Omari Hardwick makes us swoon while watching him on "Power" every Saturday night in the hot and sticky summer. Now, he's making us swoon off screen with talk of his real-life dad skills. Check out our sit down with one of the hottest men on TV, as well as his on-screen mistress Lela Loren, inside....
He's ridiculously hot on screen as "the biggest motherfu*kin' drug dealer in New York City." We admit it. But now that he's a father to two kiddies in real life and shares his love for them often on social media, our admiration for Omari Hardwick has grown to epic proportions.
We've been dying to know how becoming a dad has affected his life, as well as how he nails this scary drug kingpin character to a tee. So YBF Correspondent Shirley Vernae sat down with the former "Being Mary Jane" star in NYC recently to chop it up about season 2 of the hit show "Power."
When asked how becoming a dad to two kids -- his and his wife Jae's toddler daughter Nova and their newborn -- influences how he portrays his character Ghost being a family man AND a super dangerous illegal/legal business man, the actor surprisingly revealed:
"The research in the beginning of this show...I went back and watched so much of "The Cosby Show." It's such an innate nature, before I became literally a father, as a father figure to sort of love on people. Even if they weren't, you know, my children."
He continued about his intriguing vision for Ghost:
"What I thought Bill Cosby did such a great job with, and we don't give him enough credit for it, is that it wasn't just that he had fathered the kids that played his children, he fathered an entire generation.
So what I thought was, if Ghost can be this guy that's different and larger than life in a 'bad way', then let's equal that with him being sort of a Bill Cosby who's a drug dealing king pin. And we had never seen that before. So I went in with that sort of rhythm."
And yes, it works.
As for Ghost's co-star and side chick love-interest Angela Valdes, Lela Loren (who plays Angela) told us what it was like being cast in the luckiest role on the show. She tells us:
It was my first time ever having to be sexual [on screen], period. And having to tell that narrative. So, it was a lot of fear, anxiety, 'Am I gonna know what I'm doing?', 'How is this going to work?'." And [Omari] has such integrity and professionalism.
And how she gets through those intense and steamy sex scenes with Omari? She says he makes it easy. Lela tells us:
"He gives off this protective feeling. So you feel totally safe to go there and go all those places, and know that none of those lines are going to be blurred. That's what helps us have those really steamy scenes between Ghost, well Jamie, and Angela."
Mmhmmm...
Check out the full interview video below. Plus, get our chit chat with co-stars 50 Cent, Naturi Naughton and Joseph SikoraHERE in case you missed it.
Season 2 of “Power” premieres Saturday at 9PM ET/PT on Starz.
Photos/Correspondent: Starz/Shirley Vernae for TheYBF.com