Omari Hardwick Explains How Denzel Washington Saved Him for Homelessness

On how rocky his acting career was in the beginning, he tells The Real:

“I came out here without a lot of money and I met Paulette and Denzel Washingon via John David, their oldest son and I worked at Campbell Hall, the high school he went to here in the valley. And I was teaching, substitute teaching but coaching and I more-so became his mentor and his trainer at UCLA on Saturdays. So that kind of gave me inroads to this sort of  avuncular figure in Denzel and an aunt figure in Pauletta.

“They perfectly and appropriately didn’t help me out. They gave me shelter when I didn’t have a place to stay or whatever but they sort of allowed me to be close enough to the family so I sort of transitioned into getting an agent…the whole thing…doing all these odd jobs. Pursuing firefighting as a backup. Pursuing it at least and on the day that I said no to the fire department was the day Spike Lee offered me my first gig.”

The movie Omari landed with Spike Lee, “Sucker Free City,” didn’t work out and he ended up broke in living in his car. He was no longer able to pay his car payments, so Denzel and Pauletta stepped in with his parents to pay off the car.  When Omari got his first check from acting, he gave it to Denzel and the legendary actor decided to frame it.

Check out the clip below: