Isaac Keys talks about his life and his role in Power Book IV

Written by Gloria Peebles

If you’re a fan of Power Book IV: Force, you will be excited to know it will be returning in February on Starz. I had the pleasure of chatting with Isaac Keys who plays Diamond in the series.

Before going down the path of acting, Isaac had some success in playing football. But he felt like he wasn’t getting out of that arena what he was putting in. Isaac was a free agent and got bounced around a lot. Always fighting to make the team can be very exhausting at times. “If you’re not growing, you’re dying” stated Keys. So he continued to press forward to see what the world had to offer.

When Isaac saw his NFL career coming to an end, he knew he had to do something else and felt like going back to a 9 to 5 job would be doing himself a disservice. “I was at a point where football was ending, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t know what to do with life. I was at the point of transformation” said Keys.

Since he had taken some acting classes in high school, he decided to put the lessons in use which has panned out very well. He met other actors, did personal training, and marketing along with some other things to jump start his acting career. “I felt like it was more for me to give and receive rather than sitting in somebody’s office or working for somebody,” stated Keys.

Isaac found acting as freedom “one of the hardest things to do is find passion in something when you had so much passion in something else,” said Keys. Acting became a form of therapy for him that helped him get through some of life’s challenges. “I could bring all that pain and emotions and put that in another character where I could get away with it because I can’t walk the streets with it. I’m 6’4 and a black man; I can’t walk the streets angry” stated Keys. 

He knew playing the role as Diamond in the series gave him the freedom of putting all those emotions to use. Which really worked out well for him since he’s a lot like the character he plays. When he was given his script, he admits the character was him and felt like he was just being him in the series. “The best roles are the ones you can pull from your own authentic self. I’m just playing me using someone else’s words,” stated Keys. 

Outside of playing Diamond, he is a man of great integrity and has certain values that he lives by which helps him stay humble and grounded. He also keeps himself surrounded with a wonderful group of friends he enjoys hanging out with when he’s not working. Isaac loves acting and says he gets excited about going to work because it’s like going to the playground to play.