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. “With [costume designer] Tsigie [White] and the clothing and the costume team, they’re very intentional about the outfits and what Raquel wears,” Miller says. “They wanted her to have this flavor that was unlike anything you’d ever seen because there is something about Raquel that is very much elevated, and there is something about her that’s alluring to other people.”
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Raq makes shocking decisions, especially as her son begins carving out space for himself in the drug game. “There are a lot of things that go into parenting,” Miller reflects. “I feel sorry for her. You’re looking at a person who’s had trauma, so I give her grace. She has this really difficult task of being the breadwinner, of being this woman in charge and the tension and what that might feel like of constantly never knowing the danger that presents itself, but also trying to have this family life where you’re trying to be to mother. [Raquel] keeps trying. She knows she’s messed up with Kanan, but she never stops loving him deeply and wanting some sort 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 prowess, her sensuality is also placed front and center.
“We’re seeing these characters — not only this woman — go through this thing of being a boss, but we’re also seeing her owning her femininity, owning her sexuality and choosing to go into these situations and make the calls,” Miller says. “Honestly, I don’t think we get to see it enough — Black people just enjoying their sexuality in that way. We get to see female pleasure without the guilt, without all of the different things that come along with that.”
Portraying Raq’s ferocity and determination has shifted how Miller shows up in the world. “There is something about portraying a woman so confident in herself and so sure of herself that you have no choice,” she shares. “For me as a Black chocolate woman actress, being able to do what I do, to be in a show where I get to do all these cool things, it has given me confidence in realizing what I bring to things and trusting my instincts.”
