'Raising Kanan' star Patina Miller says her character is as 'ruthless' as any mob boss

• Patina Miller plays the head of a lethal drug crew on the Starz Drama "Raising Kanan."
• Miller says her character is as tough as the wise guys she takes on in the show's second season.

Raquel "Raq" Thomas tackled rival drug dealers, rouge detectives, and a wayward teenage son in season one of "Raising Kanan." This season she takes on a new enemy — the New Jersey mafia.

Patina Miller, who plays the lethal drug dealer in the "Power" spin-off, says her character as up to the challenge.

"She just as ruthless as Sal and all of his guys," the Tony Award-winning actress told Insider in an interview.

The deceptively named series is designed to give viewers an insight into the early 1990s adolescence of "Power" supervillian Kanan Stark (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson). Following his journey from average Queens teenager into drug empire heir apparent is entertaining. But the most interesting element is the woman who trained him.

Raquel's big hair and hoop earrings might not scream stone-cold killer at first glance but "Raising Kanan" is one of four spin-offs from the Starz series "Power." The world in which the shows exist has featured a number of brilliant yet brutal women. They include a nameless assassin with a fondness for pink sneakers in the original series and a murderous mother played by Mary J. Blige in "Power Book II: Ghost."

As the original "Power" wrapped its six-season run crew matriarch Tasha (Naturi Naughton) shot her best friend (Lala Anthony) with no hesitation.

The world was created by Courtney Kemp and executive produced by Jackson, who has been vocal about his own formidable mother. A scence from season one sees Raquel and Kanan reenact a scene from Jackson's own Queens childhood.

"What I love about Raquel is she doesn't need to move with an army of people," Miller said.

In her role, Miller as Raquel faces mobster Sal Boselli and his cohorts with only her two brothers in tow. She has access to her own goons but she leaves them home. When it's time to kill a subordinate for cooperating with the police, she doesn't make a scene. She simply makes him disappear.

"She doesn't need to show her bravado in that way," Miller explained.

Boselli, played by "The Sopranos" star Michael Rispoli, is not keen on Raquel growing her operation beyond its New York borders, but she ignores his objections. "She's not afraid of anything," said Miller.

The actor understands her character's ambition to take her business beyond pissy hallways and corner shootouts.

"She's thought about this," explained Miller. "Southside Jamaica, Queens — that's just a means to get to the next step," she continued.

She connects with OG Cartier Fareed to learn how to rinse her money and invest it in legal enterprises including her brother's foray into the music industry.

"She's sort of mapped out what role everyone plays," Miller went on. "Her vision is very, very big. And so she's about expanding."

That vision impresses Boselli so much he respects her when she refuses to back down. Instead of unleashing his soldiers on Raquel, he determines, "I kind of like her."

Miller admires her character's smarts as much as the mob admires her courage.

"Raqi's no dummy," she said.

In season one Raquel sends her biggest competitor behind bars and lands a bullet in the chest of another threat with a single well-considered blow. She teaches her son by example as she maneuvers.

"You've seen how calculated she was to end up where we did at the end of season one, she's super smart and she's thinking about all of the things that people don't think about," she continued.

Raquel is also willing to learn from people outside of the game. She dates a young urban planning student and taps him for advice on how to get into real estate. Even as their relationship strains, she braves the awkwardness to leverage her resources.

"She gets the information that she needs to propel her forward," said Miller.

The first four episodes of season two of "Raising Kanan" are now streaming on Starz. New episodes air on Starz Sundays at 9 p.m. E.T.