and basketball, and included in that, or added to that, track. But that I was really artsy, and I was trying to sneak a peek at the pre-production of the West Side Story when I was in high school or reading Shakespeare or understanding what August Wilson brought to not just the pages of playwriting, but also as a Black man with an arm attached to a Black hand while writing Black stories.

And I understood I was really rare and different. But it’s cool that I can speak to you today knowing that again, you’re working for a company that allowed me to grace the magazine and that I’m still here and able to talk to you vs. Charlie in that interview when it was the cover story interview. I’m able to talk to you about growth and that I’m not still at that place that I was at then.

I think that’s what inspires me, just the opportunity to grow. And I laugh, when I think about the fact that freaking Bobby De Niro, who is really, in large part, maybe the singular reason I got into this business is I saw Raging Bull when I was young, and I knew that whatever was needed inside of me to be able to run up and down a football field or baseball field or around a basketball court, that I had that and that I didn’t know how to always get that out via just sport. I needed other outlets. And this became a great outlet that, in watching Raging Bull or watching Great White Hope with James Earl Jones or watching Cool Hand Luke, or even laughing at Eddie Murphy’s brilliant nine-character pull-off with Coming to America as a youngster, I really thought, this shit fits me, this is where I should be.

And what fits me most and me bringing up De Niro to you is the growth. Now, does it look like his career is slowing down at all? No, not much. And parenthetically, you could add in that the man just became – obviously he’s become everything, but that he’s going to be a father again at 79 years of age.

So no, the next time you interview me at 79, I won’t be finding out that I’ll be a father. But I would say that at 79 it would be cool for you to go, “Damn, O’s still growing. He is just not staying stagnant.” Stagnation doesn’t work with me, mediocrity doesn’t work with me. As much as I know that I’m hella flawed, and I come with stagnated moments, and I come with mediocre moments, especially as pertains to my family and those who love me the most, where we of course not only take those people for granted, but you take advantage of the fact that you hope that they won’t be the departing or Elvis exited the building stage left when it pertains to you being effed up or flawed or whatever.

I mean it in the true sense of the word that, as it pertains to being a professional actor and artist, I just always want to say that I’ve pushed the needle forward and young men particularly who look like me. And obviously young women equally, but young men who look like me, they can always say, “Shit, Omari was always getting it in. He never wasn’t hungry. So how do I look satisfied? I gotta keep pushing like he was.” That inspires me. Just for them to be able to look in their mirror one day and say that they heard me say that in an interview and it inspired them to rock, that inspires me to keep rocking.