Paula Patton joined Shadow and Act’s Trey Mangum on the Opening Act podcast to talk about her upcoming BET+ series Sacrifice. Based on a BET+ film of the same name, the series follows high-powered entertainment lawyer Daniella Hernandez (Patton) as she handles the intense, scandalous situations brought to her by her famous clients.

Patton described her character as a take-no-prisoners type of woman.

“Daniella is different [than Patton’s other roles] because she’s a boss. She’s a fierce, unrelenting, ferocious character that has ultimate faith in herself that she can accomplish what she puts her mind to,” she said. “There’s no challenge too great, she’ll sort it out. I really appreciate that in her because when times get tough, you’re like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to figure this out.’ But Daniella would be the one to go, ‘There’s going to be a way. Just give me a second. Just give me a day.’…The morals behind some of them are a little questionable, but she sorts it out.”

Patton’s research for the role included a source very close to home–her own father.

“I spoke to…a Black woman [who] actually works at BET–she’s a high-level entertainment attorney, but I also really relied on my father…my dad was a criminal defense attorney,” she said. “The life and the lifestyle of an attorney was something I connected to becaue of my father…and the pain. When you have to deal with certain subject matter and you have to look at the darker side of life, how does it affect you? It certainly affected my father and it affects Daniella.”

“When you meet Daniella, she’s sober, but we realize she had a past where she had an alcohol addiction, she’s had a troubled past and she lost her parents when she was very young, and now as she coming into sobriety, she’s looking at her life in a new way,” Patton continued. “The things she used to be able to do, she can’t do anymore. She’s wondering, ‘Can I sacrifice my soul to accomplish this job and I’ve been turning a blind eye to things,’ and that’s what the alcohol helped her do…but without it, you have to really sit there and look at yourself, so you have a woman that’s on a journey.”

The full podcast episode drops on Nov. 18. Sacrifice is currently streaming on BET+