Q: How was filming Season 5 of “Power” for you?

A: It was amazing. The season just got better and better and more complex. The story keeps building, it keeps broadening and yet we’re still anchored so close to where we started … . You know, each season picks up on the last season, so you tend to stay really connected to what’s going on. Even as the actors, I think sometimes we have to remind ourselves and go back and watch stuff because this just happened, so I find myself kind of doing my own season in review.

Q: Which involves some mental calisthenics for you?

A: Yeah, absolutely, but it’s not very difficult. That’s another advantage of living with these characters for that period of time. I find myself taking less and less time to be able to sync right back into the character and be right back with Tommy because Tommy’s a pretty extreme guy. So you need to compartmentalize a character like that just to (chuckles) keep your marriage healthy and strong and your friendships strong.

Q: Did you create Tommy from other people?

A: I did. There were definitively people in Chicago … guys that I was scared of growing up is a lot of the guys that I modeled Tommy on. And then also some of the great gangsters like Dutch Schultz … who was incredibly volatile but still had a heart of gold and cried at the drop of the hat when Lucky Luciano used to scold him in front of everybody. So there’s a huge thing.

And then I also tried to make sure that I kept the character as true as (series co-creator and co-star) 50 Cent’s experiences. And I found myself going to 50, who’s incredibly present and made himself very available for questions about the life, and I asked him a ton of questions.