Fans of 50 Cent’s “Power” franchise may have been first introduced to Michael Rainey Jr. in 2014 for his breakout role as Tariq James St. Patrick, but his acting days started years before.
In an interview with Forbes’ “New Money” podcast, the actor recalled landing his first movie, “Un Altro Mondo (Another World),” at age 9 in 2010.
Before the starring role, Rainey’s acting journey began when a talent agent approached his mom to consider placing him in the business.
“She literally just walked up to my mom and said, ‘Your son has a great face for acting or modeling. Does he do any of that?’” Rainey told host Rosemarie Miller. “And she was like, ‘No.’ And then, like a week after, they had a meeting in the office and after that, they just started getting me auditions.”
The auditions that rolled in included TV time for shows like “Sesame Street” and more. The progression of Rainey’s gigs led to landing his bigger role on “Power.”
However, prior to the hit Starz show, he says that his mother was proactive in helping him save the checks he earned from acting.
“Obviously, I’ve been working since I was young, but my mom always did a great job of helping me save my money since I was a kid,” he also said to the host. “I didn’t really know what kind of numbers I was pulling in until I was like 17, 18. My mom really did a good job of putting money away from me.”
He continued, “Obviously at a young age, I don’t really know what I want to do with that money. She really did a good job of just making sure a lot of it was put away for when I reached the age where it’s like, ‘Alright, I can do this with my money. I can do that with my money.’”
He revealed to Forbes that his “smartest” purchases so far have been Bitcoin, Ethereum, and land.
Additionally, although he doesn’t consider purchasing a Porsche 911 Turbo S as a “dumb purchase,” he recognized that select people would classify it as such.
He also shared that he’s in the process of monetizing his passion for cars with an upcoming car channel, 22 PSI.
“I’m starting a car channel and I’m going to just to be featuring the craziest car builds from all over the world,” he said on the podcast. “For the entrepreneur, Michael, that’s what’s going on right now.”
