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, Auli’i Cravalho (who plays Jos Cleary-Lopez, the daughter of Margot and Rob and one of the young women with the power) talked about her desire to play a character so grounded in reality, how she related to Jos, having the dream duo of Toni Collette and John Leguizamo as her on-screen parents, getting in a good laugh while sharing a scene with Leguizamo rapping in the car, wanting to feel safe in the spaces that you occupy, and whether she’d want the power in real life. She also talked about what it’s been like to join the Mean Girls Musical movie, and what voicing Moana has brought to her life.

Collider: This character is obviously very different from the last character that I interviewed you for, which was Capri for Darby and the Dead. Was that part of the appeal for you? What was it about Jos that made you want to play her and that you found yourself identifying with?

AULI’I CRAVALHO: That’s a great question. I honestly have played quite a few high school characters, which makes sense. I’m quite young, and in Hollywood, we see people upwards of 30 playing high schoolers. But I was really excited to lend myself to Jos Cleary-Lopez because the material of The Power is so different from anything that I had read before. It was so very grounded in our reality. I related to her, in the ways that women tell women to be careful, and to put your keys between your fingers when you’re walking home alone at night, and to check underneath your car and in the back seat before you put on your seatbelt and drive off. There are just so many different ways that we carry fear, and the sci‑fi nature of The Power means that we can imagine a world where girls can really protect themselves, in a way that cannot be taken away from them. Once the power is inherited, it cannot be taken away. And Jos just represented a whole new nuanced role for me. I gave my all to the audition, and I was so grateful that I got to play her.

What was it like to form this family, as actors? Did you guys get time to spend together? What’s it like to have Toni Collette and John Leguizamo as your parents?

CRAVALHO: They’re a dream duo, truly. John brings such an incredible humor. His dad jokes are off the charts. He was born for this. And honestly, I was quite intimidated when I heard Toni was joining the project because I see her as the mom from Hereditary, but she’s absolutely fantastic. And there was my brother, Gerrison Machado, and my sister, Pietra Castro. You can’t really fake a great family feeling, I don’t think, and we didn’t have to because, in between takes, we were singing or practicing time-steps. It was just ridiculous and so fun. I love them dearly.

When you work with actors like Toni and John, who have done so many projects, do you ask them questions about different movies they’ve done, or do you try not to do that when you’re working with them?

CRAVALHO: Honestly, I just wanted to be a fly on the wall. They’d just talk about their projects. I don’t wanna say that they’re seasoned actors, but they have been in quite a few things. I’m not calling them old, I’m just saying they’ve been in quite a few things. They have a lot of knowledge to share, which they do. Working with Toni felt, for the first time, like I wasn’t acting, and that felt like magic. This process for The Power started in 2020, and now it’s 2023, and I’ve worked with John for the last few years. He really does feel like a mentor to me. He walks onto the set with such kindness and graciousness, and no ego, at all. He’s still the funniest guy I’ve ever met. I’m grateful to call him my dad.

There’s a very special moment in this, when he’s rapping in the car with you, in the second episode. Was that moment always in the script? What was it like to share that moment with him? How many times did you have to listen to him rapping at you?

CRAVALHO: We had to shut down the street for that, so we didn’t get too many takes in. I needed as many as I could get because, any time he would start rapping, I would just start laughing. I was supposed to be like, “Why are you being ridiculous, dad?” It was hard because Jos is not having it, so she had to be stony-faced. In reality, there was no music playing, so he was just rapping into the void and fake driving a car. I was like, “This is comical. This is the epitome of comedy.”

I also thought it was really interesting that we get to see you guys speaking Spanish to each other and you’re able to communicate in that way, where Toni’s character can’t. It really shows how the world is so blended, but also how we get so busy that we can’t necessarily take the time to find the time to learn someone else’s language. Was that scene important to you? Even if it’s a small moment, doesn’t it feel like it says so much about who this family is?

CRAVALHO: Yes, absolutely. I grew up in Hawaii, so I’m used to the melting pot that brings cultures together. I myself am Hawaiian, Chinese, Irish, Puerto Rican and Portuguese. Working with John and understanding Spanish, I’ll admit that I’m not fluent, but I thought that was important. Throughout our season, not only do we speak Spanish, but there are also storylines in different languages and you need to read subtitles. I think it proves the global scale of The Power and how it really impacts everyone, across the globe. I love the element that language brings to our series.

Of course, when something happens that makes girls different or special, the first instinct that men have seems to be to lock them up or punish them, in some way. What can you say about the reaction that the men of this world have, to what all of these young women are suddenly able to do?

CRAVALHO: The Power is feminist, in the way that we hope to feel safe in the spaces that we already occupy. Our series does an excellent job of portraying microaggressions, like how Margot’s co-worker will say, “Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” and you just have to take it. Women are being paid less than men, and we show that inequality, not necessarily to heighten and aggravate anyone, but truly just to show that we take these water droplets every day, until eventually, they are just too much. I hope that people watch it with that understanding, and watch it with the women around you, and watch them laugh at these microaggressions. There’s no way not to get super worked up about it. Just see it for what it is, and then make the change. That’s how I feel about it.

What was it like to portray the power? Since you don’t actually have electricity running through you, you have to fake that, in some sense. So, how did you approach that? Do you just embrace feeling silly about it, when you’re doing it?

CRAVALHO: That’s a great question. There are so many different iterations of the power, as well. What we did was get movement coaching for the different characters, so that it would feel different. When you feel the warmth and the electricity, your heart beats a little faster. And if you have a stronger sense of it, or you have more rage, like some of the characters do, then that feeling only gets stronger. That’s the best example that I can give, of that feeling. Once you see what the power does for women, standing stronger in themselves, you don’t forget it.

We see that Jos is fairly isolated through the beginning of this series. Does it give her comfort to know that she has this thing happening to her, but she’s not the only one that it’s happening to?

CRAVALHO: The unfortunate thing about being a teenager is that, no matter how many times someone will tell you that you’re not alone, or you’ll understand when you’re older, or that we’ve all been through that, it truly goes in one ear and out the other. And as a person who’s been a teenager before, I’ve done the exact same thing. So, when you add the power of electrocution to that, there is an element of, “Okay, everyone around me is getting it,” but the thing with Jos is that her power isn’t nearly as strong as the other women around her. She’s having a really difficult time coming to terms with that and understanding, “Why isn’t my power working? What does that mean for my femininity?” There are so many thoughts that course through your mind when something is meant to be inherited by you, that goes limp. So, I really enjoyed playing that teenage angst, and sharing the power with Margot. That was a really incredibly powerful scene, and it changes their relationship for the better, as the series progresses. Then, it really is the two of them against the world because they’re on the same side.

If something like this were to happen in real life, how do you think you would react to it? Would you want to be one of those people that suddenly got powers, or would you rather be someone to help other people that it happens to?