The 'Raising Kanan' cast say they were humbled by seeing a 'Sopranos' star on set

The actor who played Jackie Aprile on "The Sopranos" is going back into Jersey crime. Michael Rispoli is playing Sal Boselli on "Raising Kanan."

• The cast of "Raising Kanan" learned Michael Rispoli was joining their show at a Zoom table read. 
• Rispoli played the cancer-stricken mob boss Jackie Aprile on "The Sopranos." 
• Stars Mekai Curtis and Patina Miller were excited he chose to appear on the Starz crime drama. 

Mafioso Sal Boselli arrives on season two of "Raising Kanan" with a familiar swagger. The formidable character is new to the show, but the actor portraying him, Michael Rispoli, is a fixture on the fictional East Coast crime syndicates. 

The cast of "Raising Kanan" learned they would share the screen with the respected actor during a virtual table read.

"Everybody started texting the group chat and we all lost it. It was pretty wild," Mekai Curtis, who plays Kanan Stark, told Insider in an interview. 

Rispoli played Giacomo Michael "Jackie" Aprile on the HBO hit "The Sopranos" from 1999 to 2001. His character was briefly head of the New Jersey Dimeo crime family before he died due to cancer. He also portrayed Rudy Pipilo on HBO's "The Deuce," Ben Jaffe on "Magic City," and a fictionalized version of real-life Profaci crime family boss Joseph Magliocco on the Epix series "Godfather of Harlem." 

"Raising Kanan" follows another kind of crime family expanding their drug empire into the garden state. It takes place in the early '90s on the south side of Queens, New York, and serves as a prequel to "Power" which ran on Starz for six seasons from 2014 to 2020.

The titular Kanan eventually becomes the "Power" supervillian (played by executive producer Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson") that viewers loved to hate, but first, he helps run the family business and grows it from their neighborhood to across state lines. 

When they make their move, Boselli and his goons are sitting on the other side of the Pulaski Skyway. 

Curtis saw Rispoli's appearance as a vote of confidence in the second season. 

"It turned into a humbling kind of thing because it's like, wow, someone of that sort of caliber in that sort of room as well is ready to rock and play a little time with us," he continued. "It was exciting. I think there were a lot of emotions that kind of rolled through as soon as we saw him on the zoom that day."

Patina Miller, who plays druglord Raquel Thomas, goes head-to-head with Rispoli's character in a tense scene in season two episode four. She shared her reaction to his casting with Insider.

"He's fantastic! He's so fantastic," she gushed.

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.