Sitting on the mostly empty Warner Bros. set of her new series, The Whole Truth (ABC, Wednesday, 10 p.m.), she tells a photographer to pipe down. Then she asks a crewmember to move out of her line of sight.
"Look at me bossing everybody around," the actress, 45, says. "It's not like I want to tell people what to do. But I've had experience now. I'm more competent, at least in my work life. I've learned I'm not going to get what I want if I don't ask for it."
This past year has been a wake-up call for Tierney, who wrapped up a decade as Dr. Abby Lockhart on ER in 2009. After dropping out of NBC's Parenthood last summer to undergo treatment for breast cancer, she returned to the stage in March in a New York production of the Wooster Group's 1983 play North Atlantic. Then she stepped into The Whole Truth, a legal drama that examines cases from both the prosecutor and defense attorney points of view.
Tierney plays Kathryn Peale, a tough deputy bureau chief in the Manhattan district attorney's office. Rob Morrow is the criminal defense attorney and friend who often opposes her. "Justice is not always served," Tierney says. "A guilty person is not always convicted, and an innocent person is not always let off. You don't find out until the end what the whole truth is."
Tierney says she likes the character because "it's not a dumb girl part. ... And I like her sense of humor. My (college) friend Tom (The Whole Truth's executive producer Tom Donaghy) wrote it based on my personality. Kathryn is a single woman in her mid-40s, very career-oriented and has a dry wit."
Tierney finds the differences between Kathryn and Dr. Lockhart refreshing. "Abby was deeply empathetic. I like that Kathryn is not so much, although she's trying her best. I like her limitations — the narrow-mindedness and the blinders she has on."
Kathryn lives for work. Tierney agrees that "work is probably too important. I should probably have a little more balance in my life, but I'm working on that."
Tierney was married for 13 years to actor/director Billy Morrissette, but they divorced in 2006. She won't discuss her romantic life now, but she is more forthcoming about her cancer battle. She was diagnosed with a breast tumor in June 2009 and had surgery in July. She underwent six months of treatment before returning to work on the FX series Rescue Me, where she plays Kelly, a love interest of Denis Leary.
Kelly will undergo treatment for breast cancer on the show's final season, which will air in 2011. Tierney filmed the episodes in January, shortly after she finished her own treatment.
Tierney tries to be upbeat. "I do feel well," she says with a smile, "except they work me too hard. We didn't work this hard on ER, where there were seven principals. I thought this was going to be more of an ensemble show."
Looking back on the moment she transformed into what she jokes is her "new and better" self, she says, "I was rehearsing (North Atlantic) with Fran McDormand, Kate Valk and Liz LeCompte, who's the artistic director, and I realized I would have been so freaked out 10 years ago. These are women I admire so much. But I just thought, 'I'm allowed to be here because they said I could.' Finally, after all these years, I have some confidence."
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