What Up Showrunner: 50 Cent and the "Power" Team Talk Bringing NYC Grit to Starz

50 Cent, Omari Hardwick, and showrunner Courtney Kemp Agboh discuss "Power."

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Complex Original

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In recent weeks, 50 Cent has released a new album, Animal Ambition, shocked Hot 97’s Summer Jam audience by reuniting G-Unit on stage, before hitting the Internet with a new Guerrilla Unit song, “Fuck You Talkin’ Bout,” and, funniest of all, throwing what’s arguably MLB’s worst-ever first pitch before a New York Mets game. Memorable public appearances, instant headlines—just another two-week span in the life of Curtis Jackson, the rapper turned business mogul turned fashion maven turned actor turned…you get the picture. He's done it all.

Well, except for one thing—he’s yet to become hip-hop’s answer to J.J. Abrams. That could potentially change soon, though, with the premiere of Power, the new original Starz drama premiering tomorrow night at 9 p.m. EST. Originally conceived by 50 Cent, the eight-episode series is the culmination of 50’s work alongside Courtney Kemp Agboh, a veteran TV producer who’s acting as Power’s full-time showrunner. Together, they’re hoping they’ve got the next The Sopranos.

Power stars Omari Hardwick (most recently seen on BET’s Being Mary Jane) as James “Ghost” St. Patrick, a street-savvy hustler from Jamaica, Queens, whose years spent pushing weight and breaking laws have enabled him to bankroll a legitimate business venture: Truth, a posh new Manhattan nightclub, easily accessible from the lavish penthouse suite Ghost shares with his wife, Tasha (Naturi Naughton), and their three children. Truth’s opening night is a success, but the club's intake is pennies next to what Ghost and his lifelong best friend and co-hustler Tommy (Joseph Sikora, a.k.a. True Detective's "Ginger") net through drugs. Tommy and Tasha dislike Ghost’s sudden need to go straight, for differing reasons—she loves the financial security that comes from Ghost’s illegal activities, while hotwire Tommy is married to the Scarface-minded game. Ghost finds sanctuary, however, in Angela (Lela Loren), the “one who got away” whom he reconnects with inside Truth but doesn’t realize works with the Feds.

A hustler from Queens trying to go straight? Yes, the character of Ghost’s tug-of-war with the streets and legal wealth isn’t unlike 50 Cent’s earlier career trajectory. Power, though, isn’t the Curtis Jackson story fictionalized. Loosely inspired by his own experiences, 50 Cent has, along with Courtney Kemp Agboh, fused his own past with familiar crime fiction tropes to give television its latest anti-hero protagonist. Ghost is more Tony Soprano than Walter White, murdering an enemy in the back of Truth less than 15 minutes into the first episode.

How Ghost’s seedy metropolitan world will differentiate itself from Tony’s suburban New Jersey is one of Power’s core questions, and, if you ask 50 Cent and Courtney Kemp Agboh, the answers won’t disappoint. Here, Power’s two overseers, as well as Omari Hardwick, discuss why their passion project should be your new TV obsession.

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Ambitions as a Showrunner

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Thanks to the almighty Shonda Rhimes, it’s a brand new day in the television world. With the massive successes of her ABC shows Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, Rhimes has been instrumental in bringing more black leads in front of TV cameras and empowering black creators and showrunners behind them.

Case in point: Courtney Kemp Agboh, a television veteran whose years working as a supervising and co-executive producer on dramas like The Good Wife and Hawaii Five-O have led her to Starz and Power, for which she’s the resident Matthew Weiner/Vince Gilligan/David Chase. And because of which, per Agboh’s own words, she’s not getting much sleep lately—a great problem to have in this case.

On Calling Power's Shots

Courtney Kemp Agboh: I’ve never worked this hard in my whole life. Not many people get to create a television show that actually makes it on the air. We didn’t have a pilot process with this show—we went straight into series, so I learned a lot on the fly, and I’m still learning.

Show-running is a very difficult job that includes so many responsibilities; I’m working with the actors, working with directors, writing, making decisions like, “What fabric is that sofa gonna be?” It’s so interesting because I always had an idea of what Ghost’s penthouse would be, but then I had to coordinate with our production designer how it would actually look. Then, there are plans, there’s material, and then this figment of your imagination is here.

Working with 50 has been amazing. We started this project together, and I didn’t expect him to be as warm, loving, and hilarious as he is. I was expecting “50 Cent,” but my friend is Curtis—Curtis is the person who I hang out with and who I’ve worked closely with on this.

I will say, and it’s super important to say, that he is an incredible storyteller. You know, rap artists and country music artists tell stories in songs. This guy has a great sense of character, a great sense of structure, and a great sense of story in general. He’s better than some people I’ve worked with who are professional writers. [Laughs.] 

We met through Mark Canton, who’s an executive producer on the show. A long time ago, Mark and 50 had an idea to do a music-driven TV series, and then my agency, CAA, represented all of us at the time. I’m telling you the “true Hollywood story.” [Laughs.] Agents send you into room after room and ask, “Do you want to work with these people?” I’d been working on a project that was not like this but more of an action-y, personal project that I’ve always wanted to do, but I couldn’t get it off the ground. When I met with Mark and 50, though, there was an instant creative synergy. They’d had an existing relationship.

Typically, everyone has their own agenda. I used to be a magazine journalist; I worked for Mademoiselle and then GQ for three years, and at that time I was an editorial assistant and then an assistant editor. I was also freelancing for Vibe and other magazines. I was writing all the time and trying to do anything I could to get on as a writer.

But this, Power, is such a huge opportunity. It’s the first show I ever pitched, the first show I ever sold, and the first pilot I wrote for money, and then they said, “Yes.” So now, I don’t get to be a jerk. I don’t get to be anything other than humble, and the same goes for everyone of us working on the show. This is the first time Omari gets to be first on the call sheet; this is the first time 50 has created a scripted television show. It’s a first for all of us. We have to live in the gratitude of it.

On How the Inner City and Suburbs Aren't That Much Different

Agboh: Obviously I’m not from 50’s background—I’m from Westport, Connecticut, which is as far away from his background as you can get, right? Growing up in Westport, for a long time I was the only black person living there for miles. I’m from an upper-middle class background. But because there was no one of my race where I grew up, I was very isolated. I felt different from everybody else. New York was this place I felt I’d eventually get to and succeed, and that’s not different from Curtis’ experience. When you grow up in an outer borough, you look at the city and say, “One day, I will get to the city.”

So for me, I wanted to get to the city because that’s where the black people were and where they were succeeding, and me getting to Conde Nast was part of that. The whole idea that Ghost gets to Manhattan, opens up a club, and lives in a penthouse isn’t much different from 50’s journey and it also related to me. The isolation of feeling different is universal, too. I listened to someone speak recently and they said, “The thing that we do to ourselves that are negative, like drink, over-eat, or have too much sex, all come from an overwhelming sense of not belonging,” and to not belong is human, just as pretending to be something you’re not is human. That’s what makes the show so relatable. 

On How Black Film and TV Are Better Than Ever

Agboh: Some things that are going on right now have to do with the power of the dollar in the marketplace. People going, “Well, Think Like a Man made a lot of money—we need to do something like that!” Or, “Ride Along made a lot of money—I’m confused, why are blacks and Latinos going to the movies all of the sudden?” We always did, y’all. [Laughs.]

Because the marketplace has exploded and there are now so many ways to get TV shows, people are really trying to scramble for those dollars and eyeballs. They go, “OK, what do I know will work? I know! If I put people of color on TV, they’ll watch it!” And that’s what we do! We still do the same thing that my mother did when Diana Ross was on Ed Sullivan’s show. “Oh, shit! Diana’s on a TV show! Did you see that?”

As far as the climate now, it’s better than it’s ever been but there’s still a ways to go. There aren’t a lot of people behind the camera; that still isn’t happening in the way that it needs to for us to tell a diverse amount of stories. It’s important to talk about our history, but it’s also important to be contemporary and tell a wider variety of stories. Obviously me doing this show means that things have changed. There are people who say to me, “This is such dark material, but you’re a woman—how can you write such dark material?” And I’ll say, “Well, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, so…”

I do think there’s an opportunity right now for us to write stories that are different and aren’t just about people who look like ourselves. That goes both ways. Sometimes we get resentful, and I don’t think that’s OK, either. Everyone should be able to write about everyone—just do the research and talk to people.

Patiently Waiting (For a Project to Show and Prove On)

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50 Cent, an underdog? With Power, that’s not far from the truth. Like Courtney Kemp Agboh said, this is a first for nearly everyone involved, specifically Curtis Jackson, who’s never attempted a scripted TV drama before. Only time will tell if 50 is hip-hop’s answer to J.J. Abrams or its version of the dude who came up with The Playboy Club.

Regardless of how it all plays out, give 50 Cent and the Power team credit for putting the show’s dramatic weight on Omari Hardwick’s shoulders. Having volleyed between the indie world and major studio movies, Hardwick’s been one of the game’s better under-sung acting talents. To see his chops firsthand, and to also familiarize yourself with one of 2012’s best movies, rent Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere.

In Power, Hardwick has the task of embodying 50 Cent’s charismatic and accessible yet always credible balance of business acumen and street smarts. Based on the first couple of episodes, Hardwick doesn’t disappoint.

How an Indie-Cred Actor Became 50’s Conduit

50 Cent: This started with me meeting with [producer] Mark Canton, who introduced me to Courtney [Kemp Agboh]. As we actually started the story’s development, the big thing that we talked about was how this guy is misinterpreted by his choices. When you grow up in low-income situations, the restraints that you see and that are always present are financial. You look around and you’ll see people make choices because one thing seems like a limitless opportunity when compared to Burger King or McDonald’s. The object would be to earn to the point where you had the ability to be in business, to own that McDonald’s.

A lot of people you see standing on the street corner hustling are standing there with an entrepreneurial spirit. They’d like to earn enough to be in a legit business and to move away from that street-corner lifestyle. The dead end that we see visibly at the end of the street, they see it also. 

That’s what ended up being Ghost’s character’s arc. As soon as we started talking about actors who could possibly play it, Omari’s name immediately came to mind. I said his name to Courtney and she said, “Look, let me show the list of things I’ve already had down,” and his name was already on that list. I was just like, “Now let’s cross our fingers that he’s available.” The first person that you want in an actual role, it’s very rare that he or she is actually free. By the point they reach your radar, they’re already working on something else. So to be lucky enough to catch Omari at that point was what made it really seem like the stars were aligning for us.

The first time we met with Starz, I felt like we’d sold the show. [Laughs.] I actually had music I created for the show ready during the project’s very early stages. I felt like that music embodied characters like Ghost and Tasha; there were representations of them in the actual music. After Courtney explained the story to the network, in detail, I then played them the music I’d made for it. It was an abnormal pitch for a television show. I already had an album done for it. It was already connected like that.

Omari Hardwick: For me, having touched football and trying to make it go further than God let football go for me, and having been this artsy weird athlete in school, I’ve always known that money isn’t a big deal for me. You tell a black kid that we’ve got an economic downfall happening and they’re like, “Really? We were born into that.” So my pursuit of becoming an actor had me feeling the same way financially. I just looked for characters that scared me, and what made me fearful was the same thing I’d gravitate towards.

With this character of Ghost, it’s been a humble 11-year career for me that’s led to this. It’s always been one of those things for me where, even if the character is as bad as can possibly be, I go in there and unapologetically play it and bring whatever humanity and empathy I can to it. 

Even when someone’s interviewing 50 and I, we might say something that, as you’re driving home, you’ll think, “Oh, I guess I have played that devilish side of my angel before as well.”

50: You hear how he said that? “The devilish side of my angel”… There are things Omari says that feel like they’ve already been written somewhere. I have four or five Omari Hardwick quotes saved already. [Laughs.]

Hardwick: When I read the character that Courtney and 50 had written, I thought, I understand this guy. Every average-to-good actor is a lot of who they play. When 50 says “The stars aligned,” and, “You hope the person you want is available,” for me there were other options but it’s rare that you get this kind of opportunity.

I don’t know if I’ve shared this with 50 yet, but Bruce Springsteen wrote something some years ago in a magazine: "You must always remember the conversation that you’ve started with your fans.” 

I thought about how 50 and Courtney have created a bigger character to maintain the same conversation I’ve established with people through my other, past roles, to be this indie guy who can do Kick-Ass and The A-Team and was an athlete. I could jump in there and work with green-screens, but I also enjoyed making Middle of Nowhere, because it was a great character.

Next Day Air gave me the chance to play a different kind of character, and I know 50 looked at Next Day Air and liked what he saw. Not a lot of people watched that film, but 50 did and it’s apropos to “the stars aligning.” It’s like, “OK, you did really good work, but the trampoline wasn’t big enough for people to see how high you jumped.” And now he’s given me that bigger trampoline.

50: It’s like that a lot. Samuel L. Jackson will get Lifetime Achievement awards but he won’t necessarily get them when he’s supposed to.

Hardwick: Curtis has taught me a lot about patience. Some days the lesson comes from 50, other days it comes from Curtis. When you look at 50, there’s so much more than meets the eye; when you get to know him, you think, holy shit! He’s able to do the same with other people. Maybe the greatest part about 50 is he’s able to say, “Let me give this cat a shot.”

On the importance of New York City’s presence in Power

50: The people in New York City as extras are different. They know how to say, “No.” [Laughs.] In Hollywood, they won’t say no because you’ll be remembered as the person who said no, and they don’t want that, so they’ll say, “Yeah, I’d love to work with you,” until you see the film role. In New York, you can definitely feel that, “Nah, I’m not fucking with you.”

Hardwick: New York is definitely a character in the show; in fact, it’s the first character. To me, as an actor, I immediately think, you dress a character first from head to toe with a hat and shoes. That’s how you create a character, but if you have the backdrop of New York, you almost don’t even need the hat and shoes. It’s bricks, it’s snow, it’s concrete. It’s sexy during the day and ominous at night. It’s Gotham City. It’s “power.”

50: If you look at the extreme of buildings in Harlem that aren’t high-income to the business district, that’s Power. It’s someone who aspires to do it on the highest level possible, but it’s the route he’s taken that creates all of the conflicts.

Hardwick: But the character is from Jamaica, Queens, where 50 grew up. Part of our work, for Joe Sikora and I, was to go to there and visit the street that 50 lived on and be in it. That’s the only way you can do it. 

We went late at night, too. 50 couldn’t have hired somebody who’d only go there during the daytime. We went there two nights in a row, at two, three in the morning, talking to shorties on the block.

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