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