{alltv} Kim Raver finds some of herself in strong characters

Kim Raver's characters are survivors.

"There seems to be a theme running through the women I play," Raver says. "They take their circumstances and try to make the best of them.

"Subconsciously maybe that's something I'm drawn to. I have an incredible role model in my mom. She was a single mother raising two kids in New York.

"Growing up the way I did, I definitely have an independent side to me. I didn't give it up until I met my husband (French filmmaker Manu Boyer). He's so wonderful I allowed myself to let someone else in and help out."

In Raver's new film, Bond of Silence, airing Monday on Lifetime, she plays a woman whose husband is mysteriously murdered while trying to quell a wild teenage house party. Trying to discover what actually happened, she must somehow break through the enforced secrecy the teens and their parents have thrown up around the case. The film is inspired by a true story.

"We never know how we'll react in those circumstances," Raver says, trying not to give away the twist in the story. "What she ends up doing in the end I thought was fascinating."

Raver, 41, has always sought roles that weren't simply love interests. Currently on Grey's Anatomy, she plays Dr. Teddy Altman, a cardiothoracic surgeon just back from a tour of duty in Iraq. She spent five years as paramedic Kim Zambrano on Third Watch (1999-2004). On 24, her character Audrey Raines started out working for the U.S. Department of Defense. But then she fell in love with Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer and found herself in more jeopardy than she would have liked.

Raver developed self-confidence early. She was just six when she and her older sister Cybele were discovered by a Sesame Street executive. "My mom had taken us into a department store, trying to get us ready for fall," she says. "We were playing hide and seek within the racks of clothes, and someone came up to her and said, 'Your kids look like they'd be great for the show we're doing. Would you come in?'"

The Raver girls spent three years as part of the show's counting and singing children. "For me, the amazing thing was entering into this amazing world of Sesame Street," Raver says. "We'd be in the kids' room, and there was a door into the soundstage that said '1-2-3 Open Sesame.' I remember pushing that door open and going into this incredible magical world of make-believe. In one episode I was playing football with Joe Namath. I had pigtails, and I was so little.

Raver went on to get a BFA from Boston University in 1991. Her big break came four years later when she co-starred with Laura Dern and Tony Goldwyn in the Broadway production of Holiday.

Currently, Raver lives in Los Angeles in order to film Grey's. What will her character Teddy be up to this coming season? "Teddy is definitely moving in the direction that maybe the triangle (involving Sandra Oh's character Christina and Kevin McKidd's Owen Hunt) won't be as prominent," Raver says. "It was a great device to get Teddy in there. It was really fun and exciting, and sparks were flying. But I think it will be really great to see her with a guy—hopefully but I'm not sure—that's not attached and explore that side of her."

Would Raver appear in the projected 24 movie if asked? "Never say never on 24," she says. "Audrey's not dead. She's just in bed somewhere."