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• Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution
• The West Wing
• Ms. Moloney's bio

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Tavis: Janel Moloney is a talented actress who was enjoying a terrific run as Donna Moss on one of the best shows on TV, NBC's "The West Wing." Next week, though, she's taking on something entirely different in the role of Amber Frey for the CBS movie "Witness for the Prosecution." The film airs Wednesday night, May 25th at 9:00 P.M. Here now, a scene from "Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution."

Neil: Amber, it's Neil. Where's Diana?

Amber: My grandmother's. Is that OK with you, detective?

Neil: You know he was arrested yesterday, right?

Amber: Of course I know. The whole world knows. It started right away.

Neil: What started?

Amber: The calls. Every TV person, magazine, newspaper, everybody wants to know what Amber Frey has to say about the arrest of Scott Peterson. Well, guess what? She doesn't want to say a damn thing.

Tavis: Janel, nice to have you on.

Janel Moloney: Thank you. Nice to be here.

Tavis: Glad to have you here. I'm not going to lie. I'm going to be honest with you. When I first saw that you were doing this, I said, why is Janel Moloney playing Amber Frey? Because you know people have preconceived notions about this person, about this character. So why for you this character?

Moloney: You know, to be honest, when I first got the offer to do it, I wasn't really sure that it was a good thing for me, and I think I probably had the same notions that you had on my behalf. Thank you for being protective of me.

Tavis: You're very welcome. Always looking out for you, Janel.

Moloney: And as I--it was a big role and it's a very complicated story and a very difficult situation that she was in, which of course would mean there would be a lot of drama, and it would be challenging for me as an actress, so that was the thing that was intriguing for me. All the other stuff, of course, was a little scary and I was hesitant because of that. Being on "West Wing," that is regarded as such a classy, incredible show, you know, I was very nervous to do anything that seemed at all lurid or sensationalistic, and as I started to learn about the different players involved in the movie and talked to the director, it seemed like a good idea. And then I began to talk to all of my really smart--especially my girlfriends and my girlfriends that are actresses, and they all were overwhelmingly positive about doing it, doing it, doing it, and so I just took a risk.

Tavis: What was the challenge or challenges, perhaps, to playing a character that has, a person who has been in the news so much lately, a person who--and I didn't even follow the Scott Peterson case, didn't talk about it one time on television, didn't discuss it once on my radio show, did not follow it. And yet I still feel like I know Amber Frey, and I didn't follow the case. So tell me what the challenge is to playing a character that's been so much in the news that you have to bring something to life that we don't know or to make us feel for the person at least enough to want to watch the story.

Moloney: Right. Well, it's an interesting question, and it's kind of--as I faced that challenge, it was actually multilayered, multitiered, but generally, I knew that if I tried to make her, the character, as real and as hopeful as possible in the beginning of it, you would go on the journey with her and feel for her, which I tried, you know, and worked very hard to do. I think, I don't know, I haven't seen it, but I think I maybe managed to do that. And then I didn't really worry about it, past my own experience of it creatively. You know, it's not playing Katherine Hepburn. It's not playing anybody that we-...we know certain people's voices in our heads, and we have certain characters that we've known throughout our childhood and adulthood, and this wasn't one of them. This was sort of--a lot of people don't really remember how she spoke and it's you have an idea of her, an image of her more than anything. And I didn't know--I wasn't interested. Like you, I didn't read about it, I wasn't interested, and I wasn't, you know, against learning about it, I just wasn't interested. So I actually think I was a really good person to play it, because I was quite unbiased.

Tavis: Because you weren't interested and because you weren't involved in all the details prior to being asked to play the character. Did you learn something about it? Was there something about her that made you more empathetic to her situation? And I ask that because a lot of people--I've known her attorney, for example, Gloria Allred. Gloria and I have been friends for years. I've known Gloria for many, many years, and a lot of people who see the kind of work that Gloria does is as very important, very empowering, certainly for women, raising these very critical and tough questions, a lot of people see what Amber in fact did do as very courageous, coming forward with what she knew in a case that a lot of people clearly, unlike you and me, paid attention to. So was there something when you got to know about her life and the character that made you feel more empathetic to the situation that she was in?

Moloney: Yeah. Well, actually, even if you read the book, her book, you learn about things that you just didn't know. You think, oh, she's a mistress, and she had nude photos, but she's actually just a very normal, hard-working girl, who actually did really well with the cards that were dealt to her. Made some mistakes. Who hasn't? And I think right away you start to sympathize with her when you learn anything about her story. You know, she had a young daughter during all of this. She really met him in quite an innocent, you know, normal way, and so I think that that's really what makes her a sympathetic character. But she was nothing--she was no different than almost anybody that I know, you know. So I think that's really the interesting part of it.

Tavis: Let me jump from Amber and stretch to something totally unrelated. When you mentioned nudity...-my mom is all nervous.

Moloney: My mom is nervous, too.

Tavis: Where is he going with this? Did I read something about your grandparents and burlesque?

Moloney: Mm-hmm.

Tavis: Tell me about this.

Moloney: My grandmom was a stripper.

Tavis: Your grandmother was a stripper.

Moloney: But not as, you know--my younger grandmother, I mean when she was a young woman, she was in burlesque.

Tavis: And your granddad actually ran the joint and your grandmom danced in the joint.

Moloney: Yeah, yeah.

Tavis: I don't know that of all the interviews I've done in 15, 20 years, I don't know that anybody has ever come on whose grandparents were engaged in burlesque. That's a funny factoid to me.

Moloney: Well, it was quite different then, of course, than anything now, but no, she was a dancer. She came to Hollywood when she was a young woman, as my grandfather did, both to become actors. And my grandma was a really wonderful dancer and they ended up, you know, getting involved in the areas that they sort of found, and that was where they landed. And I think they probably would have liked to have been doing, you know, other things, but I think that's what they did to put food on the table.

Tavis: But look at their grandbaby now. She's on "The West Wing." So it all worked out. Speaking of "The West Wing," are you enjoying this?

Moloney: "The West Wing?" Oh, yeah, yeah. We're just waiting to go back this year.

Tavis: And so are we. I know you're not going to tell me anything.

Moloney: No, you'll have to see how it shakes out.

Tavis: Every time somebody comes on from "The West Wing," I can't get anything out of anybody. Are you a fan of the show? I know you're on the show. Are you a fan of the show as well? I assume you are.

Moloney: Of "West Wing"?

Tavis: Yeah.

Moloney: Oh, I'm just so excited.

Tavis: Were you as excited as I was that Jimmy Smits at least won the nomination?

Moloney: Oh, yeah. Jimmy Smits is amazing. Before he got the nomination, I was just excited he was on the show.

Tavis: You and every woman in America. Are you at all political? Or was this, like, the first time you've been this deep into it?

Moloney: Well, I come from a very, as you might imagine, I come from a very liberal family and we've always been very talkative and argumentative and in the mix politically amongst ourselves, and the show just brought it a little more out of me. Also, it's a time, I think, in the country where if you were going to be political at all, it was the time to stand up and be counted. So, you know, I did that, campaigned a little for John Kerry, and I think most of us on "The West Wing" did.

Tavis: Did you enjoy that? The real deal campaigning?

Moloney: Yeah, you know, it was very exciting, and I only did a little, but it was very exciting, it was very interesting, very exciting, and actually quite inspiring to see all the people that were actually doing real work around the country that had dedicated themselves, you know, two or three or four years. That was pretty inspiring.

Tavis: Let me ask you in 20 seconds, back to the movie, "The Amber Frey Story." Is there a lesson you want people to get out of this? Is there a message here?

Moloney: I think it will be very compelling and interesting for people to see actually what she went through and to feel it emotionally, which is what I think you get from it. I think it's actually very good and, I mean, I've been told it's very good. I hope it's very good.

Tavis: With you in it, it's got to be good.

Moloney: Thank you.

Tavis: I'm glad to have you on the program.

Moloney: Thank you very much.

Tavis: Nice to have met you. That's our show for tonight. A reminder, you can catch me back on public radio this weekend and for that matter every weekend on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. We'll talk on the radio this weekend, but I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, thanks for watching, good night from Los Angeles, and as always, keep the faith.