“Power Book III” Stars Patina Miller & Mekai Curtis Reveal Season 3 Plot Points
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Power Book III: Raising Kanan‘s third season dropped earlier this month and, just like the seasons that preceded it, the story arc is already in high gear as strange bedfellows are revealed and old beefs squashed. AllHipHop recently sat down with stars Patina Millerand Mekai Curtis, who play Raquel and Kanan, respectively, where we got the rundown on what fans can expect in the new season, their character evolutions and how they have honed their craft as actors since the inaugural season.
AllHipHop: Your character on Power Book III: Raising Kanan is intriguing. And so in many ways, she’s a powerful individual, a scary individual. These sorts of individuals tend to bring fear to men. What is it like playing this role psychologically?
Patina Miller: Oh I love it. More than anything, I think any time you can get into the head of someone that’s the greatest thing, right? Like at the end of the day, I just think it’s surprising because, you know, people are used to men doing that, getting the opportunities to play these characters, playing these crime bosses. Like she’s the Tony Soprano of it all. But then you have this character of Raquel Thomas in the ’90s taking on that thing and I think it’s a little scarier when it’s a woman. ‘Cause you know, Rock, you just never know what you’re going to get. She’s hungry. She wants the power. She’s gonna get the power. But she also loves her son. And so you have that one side of her who is this business person who wants to be the best at business?
But then you also have her being the matriarch of a family, a family that is going through a lot of different things. It’s a close, tight-knit family and then you have her as a mother and so you get to see her. It makes her all the more scary because she’s fighting to protect—at all costs. So I think it makes her dangerous.
AllHipHop: Could you talk about the transition from season one to two to three and how you had to grow as an actress in each stage?
Patina Miller: For me I only want to do things where I feel like I can grow. For me personally, I am an actor who is always a student. I like to learn from the best. I like to learn in terms of watching people. Just human interactions. I like to learn by what I watch and then obviously my training. My background has prepared me with the tools to take on characters and to craft a character. And so for me, being able to have this character that I can craft from the beginning to like, hopefully, many more seasons. It’s been wonderful. I am having a lot of fun. I love to play all these different sides of herself. I always want the audience to see something that they haven’t seen before. So I always start a season from the very beginning. It’s like, how do I want to start this season? What do I want? What do I want to elicit from people? She’s a bad as hell. She stands on her morals. She’s the matriarch. She is heavy on the family and she loves her son.
And she is not to be messed with. That’s how I wanted to start. But, as the season continued, it’s like seeing the ruthlessness. It’s boring to play after a while when you see it so much. So then for me it’s about how can I put a spin on that? How can I start working with the inner part of her? Like what makes her tick? What is she scared of? What are her vulnerabilities? What is her rawness? How is she naive in some ways and how she makes mistakes? So I like to lean in.
She’s the opposite of what people think of me and that keeps me growing. And it also keeps her fresh. It keeps her a universal character because no character is perfect. No person is perfect, and people can see, whether they’re men or female, they can see themselves in this character, and it’s a journey, right?
In Season 3, she’s dealing with a lot. We’ve seen her be a winner. You’ve seen her lose. Now you’re seeing her have to grapple with all of her actions leading up to the Season 2 finale, and season three is all about, you know, trying to repair it, if she can, and trying to get her son back. She knows her son sees her for who she is now. There’s no more lies that she can tell him. Now the only thing she can do is try to get him back.
Young actor Mekai Curtis plays Kanan, the adult version of whom was played by 50 Cent in the original Power: Ghost series. The young brother was very excited to speak with a legacy Hip-Hop media brand and his words flowed naturally.
AllHipHop: I’d like to state that your growth as an actor is noticeable in the way that you hold scenes and your emotional pauses, if you will. are, are expertly done. I’d like to know how have you matured as an actor dealing with this gut wrenching and high stakes material from one season to the next?
Mekai Curtis: First of all I appreciate that. Thank you because I do try to. You know, I struggle to work every day and I want to be better than I was the day before and just having the right material that allows you to do that is a big blessing. But, yeah, that’s really it. You know, it’s taking it day by day, scene by scene and always asking questions and trusting your gut instinct with certain pieces and certain things that are happening. I just try to give you know as organic a reaction to what’s happening to this person as possible I try to, you know, put my empathetic shoes on.
AllHipHop: Please talk about the dynamic between your character Kanan and Patina’s character Raq in Power Book III season 3.
Mekai Curtis: It’s of course, obviously, clearly dysfunctional as far as a a parent child paradigm is concerned. You know, portraying the ins and outs of this relationship on camera with a veteran actress? Man, it’s the ultimate blessing. You know, I get to show up to work every day and she essentially, has already thought of every base to cover. She’s beyond intelligent and beyond. Willing to, you know, share her thought process and share how she’s viewing the scenes. She also helps me to better inform my choices a lot of times.
Just be working with somebody with such prestige, you know, somebody that shows up ready every day and expects you to show up ready every day and the synergy that kind of happens with being able to push each other, and to do better and do more and seeing that kind of play out through the characters it’s fun. It’s a blessing. Like it’s a challenge kind of thing we do with each other.
Each scene is I basically is a dance. How do you figure out how to complement each other? Where I’m gonna step where you’re gonna step. Being in that pocket, locked in with your scene partner, I mean, and getting to do that with her is the ultimate gift to any performer, truthfully.
Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 3 is now available to stream on STARZ.
