Jaime Pressly earned an Emmy award for her role as Joy Turner on My Name is Earl. She’s also been in the films I Love You, Man [she’s fantastic], Not Another Teen Movie and Joe Dirt. She currently appears in Rules of Engagement. Pressly wrote a memoir titled It’s Not Necessarily Not The Truth. She stars as Charlestown, NC newscaster Britt Shelley in Sandra Brown’s Smoke Screen on Lifetime Movie Network.

I spoke with Jaime on Thursday and here are the highlights:

Dramatic project–“Everybody knows me for doing comedy and this was a chance for me to show a different side and play something serious. It was my first job not shooting in L.A. since having my son [three year old Dezi].”

As a mom—“I’m so much more conservative with my dress now. I’m acting like I’m 80. Part of it is with a rough little boy they’re pulling at everything.”

Expanding roles—“I definitely want to do Broadway. My mom was a dance teacher and her friend a voice teacher. I was always around theater.”

On Britt Shelley– “I love her inner strength and she’s career-oriented and driven. She’s more of a hermit. If she doesn’t put herself in a situation to get hurt, she doesn’t get hurt. She’s lonely. You have to figure out who you are and what you stand for and what you need and don’t need. She’s defensive and that’s interesting. Britt never wanted to be wrong.”

Leaving the part—“I’m an actress. I should be able to turn it on and off. People tend to get very lost because they don’t know who they are and define self through the characters they play.”

Where’s the Emmy?—“When you first walk into the house, I had an Asian bookshelf built in and it’s there.”

Sandra Brown’s SMOKE SCREEN premieres Sunday, November 21 at 8pm ET/5pm PT on Lifetime Movie Network