PASADENA, CA – JANUARY 15: Naturi Naughton, Courtney Kemp Agboh, Omari Hardwick, Mark Canton, and Randall Emmett of ‘Power,’ winner of Outstanding Drama Series, pose in the press room for the 49th NAACP Image Awards at Pasadena Civic Auditorium on January 15, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Naturi Naughton Talks Season Five Of “Power”

Naturi Naughton’s character “Tasha” on hit Starz show “Power” just endured every mother’s worst nightmare: the violent death of her child, Raina.

The actress, mom to 10-month-old Zuri, said she looked to her own pregnancy to gather the emotions to effectively play a mom completely enveloped in grief and loss.

“Not only just for me being a new mother, but I was thinking about – while shooting the scene with Raina’s death – I was actually pregnant at that time, five months pregnant,” Naughton told us. “It was deep for me because I was pulling from the fact that I was growing life inside of me, while on a television show, although make believe, having to deal with the emotions of losing a daughter, so that was hard.”

The actress said her performance was also inspired by recent spates of gun violence involving American youth.

“It’s frustrating and it made me get in tune with what’s happening across the country,” Naughton said…”innocent children are dying every day. So that is another aspect that I’m glad we incorporated into our show and talk about, because it’s really affecting our community, and I think it’s something we definitely have to address, even through art. It was hard for me, but I pulled from those, watching others lose their children throughout the whole year, but also being a new mother, and imagining what kind of pain that could be like – it was something unfathomable.”

Naughton also spilled the beans on what viewers can expect from Tasha on the new season of “Power:

“This is the first time that she is independent of Ghost,” Naughton said. “He’s dealing with having to keep the family together, having to figure out how to mourn her daughter’s death. She can’t even rely on Ghost to mourn. If you watch the first couple of episodes he’s kind of shutting down and mourning differently, I am in the pain of that and I can’t even lean on him…It’s also hard because her son Tariq is rebelling against the entire family. And he’s just acting a hot mess – I can’t control him! But its frustrating. I think Tasha’s the one who…never gets enough credit.”

“Power” season five premieres July 1 on Starz!