VIBE: The last time we saw your character Keisha, she was torn between so many different things. What does the second season hold for her?
LisaRaye: I think that Keisha is a bit more vulnerable. When we left off, she was torn between this man that she loves, and says loves her, has left her. She doesn’t know where he is. The FBI has been uncovering all this stuff that she knows nothing about from one of these pictures so it’s kinda like well did he play me? Keisha’s not the type of character to get played you know. So she feels torn: does she give him up? Does she get revenge? And you know the trials and tribulations that her and Malcolm go through this season is an up-and-down rollercoaste
Somebody said that there is one guy who can have your heart and come back at any time, all the time and that’s my Malcolm for me. Keisha gets a job. Besides playing the high stakes of poker and making her money that way, she gets a job. She wants to be more like in the norm of doing something and making money and I think that comes from Malcolm. He’s an entrepreneur and he starts his business with the family. She’s like ok I want more stability for my life. The relationship with the new character, Raquel, introducing her and where she comes from and how our relationship is and what she brings to the table and how Keisha helps her fit in with the other two characters, which is Omar and April, showing that friendship can supercede a lot when you have a support team and that’s what I really like a lot about it because it really bridges the gap between showing that you go through hard times, but you just can’t do it alone. So when you have close-knit friends that know you and have some things to bring to the table as far as helping you out with your ups and downs, it just makes it more easy to find the comedy in that, the funny in that and the real in that.
Right and that’s why so many viewers tune in because they can find a piece of themselves in each of the characters and storylines. But going back to Malcolm, how has working with D.B. really helped your character develop?
He is the best costar male that I ever worked with. Our chemistry is just undeniable. It’s easy and he said to me that I can bring out this quality in him that makes him feel very relaxed and for me, it’s just, you think about what type of man Malcolm is and you think who wouldn’t want that type of man? That’s also half of the battle won right there. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a nice, attractive brother too.
You also said that Keisha’s gonna be more vulnerable but also more focused in the sense that she has a new job. Is there anything else that’s gonna really add to her character that we didn’t see in the first season?
Well she’s dating. There’s some back and forth with her and Malcolm so she’s trying to, let’s see how I wanna say it, mask the pain of not having Malcolm or him playing games so I try to forget him but do you ever really forget them?
Now that’s the question. And you also mentioned a little bit about the new character Raquel that Denise (Vasi) will be playing. What else can you tell us about her character and what she’ll be bringing to the table now that Val (as played by Stacey Dash) is gone?
Raquel comes from a well to-do family that has always wanted her to marry the guy that is in the socialite kind of world, the predictable guy, the guy you’re supposed to be with and she’s just like I don’t want you to pick who I’m supposed to marry. I want to marry someone because he has my heart, not because he has a great job, we grew up together, not because he’s going to be well to-do, but because I love him. And she’s the kind of girl who grew up with the silver spoon so she knows how to horseback riding, she’s used to going out of town, she’s very cultured and she’s not too much of a hustler. She’s not that street girl so she wants to kind of get out and kind of feel like am I single too? So we introduce her with having a fiancée and getting married. So you have to see how long that’s gonna last, haha.
(Continue reading at VIBE…)