Self-proclaimed male feminist and actor Omari Hardwick sat down with some of your favorite Audacy female hosts -- Shelley Wade from New York’s The Block, Poet from WPGC, Sarah Pepper from Mix 96.5 in Houston, 94.7 The Drive’s Corinna Delgado, and Julia for a roundtable discussion about his latest role in The Mother, featuring Jennifer Lopez.
LISTEN NOW: 'The Mother' Roundtable with Omari Hardwick
Kicking the conversation off with some spice, Shelley dove in to ask about the relationship between Omari and J.Lo's characters and expressed how she wished she would have seen a little more of him. Before they even got deep into the conversation, he explained that he knew the common response to the film would be, 'why didn't they get together?' But he urged director Niki Caro to take a different route.
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Without giving you too many spoilers, Hardwick did reveal that there originally was a sex scene, but he believed that "perhaps it was almost sexier that they didn't get to find the tour de force in culmination of, 'yes, they're together, there's the scene." He wanted to shy away from giving viewers too much -- and being honest, the Power actor confessed that he is "sex-scened out."
Now, when you watch the movie, it's obvious that the chemistry between the two warranted a sex scene, and while Omari agrees, he believes that "what is equally beautiful is that you can tell they freaking fell in love."
On the topic of sexual tension, he spoke very highly of his castmate, Jennifer Lopez: "What was ironic, was learning Jen and really getting to know her... Part of her gift is her embracing her sexuality, gifting it to the world as much as possible -- but then she's really kinda' not that."
Speaking to her conviction he said, "I think the sexiest quality in life obviously is confidence, that's the real swagger -- and so Jen has enough of that."
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J.Lo aside, his admiration for women did not stop there. Omari mentioned that women and men may perceive this film differently, but above all he wants men to take away "the prowess of women."
"Y'all are not given enough credit for how hard, y'all are hard," he said, explaining how women exemplify a different level of strength that he believes isn't highlighted as often. "I feel bad for the men in life who don't understand that we pale in comparison to women, that 98.7% of [men] are babies," he continued. "The world would implode if we were asked to give birth."
Recalling a conversation between himself and director Niki Caro, he explained that she wanted him to send men a message through this film: "You're a tough alpha male" she told him, "give men permission... to understand that the greatest of man's strength is supporting a woman."
While Lopez plays a mother fighting to protect her daughter from savages, Hardwick shouted out his own mother for being a standup example of what a strong woman is. He spoke about how she continually pushed him and never allowed him to give up on himself: He says, "I would get 'no' from a casting director and ma would go, 'can you go back to the audition and try again?'"
The Mother is out now on Netflix and tells the story of an assassin who gave up her daughter to go into hiding but comes out later on in life to protect her daughter from dangerous criminals. Check out the tailer below.
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