‘Power’ Star Reacts to Omari Hardwick’s Complaints About Ghost’s Death

Power star Jerry Ferrara has responded to Omari Hardwick’s complaints about the way his character on the show, James “Ghost” St. Patrick, was killed off.

Ferrara appeared in the Starz crime drama as Joseph Proctor, a defense attorney who regularly represented drug-dealing friends Ghost (Hardwick) and Thomas “Tommy” Egan, played by Joseph Sikora.

Created and produced by Courtney A. Kemp in collaboration with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, the show’s six seasons showed a host of characters meeting a grizzly end as they became caught up in a plethora of shady underworld dealings.

While the show proved to be hugely popular during its run and has spawned a series of spinoffs, Hardwick has publicly voiced his disapproval of the way his character’s time on the show concluded.

Speaking on a panel at the Uninterrupted Film Festival on July 10, he said: “I have so much empathy for the fans, bro. Because you were sold and told a story that did not continue, guys, in the way that it was sold and told to me that it would continue. So, you have every right to be hitting me up at every airport, every bus stop…”

“I’m with y’all in this sense,” Hardwick continued. “I’m with you in the sense that the way the story was sold and told to me is not befitting of the way it ended, guys. So y’all have every right to be like, ‘It didn’t end right.'”

50 Cent responded to the comments in a since-deleted Instagram post, in which he called Hardwick a “strange bird.”

“The f*** is he talking about?” 50 Cent added. “I never done nothing but look out for him. If he needed something I gave it to him. I understand now, that s*** didn’t matter at all.”

Days after the statements were shared, Ferrara told Newsweek that he “had no idea what was going to go down and that was gonna happen with [Hardwick’s] character and who did it. So I wasn’t until, you know, well after the fact I watched it.”

“It’s a shame,” Ferrara added of Hardwick’s statements about the show. “I haven’t really talked to him about it. You know, it’s been years now. We talk a lot, but we haven’t talked about that. I didn’t know we felt that way.”

At the time of the interview, Ferrara explained that he “actually didn’t really see” the video of Hardwick’s comments. “I didn’t know he was unhappy with it,” he added.

Ferrara further revealed that the show’s bosses went to great lengths to keep plotlines regarding characters’ deaths secret from the cast.

As the surviving characters marched toward the February 2020 series finale, the actors portraying them knew that their end could come at any moment, particularly as they were never forewarned of when their time would come to an end.

Ferrara compared the pile-up of casualties to fan favorites Game of Thrones and The Sopranos, other popular shows whose many characters were often wiped out with brutal force and at volume.

“I almost made it to the end,” Ferrara told Newsweek of his character’s late-series death. “Power is very secretive because of the gaps [between shooting and broadcast] and because that can spoil so much.

“So I had no idea [when my character would die]. It’s like they cut you off because they don’t want anything leaking.”

Ferrara added that one “cool” element of the show was “the fact that any character can get it at any time. It had that Sopranos feel, or Game of Thrones almost. Oh, you like this characters? This character’s your favorite? Guess what, they’re gone! It’s very nerve-wracking as an actor to be a part of that.”

Speaking of how he felt about his own character’s demise, Ferrara said: “For one moment there as we got to the final season, it was like two or three episodes in, I thought I was gonna make it to the end.

“And that’s the thing. Even when your character—at least from my experience—when your character is gonna get it, it’s not like they tell you weeks or months in advance. They make the decision and Courtney makes the decision internally [with] the writer and then you get notified when you’re like a week or two away from shooting it.”

Ferrara, who recently celebrated 20 years since his HBO show Entourage debuted, added: “Power was such a fun [experience]. I couldn’t have asked for a better follow-up to Entourage than Power. And that’s why I’m one of the luckier dudes.”