Great. Hi, how are you today?
Good, how are you doing, Sarah? Yeah, very good.
Thank you very much. Thank you for talking with me today.
Oh my absolute pleasure.
Thank you for talking with me.
Oh, no worries.
All right.
I'm really excited to talk to you today because this is just such
an interesting season seven and I can't wait to get into it.
So how does it feel to be returning to Power and to this character?
Really great.
You know, I feel like there's so many unexplored
aspects of Tommy Egan that I was really excited to dove into.
Also like what makes Tommy Tommy now that he's this kind of empty vessel
because of the loss of all of his friends and family and
his drug empire,
his affiliations with the mob
and with the Serbs and with the cartel, all these things are broken off.
What makes Tommy tick?
What how does he feel himself up when he's empty?
And a lot of those questions will be answered.
So I think that's
even more revealing within the psyche of the Tommy Egan character.
Absolutely.
And it feels like a bit of a homecoming for you because we're moving the action
to Chicago, which is where you're from.
So to be returning home and and taking power to a brand new city,
I think that's it's really cool.
It's an incredible aspect to take it.
It's obviously the only
show part of the power universe that's not in New York,
so that's really pretty cool.
And even though I haven't had a permanent residence in Chicago
for probably, oh god, maybe 25 years or most of
it is where I was born and raised,
so it was fun to be on some of the streets that I knew as a teenager and young man.
And now we're shutting them down and I'm driving the old blue Mustang down.
And so it was pretty surreal.
And to work with all these incredible Chicago actors
like Ivan Swearingen and Anthony Fleming III and Kris
Lofton, who's homegrown as well, you know, he's out of L.A.
now, but it was it was pretty.
It was pretty amazing and a real honor. Absolutely.
And I always find meeting in Chicago is really fascinating
because Chicago has this rich history of crime and gangs and stuff.
Did you tap into a lot of research
into to what make Chicago and its criminal underbelly?
I did.
I know a lot about it, and I'm a hard worker, so I did a lot of research.
Whether the show got it right, that's not up to me
because I don't write the show and the right at Chicago
will let the writers know if they got it right or not, believe me.
So we'll see.
But I think that in terms of Tommy and Tommy's head space,
I think that it's very new to him.
So I think we're going to watch Tommy discovering Chicago.
And for me, why I did research into that was so I knew what
I would be discovering, and I knew the so I had the miles behind my eyes.
You know, I went on several ride alongs with the police.
I talked with guys who were former gang members and current gang bangers
who were in prison, guy that was in prison for six years.
Just like Diamond and to ask him questions,
you know what happened to the gang?
How did you run the gang? Were you part of the gang?
So I kind of knew all of that stuff, so I was able to
discover it.
When I was able to discover it,
I would know the answer, but I was able to discover it as time
and reacquaint myself with the city because I think the biggest mistake
you can make is think that you can come back home again
because the city changes without you.
And so you have to get back there to know it again.
So it was cool to be back, you know, and we'll see what, how, what, how.
Tommy Egan Chicago What that looks like.
Yeah, it's very exciting.
I've only watched a couple of episodes, but even the first season watching him,
and he's like a powder keg of emotion
already because of the emotional season finale.
And you just he's just on the edge and he set off
so many fireworks already instantly coming into Chicago.
Yeah, I think as Tommy is wont to do, you know, even without trying,
he he really is that proverbial bull in a China shop.
And he does knock and bang into stuff, but he takes full responsibility
like, yeah, I did that. Yeah, I'm here.
So, yeah, now you got to deal with me now, you know, or he's smart enough
to just keep quiet, get out the way and let let that problem handle itself.
So I think just his kind of his innate street knowledge
and and just kind of his gut instincts
are still still that same old timey .
Yeah, yeah.
This is a scene in the car when he's just like, You know what,
I'm going to stay in my town, and I was like, Yeah, yeah,
because I think we've all kind of been there when we're just like,
you know, at our kind of at our lowest and not expecting things to happen.
And then all of a sudden, you know,
while out there it is, you know, Eureka and you get those eureka moments.
And I think that Tommy, specifically because he lives so much in the presence.
Those Eureka moments happen a lot.
Even back in the Power show and when you know,
he realized when he wasn't working with Ghost anymore, I can do this.
I can run these things.
Now he misses his brother dearly, and I was saying this before that.
I think that we often say this like, I'll go visit
this person later, or I'll see this friend and then that person dies.
We're like, God, if I just had one minute
more with them, if I just say, and I think that that's some of Tommy's
when he's looking back as he's missing, he's missing his brother deeply.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you can, you can really tell, and it's a phenomenal performance.
And so for people to see it
with their worries, how does it feel
because it's a brand new cast with new characters say, how does it feel?
Because you're kind of like the conduit, I suppose, to these new people coming on
board to the show and you can show them kind of how power ticks.
But also you have to create something new because it's a new family
for people to see how what was that like?
Super interesting.
You know, you had people like Kris
Lofton, who plays Jenard Sampson, who was like an ultimate superpower
fan who probably knows more specifics about the original power series than I do.
I would ask him, Was this this is like nah, man.
That was the season four, episode six, because in season episode seven
is somebody like that and then somebody like Tommy Flanagan
who had never seen the show.
So you have two totally different styles of actor,
or at least in terms of knowledge of the power universe and absolutely
every bit as committed and beautiful and brilliant and present as as the next.
I mean, the cast was phenomenal from fellow Brits
of Tommy Flanagan and Gabrielle Ryan, who were incredible people to
the other unbelievably
talented and beautiful Lili Simmons
and her beautiful and talented brother,
Shane Harper, who is a great human being, but also Isaac Keys, who plays this
, Diamond Sampson, who brings this, you know, semi stoic and kind of wise
wisdom of of the streets to the character as well.
So I'm really
I think the cast is just outstanding and I can't wait for everybody to see.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I heard from a lot of cast members that you were quite helpful
in getting them, getting them involved in Power and stuff
, so they couldn't sing your praises enough.
Oh, I'm I'm grateful to hear that, but I I really I mean, I'm being super serious.
Sarah, like the vibe on set was so professional, so nice.
People were on time and there to work.
But you know,
with also with this freedom of like, Hey, we're just a bunch of gypsy actors
like, let's make something great, like let's really get into it.
And I couldn't be more proud and humbled to be part of that cast.
Absolutely.
And everyone puts in a really great performance,
as you said, Isaac Keys and Tommy Flanagan, you kind of play these opposite and
streetwise like
gang leaders that Tommy has to like.
Balance between, I guess, was creating his own own kind of like show in Chicago.
Mm-Hmm.
How did you do that with those two characters?
I think I think
I think that's a really fun dynamic actually to bounce back and forth.
And I think that, you know, the the subject of race is still so taboo
both in England and United States that I think that it's
it's really cool that we get to tackle it in a way that Tommy Egan is tackling it
from not being ignorant to the fact that he's a white man in America,
but he's from a certain cultural background
that is totally different than the French who are rich and privileged.
Even Water Flynn, who may not have come from that,
is viewing Tommy in a way that, Oh, you're like us,
and Tommy is nothing like them, but he looks like them.
And I think that Tommy is expecting
the black side of town with, you know, Jenard, but certainly.
I meant to be like, no, no, you get me like, we get each other.
I know I'm white and everything, but like, you get me right?
And he's like, Nah, man, you know, not at first.
Anyway, we may have to work together
and there's something about you, but it's a slow process.
So it's, you know, it's not moving even as fast as it's moving in.
The storytelling is maybe not moving fast
enough for Tommy or he's aware enough of like, OK, this isn't New York.
I'm not in Kansas.
Dorothy's not in Kansas. And no.
So that's a fun, a skewed version of the world for Tommy to live through.
Absolutely.
And he sort of he has great.
You have you have great chemistry, a lot of cast members.
I really love your chemistry with Gabrielle Ryan as well
because she's
kind of an interesting player and in the Power universe, because she's kind of
again doing her own thing, but she's got these connections.
How does it feel developing that relationship with Gabrielle?
Well, she's an incredibly talented actor.
She's giving, and she's just a joy to be around.
She's just such a kind and wonderful person.
So that coupled with the fact that she's incredibly talented.
I had a great time on set with her.
I really she's a great human being.
I think that people are going to love the Gloria character,
especially when little secrets pop out about her past here and there.
So I wouldn't say it's necessarily a love triangle between Gloria
and and Vic and Tommy, but
definitely there will be rivalries,
and she is a linchpin character, for sure.
Amazing. Amazing.
In speaking about the secrets in the past,
like we've mentioned before,
it's going to be a lot of backstory for Tommy to be explored.
How fun was it getting into specific elements of his story
because it played from season one?
You're like, Oh wow, this is really one of the reasons
why there's a spinoff, as I think that we never really go into
when we did a little bit like even with Tony Teresi
and the whole father thing and being there
with Tommy and understanding, I think what I love
and we have a few of them in the Power Book IV Force
is the quiet moments with Tommy, the thinking Tommy.
And it's not like thinking like ghosts, like super fast strategizing.
It's just thinking and being right there right now.
I just it just feels to me that that's something that people tell me.
And even when I'm watching, the show seems very relatable to myself.
Are these quiet moments before this storm or after this storm?
And I'm excited
for the audience to see some more of those moments, too with them.
Amazing.
Is there any particular episode that you think you can't
wait for audiences to watch on episode ten?
Episode ten is its finale.
Oh, it's so good.
It's so it's it's well-written.
It's certainly one of the best written episodes.
And then also the director was Deon Taylor, who is a wonderful director.
He directed The Intruder
that I was in with Dennis Quaid and making good Michael Ealy.
He directed Black and Blue with Naomie Harris and Tyrese [GIbson],
and he's just such a special director that.
He did an amazing what he was able to accomplish in twelve days or whatever.
He made a movie.
I mean, it's a movie, so I can't wait so.
So there's there's a payoff for finishing the ten episodes.
Yeah, they're all great. All great episodes.
Kieron Hawkes, who's also a Brit, Englishman.
Kieron Hawkes directed the most episodes of anybody.
He directed three.
He also directed on the Power Show, and he's an excellent director,
and he really kind of came up with the vocabulary for the show
and a lot of ways in terms of the shots and the look and the feel.
Eif Rivera, who directed five, has directed across the board
on the Power Universe, except for the original,
he's brilliant.
We had one of our
producers, Shana Stine, directed one and then Larysa Kondracki
who directed the pilot,
directed on the Power Show as well, and I thought she just did an amazing job.
Some of my absolute favorite moments was just what I was telling you.
Sarah in the pilot is that is that like the first two minutes
when there's no dialog and and yet we have a whole story of time.
So I really enjoyed that.
I really thought that was great. Absolutely.
I find it because the kids, he's like driving to Chicago.
I have this bike for in my head
without
trying to give too much away that it would make a good series of Tommy
just going to different cities
throughout America, trying to get to like the West Coast.
I think you're on to something you say.
How great would that be?
Would that be something that you you're willing to explore this
Tommy's kind of like road trip across America, causing havoc and mayhem.
I don't see how we can't, right?
It'll be really good.
If you could sum up this series, though, in three words
for people to get like hooked on power in Chicago.
What would it be? Have you heard the theme song?
Yeah, I would say Power, Powder, Respect.
Amazing. Amazing.
Well, thank you so much for talking with me today.
It's been an absolute pleasure.
I can't wait for people to see the show.
I was instantly blown away by the first episode,
so you have a very infectious energy, so I'm very happy to talk to you.
Oh, thank you.
Well, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Thank you for the chance to take care of it.
Thank you, Sarah.