‘Raising Kanan’ Star Patina Miller on Playing Raquel, Confidence

For three seasons, “Power Book III: Raising Kanan” star Patina Miller has been in the thigh-high stiletto boots of drug kingpin Raquel “Raq” Thomas. Like her shoe preferences, the character is a dichotomy of femininity and cruelty. In the ’90s series, Raq, her family’s matriarch, runs her business while struggling to maintain increasingly shaky relationships with her brothers Marvin (London Brown) and Lou-Lou (Malcolm Mays) and her teenage son Kanan (MeKai Curtis). ). The role requires Miller’s complete immersion in Raq’s world.

“Raquel is flawed,” Miller explains. “She’s very good at being a businesswoman, and sometimes she’s very good at being a mother, but sometimes she’s actually not very good at that because she was 15 when she had a child.” For the Tony Award winner, the character’s accent in Queens, New York was essential. “I really wanted to make this character as authentic as possible,” she explains. “Once I had the rhythm with which she spoke and the tension in the jaw and how she held that tension, it became how she used the accent and the dialect, the code switching. So the accent was very important to me, how I wanted to master and bring out this three-dimensional character.

Donning Raq’s wardrobe has also helped Miller observe the world through Raq’s eyes. “Of [costume designer] Tsigie [White] and the clothes and costume team, they’re very intentional about the outfits and what Raquel wears,” Miller says. “They wanted her to have a flavor that was unlike anything you’ve ever seen, because there’s something about Raquel that’s very elevated, and there’s something about her that’s appealing to other people.”

Raq makes shocking decisions, especially when her son begins to carve out space for himself in the drug game. “There are a lot of things that go into parenthood,” Miller reflects. “I feel sorry for her. You’re looking at someone who has had trauma, so I give her grace. She has this very difficult job of being the provider, of being this woman in charge and the tension and how that could feel like constantly never knowing what danger is going to happen, but also having this family life where you’re trying to live for being a mother. [Raquel] keeps trying. She knows she made a mistake with Kanan, but she never stops loving him and wanting some kind of connection.”

Despite her questionable career choice and parenting skills, Raq is one of the most dynamic female characters on the small screen. As much as the Starz drama showcases her business skills, her sensuality is also front and center.

“We see these characters — and not just this woman — go through the process of being a boss, but we also see her owning her femininity, owning her sexuality and choosing to get into these situations and make the calls,” Miller says. say. “Honestly, I don’t think we see it enough: Black people just enjoy their sexuality in that way. We get to see female pleasure without guilt, without all the different things that come with it.

Portraying Raq’s ferocity and determination changed the way Miller appears in the world. “There’s something about portraying a woman who is so confident and so sure of herself that you have no choice,” she says. “For me as a black chocolate woman actress, who gets to do what I do, to be on a show where I get to do all these cool things, it’s given me confidence in realizing what I bring to things and trusting my instincts. ”