WATCH | Patina Miller On Balancing Her Character Arc In ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ - video Dailymotion

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The talented actress breaks down the complexities of Raquel “Raq” Thomas ahead of the premiere of the popular STARZ drama.

Transcript

00:00I think the easy part is playing the queen pin, right?

00:02Like getting to the danger, getting to all of the ferociousness.

00:07That's all easy stuff.

00:09I think the vulnerability and the love and all of that,

00:12I think that's what makes the character interesting and human.

00:15And seeing such a powerful character be so flawed and so human

00:20is really important in this story.

00:22Not who my mother is.

00:26They ain't get to where they are without dropping a whole lot of bodies behind them.

00:30I like how you got the way you are.

00:32All right, all right.

00:35So, Rock has always been a powerful force in the series.

00:39With her son stepping out of her shadow in season four,

00:42how do you see the mother-son dynamic evolving this year?

00:47Well, I think this year, instead of the mother-son,

00:50their relationship is a little different.

00:52Now they are business partners.

00:54And at this point, I think Raquel is willing to have Kanan in her life

01:01in one way or the other.

01:03And if it looks like this, and the only way that he can be a part of her life

01:06is if it's just business only.

01:08I think she's willing to sort of let that be the case.

01:12She knows that he's good.

01:14She can check it.

01:14She knows that he's, you know, that's really been her big thing

01:18is making sure that he's safe and he's good.

01:21And through this way, at least she has a handle on him in some way.

01:29But I don't think that's the big focus this season.

01:32This really mostly is about them on their own journeys.

01:35Their own Kanan becoming his own business person.

01:39Not necessarily in his mom's shadows, but sort of kind of making his own way.

01:44Obviously, Raquel has a really big...

01:48She's made a name for herself and she wants more.

01:53She's not satisfied with just having a good business.

01:57She wants to be the best.

01:59She wants to expand now.

02:00And so you get to watch her put new business ventures together

02:05and what that means for both of them.

02:08So you spoke about she's able to kind of keep a hand on him now.

02:14So I think Raquel has been...

02:17She's probably the most complex character on the show.

02:20Being a loving mother, as well as a ruthless queenpin.

02:24How do you, as an actress, how do you balance both sides of that?

02:29Well, the most important part of this whole thing is being able to play Raquel.

02:36I think the easy part is playing the queenpin, right?

02:39Like getting to the danger, getting to all of the ferociousness.

02:44That's all easy stuff.

02:45I think the vulnerability and the love and all of that,

02:49I think that's what makes the character interesting and human.

02:52And seeing such a powerful character be so flawed and so human

02:56is really important in this story.

02:59And for me, she needed to have layers.

03:02She needed to be so many different things.

03:05Loving and sexy and powerful, but then conniving and treacherous.

03:10And literally, people have called her the devil in other sense.

03:15You know what I mean?

03:16But the through line of that is the love and working.

03:21So my balance of that is making sure as much as I'm giving over

03:26to all of the queenpin, whatever that is,

03:31making sure she's going into the love.

03:34And that's finding love in all of the relationships that she has

03:38with her family, basically, for me.

03:40So that's how I...

03:42It's a juggling act, but that's what I love to do,

03:45is finding the soft moments

03:47because she doesn't get to be soft a lot.

03:50So it's amazing to see how much time has passed too

03:54with the Power Universe has been in existence for over a decade now.

03:59How fulfilling for you has it been to be such an important part of this franchise?

04:04Um, it's pretty incredible.

04:09I will say that.

04:10I am so lucky to be a part of this project, a part of the universe.

04:17I think our show, we have such a good show.

04:21I love it so much.

04:22I think the characters are so special.

04:25The characters are so nuanced and real.

04:27And the storytelling is, you know, for me,

04:31one of the pleasures of this is being able to tell this story in this way,

04:35in this, you know, throwback, a 90s piece.

04:38It's like, it's a period piece.

04:41And to really put people in that era.

04:43And what we've done, I'm very proud of, you know, the storytelling.

04:48And because people already know who Kanan is, right?

04:52Because we watched him for all those seasons of the original Power.

04:57But what they don't know is how he became who he became.

05:00And how Ghost and Tommy became who they became.

05:03It's all sort of influenced by Raquel Thomas, Marvin, Lulu, Unique,

05:13all of these amazing people who surrounded Kanan

05:17and who were in the South Side at that time.

05:19That really kind of started like what Power is.

05:22So it feels really special to me to be able to tell the origin story

05:26of one of these characters and to be at the beginning.

05:31Like, it's incredible.

05:32I've had a great, great, great time telling the story.

05:36And you spoke about it a little bit earlier,

05:39but I wanted to kind of ask you to expound on it a little bit.

05:43Because Raquel, she fought really hard to build an empire.

05:47What do you think, out of all the motivators, drives her the most?

05:51I used to say, early on in the project,

05:55that it was wanting to create something, legacy, for her son and her family, right?

06:04Like that, for me, that was like my thing.

06:08Going into this character, like Espetina, what I want with Raquel.

06:12No, her through line, this is what she wants.

06:14And as the season has continued on, you start to really kind of investigate,

06:20what is this character really in it for?

06:22And what does this character want?

06:24She's built her enterprise.

06:26And I think where we meet her in season four,

06:30she's done it for the family for so long.

06:34I think she's doing it for herself now.

06:36I think it's her being proud of herself,

06:40loving the dangerous, like how dangerous the world is of being.

06:46I think she's intoxicated by it being so, what's the word I want to say?

06:53It's so life or death.

06:54And there is like that weird part of her that loves the chase, the high of the power,

07:00of being successful, of being a woman in this world and having it all.

07:08And not really having it all, but having this one thing.

07:10She's really good at this one thing.

07:12And that is, she's fixated on that.

07:15And so it's now, but not become about, oh, for the family.

07:19It's like, no, I want this.

07:22And I want to see it all the way through.

07:25And I love that.

07:26Well, Patina, thank you so much.

07:28I'm looking forward to season four.

07:29And I appreciate you talking with me today.

07:31I appreciate you.

07:33Have a good day.

WATCH | Patina Miller On Balancing Her Character Arc In ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’

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