Save this article to read it later.

Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.

(Think of Amy Poehlers cool mom fromMean Girls, says the actress, but make it tragic.)

Article image

But its the ripped-from-the-headlines dramaBombshellthat makes for her most standout work of 2019.

But, true to form, its Ubachs Jeanine Pirro that will make your eyes go wide.

But how, specifically, did she prepare to become President Donald Trumps favorite TV judge?

I often wonder what it would be like to run into Jeanine.

Shed probably sock me in the face.

Thats for the nuances!

It was very different than most sets Ive worked on.

I kept pinching myself the whole time, because it was one bucket-list check after another.

How did you come to the part?It was an audition.

So, I went and got the eggshell pantyhose, the false eyelashes.

That was all very important.

Then I went to Marshalls and went on a Republican shopping spree.

Jay Roach called me a couple of days later and said, Im going to bring you back.

Its a very delicate procedure with this character, because we dont want to go theSNLroute.

Thats when well get in trouble.

Im going to get rid of the false eyelashes.

Im going to get rid of all of the eye makeup.

Who is she on a Sunday at the supermarket?

He goes, Well, Im sure shes a golfer.

I think thats pretty much what convinced them.

I mean, they make me feel like a biological mishap.

I know that mentality, that insecurity.

What does she look like when she gets her mail?

Who is she when she has indigestion?

You know, who is the stinky, smelly Jeanine Pirro?

And thats the woman I had to discover.

What goes on internally with a person who is defending a predator?

She was a lot older than the other women who decided to bring Roger Ailes to justice.

Im 44 and she was, I believe, in her 60s when all of this went down.

This is a woman who was a teenager in the 60s, a Lebanese Catholic.

I thought she must have felt marginalized from the time she was a kid.

So, you know, that insecurity, and then also the fact that she was a petite brunette.

Why wouldnt she defend him?

Hes almost like a father figure.

I thought, What would I defend?

I didnt eat for two.

My husband was like, You have to see a therapist.

I just couldnt believe this was happening, and I thought, Oh, thats what Ill use.

Otherwise, I wouldnt defend a man like that to save my life.

Thats my mentality when it comes to building a character.

Would I spend Thanksgiving with Jeanine Pirro?

But I certainly understood aspects of her, and its so much fun to play someone thats villainized.

When I watch Anthony Hopkins play Hannibal Lecter, he looks like he was having such a good time!

These are the roles that Ive always wanted to play.