8/4/2017
AT&T has become known as the brand to mobilize your world. But this past weekend in Houston AT&T brought the power to our world in the form of Joseph Sikora, J.R. Ramirez, and Rotimi Akinosho. The cast of the highly rated #1 program on Starz “Power” was in town for an exclusive meet and greet with fans of the show. And of course, Houston Style Magazine was there to learn a little more about the guys and now you will too.
“Power” follows the double life living James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick). On one hand he appears to be living the life of a successful business owner of one of the hottest nightclubs in town, and doting husband/father pristine with his stunning wife Tasha (Naturi Naughton) by his side. However, flip the coin and he lands on heads as a drug lord running a well run operation in the streets of New York with his best friend who is like a "brother", Tommy. As the protagonist, St. Patrick exudes the most common conflict known "man against man". He struggles with wanting to leave the drug world where his family and himself along with his loyal associates face death from multiple gangs every day. Sprinkle that with trying to raise your 3 kids, and a pinch of infidelity with an opposing AUSA agent/childhood friend; Angela Valdez (Lela Loren), and you have everyone connected with James/Ghost fighting for Power.
Since hearing those words that millions sing every Sunday night, "They say this is a big rich town," in 2014, we have come to fall in love with, despise some, and look forward to the unfolding of other characters. We have phrases we use and love to hear like "Cancel Christmas" and scenes where we cheered and cried at the same time. However, when asked their most memorable scene, those first episodes are still embedded in the minds of its stars. Sikora reflected back to that time as one of his most memorable scenes. “The first shot of the first scene of the first episode of ‘Power’ was me and J.R. Ramirez in Woodside, Queens. We where going into shoot a scene with the [Hermanos] Tainos & Dominic Colon and so that was very memorable to me.” He continued, “I just still remember kind of the very bright blues of the garage in the background and the Dominicans playing dominos. I still remember that pretty vividly. “
It was during that scene where Julio, played by J.R. Ramirez, started to show how trustworthy and loyal he could be to Ghost’s operation, which has proven to be very beneficial even now in season 4. “Julio has been there since day one literally, the very first scene of year one it was me and this guy (pointing to Sikora). And I feel like Julio is one of the few people who is like their family. He knows them in and out. He knows the streets better than anybody else. The loyalty he has to Ghost and Thomas is something that I don’t think anyone else has. They don’t trust anybody like they trust Julio. And this year he finally gets a little promotion so he is trying to do right by the organization but its tricky.” He laughs, “The streets ain’t loyal.”
We saw just how disloyal the streets could be as the character of "Dre" (played by Rotimi Akinosho) began to unfold. A young father from "the hood" whom Ghost portrayed by James St. Patrick attempts to save by showing him the "legal" side. Dre pushes back so hard that Ghost is left no choice but to reveal himself and bring Dre in. Dre is given busy work (looking after James son Tariq (Michael Rainey Jr.)) to show his loyalty and build trust, but he has slowly turned into a not-so-trustworthy associate. He credits the writers for the elevation in Dre’s game. “The writers are giving me a lot more to play with because I am also trying to grow as an artist. So when you are with amazing actors like my guys right here you have to work hard. You have to step your game up. But the way Dre is moving it is humbling to be a part of one of the best shows of all time and start growing in that is a blessing,” said Akinosho.
During the meet and greet with fans, the actors showed more of themselves that revealed how intelligent and funny they all are. One of the biggest laughs came from their craziest fan moments that range from J.R. having panties thrown at him, a woman sneaking in to watch Rotimi release himself in the restroom and another woman wanting Joseph to choke her. What?!
Then the tables would turn for the guys to show how they are very much perfectionists and their own worst critics. It is no doubt that they are all fans of show but fans of themselves is another question. “I am a hard critic on myself,” admits Sikora. “You find out everything you did wrong and then people give you credit for something you are doing great and you are very grateful.” Akinosho also shared that he criticizes himself as well when he watches the show in private. Ramirez probably would critic himself, if he ever watched himself. “I can’t stand to see or hear myself.” He continued, “but I do say this is the first thing that I have ever done in my career that I would completely watch it if I wasn’t apart of it. It’s fire. Its power, yo. It’s such an amazing show.”
Throughout the night fans learned more and about the cast as they won prizes from AT&T. Before closing out the event, the AT&T store was turned into a club reminiscent of Truth as Rotimi took to the stage to drop two of his latest songs while he is on the ‘Don’t Matter’ Tour. The crowd went wild! Utilizing the trusted AT&T network, we went live on Facebook to give loyal fans of the show a tease of the performance!
It was a long night but no matter the length the cast proved their loyalty to their fans. Rows of people went on and on and the guys made sure to take AT LEAST ONE photo with every last one of them before exiting the building.
See more of Sikora aka Tommy, Ramirez aka Julio and Akinosho aka Dre on Sunday nights on “Power” on the Starz network. If you have the STARZ app, you can watch the show Saturday at Midnight, which is technically Sunday morning. But please no spoilers! For more information, visit: https://www.starz.com/