ATHLEISURE MAG #80 AUG ISSUE | IT'S ALL ABOUT FAMILY STARZ Raising Kanan

We always like chatting with those who are in the POWER universe. STARZ's POW- ER BOOK III Raising Kanan is back for Season 2 on Aug 14th. We caught up with its creator, executive producer and writer, Sascha Penn (POWER, Survivor's Remorse, CREED II) and two of the stars from the show Hailey Kilgore (Respect, Ain't Misbehavin', Into the Woods) who plays Jukebox and Omar Dorsey (Genius: Aretha, Queen Sugar, Halloween Kills) who plays Cartier.

We caught up with them to talk about how they prepare for being in this series from channeling the era of the 90's as an actor as well as to get the feel of the show through music and clothing. We talk about where we left these characters last season and where we find them now. More importantly, we look at how this show, as a prequel, has a set destination while having the challenge to create the origin story that we have the ability to see the connective tissue of those involved!

ATHLEISURE MAG: You were a producer and writer for the flagship POWER - how did that transition feel when you became the creator for POWER BOOK III: Raising Kanan for the roles of showrunner, executive producer and writer?

SASCHA PENN: I will tell you that Courtney Kemp who is obviously the creator of POWER, she warned me! She said, “I don’t know if you want this job!” She was right ha ha!

It’s a lot more work, it’s a lot more responsibility. Obviously, I had to create a world that didn’t exist whereas the other POW- ER BOOK’s do have the luxury of characters that are already in the original POW- ER. So in the case of this particular series, there’s a lot of invention that had to happen and that was a real challenge and still staying true to the original series, that’s always important!

AM: Absolutely!

SP: To have it feel part of that and at the same time, distinct from it, that’s part of the challenge. As well as the fact that you know how the story is going to end with Kanan (Mekai Curtis) if you watch the original POWER. So how do you make that interesting? How do you make that compelling? I mean, it’s a very very different job, and Courtney, I appreciate her warning me because she was right, but it’s a great job too and I can’t complain.

AM: What’s your creative process like? Like you said, you're establishing a beginning of the universe and yet you know where it’s ultimately going to go.

SP: Yeah, first off, I’m very fortunate that I have a room full of writers to help me figure out these stories and to deconstruct these characters and then build them back up. You know, the process is that really in TV, you start from the characters. That’s the starting point for everything in TV. We had Kanan and then it was the question of again, to your point – we know how the story ends, where do we start? It’s not that interesting to tell the story of a sociopath if that’s how he starts! We really landed and I hope that it works that this is a family drama. It’s the story of this family – Kanan’s family and understanding how he became who he became. If you’ve watched it, you know that he has started out from a different spot then where he ended.

AM: What are you excited about in terms of Season 2 with the storylines and different things that you can share with us?

SP: I think what’s exciting is first off, there’s this business of how Season 1 ended that we have to clean up right? That’s a real challenge because it ended in such a dramatic fashion and so you know that obviously that had an impact on Raq (Patina Miller) and Kanan’s relationship and the family in general. At the same time, she’s balancing these very personal issues with her expanding business. That is in some respect the balance that we all have to sort of address which is work and life and how do we do it? In her case, the stakes are significantly higher. But you know what's great in Season 2 and really any series that gets another season or multiple seasons, you get the opportunity to go deeper, go into different places and really get the opportunity to explore these different characters in a way that you haven’t before. In this series, we’re fortunate that we have incredible actors who are doing it. That’s the other thing. In Season 1, you don’t totally know what you’re going to get and in the case of Raising Kanan we have been so fortunate that the actors have been so incredible and it really allows it to be able to write bigger story lines and dramatic moments because these actors can kind of do anything!

AM: It feels like that in addition to the great characters and the storyline, having it set in the 90’s, you have the music and just the clothing that’s also another character. It’s just as big and brings that ambiance factor. How was it to navigate that? Getting clothes and sneakers that are distinct to the era?

SP: It’s a huge challenge and that’s a great question because it’s a huge, huge challenge! It’s probably one of our greatest challenges because of course, all the great sneaker releases when they release the Jordans, like the Jordans 5, they look slightly different from the ones of that era. So we have to be really careful because you know, the viewers they know better than we do and they will call us out! Twitter is undefeated! So it really is a big job and we are very fortunate, we have a Costume Designer Tsigie White who spends months and months and months going through people’s warehouses and closets trying to find the original deadstock stuff that we use. We’ve also been fortunate that we’ve worked with designers of that era like Dapper Dan who have built stuff for us like Unique’s (Joey Bada$$) outfits, those are original Dapper Dan – such as that jacket. The goods news is what’s old is new again and all this 90s stuff like Sergio Tacchini is back!

Looking at the show, we got to see the complexity of having the character's ends set in stone while also being able to really dig into who they were before who they came to be in POWER and even as they continue in the other portions of the POWER universe!

We wanted to talk with Hailey who is one of the actors who plays a character that we saw in POWER, Jukebox. We wanted to know how she came to the show, connected to her character and how she found her way to catch the 90's vibe of that time and in NYC in order to bring her to light. We also wanted to find out about Omar and his character Cartier.

ATHLEISURE MAG: You play Jukebox and Cartier, what attracted you to want to be this character as well as to be part of this show?

HAILEY KILGORE: I was so into being a princess when I was younger. I wanted to play princesses and I wanted to be a damsel in distress and that’s exactly what I got to do when I was on Broadway and I did my first couple of roles. I remember calling my team at one point and saying, “I want to do something gritty, do something different. I want to get down in the mud and really go there with a character!” So Jukebox came into my inbox and I was just immediately so pulled to this character and her story and who she is at her core. So yeah, I was like, I’m absolutely going to do this, I’m a huge Anika Noni Rose (The Princess and the Frog, THEM, POWER) fan. She was the original Jukebox on POWER as an adult.

AM: It was like perfect kismet! What about you Omar?

OMAR DORSEY: Honestly, I was into the Raising Kanan from the first episode because of Patina Miller (Madam Secretary, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 + 2, The Many Saints of Newark). I think she is one of our most gifted artists. I did a stage reading for a Broadway show with her a few years ago and was impressed with her. So, when I got the call about the show, Patina was the first thing I thought about.

AM: What’s it like for you preparing since this takes place in the 90’s as you’re playing the character and taking on this iconic era.

HK: Yeah, that was a very very different time and especially in NYC in the 90’s. Oooo it was such a different time and women really had to survive on a day-today basis. I really just went to the root. I watched a lot of documentaries. I listened to a lot of rappers that came up in NY. If you just listen and pay attention, you hear the struggle and the pain. It’s so interesting because to them, it was an everyday scenario. So, I just really like to ground my performance in the realism of survival. Jukebox really wears that mask. You see with her family that she’s silly and wants to laugh and she can cry and confide in them. But then, when she’s out in public, she’s stoned face and I have fun with that.

OD: With Raising Kanan taking place in the 90’s, the preparation was easy for me. The 90’s were quite a time for me. I was in high school and listening to all the music, wearing all the clothes that we did in the show. I felt like I was pretty much taken into a time machine.

AM: Where do we leave Jukebox in Season 1 and where do we pick up with her again heading into Season 2?

HK: Season 1 leaves Juke really heartbroken and so when we come back, we see her as quite a shell of herself. We see how she starts picking up the pieces and putting them back together in her own way.

AM: Tell us about Cartier “Duns” Fareed and what can we expect from his as we watch him this season?

OD: Cartier is an international man of mystery. What does he do to make all the money that he has? He's a Shakespeare spewing, art collecting gent ... with a serious secret. Let’s just say he introduces people to each other.

AM: Hailey, you are involved in so many things and the fact that you are part of the world of Broadway and TV as well, what are some upcoming projects that you have going on that we should keep an eye out for?

HK: I have a couple of projects coming out! I finally, have really invested my time into music so I will be dropping an EP very very soon. My first single off that EP, Worth It, drops on Aug 12th which I’m so excited about! This will be my first time leading a movie, it’s called Cinnamon and that will be coming out very very soon.

AM: Omar, we have enjoyed seeing you in a number of projects from Ray Donovan, Genius, Queen Sugar and even being Pastor Green in The Lower Bottoms podcast! What are some other projects coming up that we should keep an eye out for?

OD: Queen Sugar’s final season airs September 6th. I’m so very excited for the world to see the culmination of the entire Bordelon clan. Hollywood and Vi (Tiffany Lifford) in particular. Their love has been an inspiration to see on TV weekly for almost a decade. I’m also returning to the Halloween franchise as Sheriff Barker for the finale of the Blumhouse produced trilogy, “Halloween Ends.” I think old Mike Meyers will finally meet his match!

IG @pennsascha @haileyfkilgore @omarjdorsey

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | STARZ/POW- ER BOOK III: Raising Kanan