Patina Miller Says Raquel’s Confidence in ‘Raising Kanan’ Has Empowered Her Too

variety.com:

Aramide Tinubu For three seasons, “Power Book III: Raising Kanan” star Patina Miller has stood in drug queenpin Raquel “Raq” Thomas’ thigh-high stiletto boots.

Like her shoe preferences, the character is a dichotomy of femininity and viciousness. In the ‘90s-set series, Raq, the matriarch of her family, spearheads her business while struggling to maintain increasingly rocky 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 is very good at being a businesswoman, and sometimes, she’s really good at being a mother, but then sometimes she’s actually not really good at that because she was 15 when she had a child.” For the Tony Award winner, nailing the character’s Queens, New York, accent was essential. “I really wanted to make this character as authentic as I could,” she explains. “Once I got the rhythm with which she spoke and the tension in the jaw and how she holds that tension, it became how she uses the accent and the dialect, the code-switching.

So, the accent was really important to me with how I wanted to master and get this three-dimensional character down.” Donning Raq’s wardrobe has also helped Miller observe the world through Raq’s eyes.