From Raelle Tucker, the Amazon Studios original series The Power uses the sci-fi/fantasy genre to explore what would happen if women were to suddenly develop the mysterious ability to electrocute at will. Naturally, the global reversal of the power balance this causes leads some to feel threatened and see it as a danger that needs to be controlled and punished, instead of as the gift it could be.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Toni Collette (who plays Seattle Mayor Margot Cleary-Lopez) and John Leguizamo (who plays Rob Lopez, the supportive husband of Margot and father to their three kids, one of whom has the power) talked about why they were drawn to this complex story, using science fiction to explore and talk about real-world issues, how much they loved exploring these family dynamics, the challenge of having a daughter with this new unexplained power, getting to share a fun moment rapping in a car with Cravalho, and how similar all of this feels to what we all experienced at the start of COVID.

Collider: This is such a layered story with so many elements to it. When this came your way and you read it, what was it that most grabbed you about the story?

TONI COLLETTE: It’s very complex. Very simply, it’s about inclusivity and equality, and we need to see it. It’s so important and so meaningful to be able to work on something that I found personally inspirational. If I was a teenage girl watching this, it would be even more inspirational to actually see and identify with all of these different girls from different cultural backgrounds, coming into a sense of self and power and autonomy, and being able to protect themselves and have a sense of agency and sovereignty. It’s so important, and not just for women, for men too. We all need to be able to envision a world that’s balanced. It’s been out of whack, our entire lives. We’re born into a patriarchal world, and you don’t question it until you start to wake up and become conscious. And it’s happening en masse now. The whole globe is awake to it. It’s messy and we’re grappling with it, but it’s changing. This story is so aligned with all of those changes. It’s really exciting to be a part of.

JOHN LEGUIZAMO: A lot of things spoke to me about this script. Of course, I love the speculative fiction of it, using science fiction and real science to talk about this organ that evolves in women, and especially adolescents, and that it protects them and gives them the power. That aligns with everything that’s happening in the world. There’s so much chaos happening and so many negative factors, as the world changes with #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, the banning of trans people’s access to medical care, the attack on Roe versus Wade, and the attack on Black studies. There are so many crazy things happening in the world, and this shows you that same world, but in a fictional way, so that we can look at it from a distance, and maybe learn about ourselves and be entertained, at the same time.

Image via Prime Video

On the surface, your characters seem very different and like they come from very different worlds. What did you enjoy about finding that relationship between your characters and with their family?

COLLETTE: I love our characters’ relationship. They’re so passionate and so idealistic and so united in their perspective on what life is and what really matters to them and what their purpose is. They’re very much a team. The joy of working on this, and our scenes together, is that power is a contentious subject matter, and while our bond is so solid and strong, even our relationship comes under a bit of strain. We got to play with such beautiful writing that was such honest, natural, insightful, emotionally intelligent writing. And John is such an open, free, present actor that it was a complete joy to be able to work with him.

LEGUIZAMO: Yeah, it was a joy to work with Toni. We were given incredible material. You never really get relationships that are this complex and realistic, especially in a sci‑fi piece. It’s usually very generic, but here, they really sunk their teeth into this relationship, to tease it out. They brought us together in the beginning, and then our teenage daughter gets the power and our teenage son doesn’t know how to deal with our newly empowered teenage daughter, which starts to mess with our family. It’s beautiful to watch because we all relate to that.

How hard is that for them to deal with, when their daughter has this power and they want to support her and figure out what’s going on with her, but at the same time, she can be very dangerous to their son?

COLLETTE: She can be dangerous to herself and to anyone. It’s a new thing. Life has changed, and change is uncomfortable and confronting. And this is a physicalized change, so it is scary because no one knows what it really means or how it can be used. She certainly doesn’t mean to hurt her brother, and she’s mortified by it. Adolescence, puberty, and that whole period of change in a person’s body can be so overwhelming and confronting, and then you throw in this power. It just intensifies what she’s going through and what girls are going through, globally. I love our story because it is a global event. It’s not unlike COVID, in the way that it comes from out of the blue and changes everything and affects everybody, everywhere. What you get to see with our storyline is how the day-to-day family dynamics are affected and how very real people are affected by it. It can dismantle something that feels safe and really change their lives in a very personal, intimate way. Even though it’s been so loving and solid and supportive, it’s just a very, very deep change.

LEGUIZAMO: Yeah, and it’s hard to wrangle that. The power is so incredible in this show because, as girls and women are getting this power and you see them getting strong, it’s like what’s happening in the real world, where women are finally getting their just dessert in corporations, in film, in cinema, and in politics, and then other groups are becoming threatened by it and they don’t know what to do with women’s power. It’s fascinating how the world is shifting and is unbalanced for a second. This shows you that, through a metaphor.

Image via Prime Video

John, there is a very special moment in this, when you’re rapping in the car with Auli’i Cravalho. I love a good signing in the car moment. Was that moment always in the script? Was that fun to do?

LEGUIZAMO: Those were new pages that were brought to me, and I was so thrilled by it. I love hip-hop. Hip-hop is my whole life. Hip-hop culture is what got me through my youth. So, to do it with my TV/movie daughter was so thrilling. Auli’i can actually sing. She can actually rhyme. So, to do it with her, while she was looking at me askance, I knew that she was judging me, so it helped me be this awkward dad. It was so fun.

There’s also another interesting moment that we see between your characters speaking Spanish to each other and them having the ability to communicate in that way, when the mom can’t. That really shows how the world is very blended, but also we can get so busy that it can be hard to stop and take the time to learn someone else’s language. Was that a scene that was important to you, even if it is a small moment in this?

LEGUIZAMO: It was a very powerful moment. I know it’s a small moment in the TV series, but it was a very powerful moment for me. We Latin people were the largest ethnic group in America and the oldest ethnic group, and yet we’ve been invisible for so long, and kept from having power and visibility. So, to have that little moment and that exchange was very touching to me. It triggered my wife to take some Spanish courses.

COLLETTE: Really? Wow. That’s amazing.

LEGUIZAMO: She didn’t speak Spanish, but now my wife has gotten good. She’s been taking courses because of that episode. That’s what a TV show can do. That’s the power of fiction and storytelling.

Image via Prime Video

One of the things that I find so interesting about the concept of this show is that this ability can’t be taken away from these girls. Their bodies have actually changed. What affect does that have on everything that happens this season?

COLLETTE: It’s so funny because, as humans, we’re just so arrogant. We think we’re invincible. One of the things I love about the show is that this is about evolution and it’s happening to us, in this time. I find it so interesting and exciting. My character says, “Our world may never be the same.” We’re dealing with big ideas and big changes. It’s a very ambitious show, and it’s so successful in its ambition. Sometimes when people talk about an ambitious show, it has a negative connotation, but it really does succeed. It is absolutely a huge, global, sweeping story that affects girls and women everywhere. To be able to contemplate these issues in this way is so necessary and healthy.

LEGUIZAMO: This is such a complex story. It’s six stories braided together, which is difficult to wrangle that and make them all pay off.

COLLETTE: And they reflect and enhance each other.

LEGUIZAMO: And keep the plot moving forward. It’s so masterfully done and accomplished. I take my hat off to the directors, the writers, and the producers.

Toni, what was it like to have to put on what essentially is a hazmat suit and do those scenes in the hospital? How weird is it to act through something like that?

COLLETTE: Strangely, the experience of COVID made it less weird. We all went through something together that was horrible, and so many people struggled and experienced great loss. But the one upshot is that it unified us. We realized that we’re in this together. We’re facing this together. We are actually one. During COVID, there were images of people in hazmat suits. This story is not unlike COVID, in its global reach and how it affects everyone. It’s very strange how something so recent and so unfathomable can actually make something like that scene feel somewhat normal or familiar.

Image via Prime Video

What’s it like for your character to bond with Jos over this? They have maybe not a strained relationship, but they don’t seem to necessarily have a lot in common. Does all this help bring them together, by the end of the season?

COLLETTE: Yeah, it actually really does. Absolutely. I’m a busy mom. My focus is much wider than just my kitchen. I try to be there for my kids, as much as I can. Margot is a good mum, but her world is a little wider and there’s a bit more responsibility. Jos getting the power helps Margot engage with her emotional landscape a bit more, and vice versa. Once she has it and she sees that I’m stepping up and speaking for girls and women just like her, it actually develops a newfound respect for her mom. It’s a beautiful bond that is formed through this crazy thing happening.

LEGUIZAMO: I feel like I’ve seen those moments happen between my wife and my daughter, so to see the two of them doing it, it just parallels the real world and real life.

COLLETTE: It’s really easy, when you’re existing in a family unit under the same roof, to take people for granted and not see each other as separate human beings. But this is a moment where they see each other for who they are, and they really appreciate each other and love each other.

LEGUIZAMO: It’s a great moment in the series.The Power is available to stream at Prime Video.