Why would that be odd?
"Well, because I don't think that I've been allowed to play humor that much in my career," Hunt said in an interview this summer on the show's Paramount Studios set.
"I think he's seen a lot of my films, and I know he loves 'The Year of Living Dangerously.' I think that's what he wanted . . . an actor."
Hetty appears to fulfill multiple roles in the Office of Special Projects, a branch of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, from harassing agents G. Callan (Chris O'Donnell) and Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) about their expenses to making sure they and others working undercover have the very latest in tech support.
"Shane has said to me she's sort of like a den mother," Hunt said.
When it was suggested that the character's sense of ultra-responsibility bears some similarity to Kwan's, Hunt paused.
"Oh, that's so interesting," she said. "I do think, in terms of the moral fiber of the character, you're right."
Hetty and Kwan also share, she said, a "deep eccentricity."
Asked earlier at a press conference why she'd chosen to take a series now, Hunt, who had a recurring roles as a judge on ABC's "The Practice" and more recently has appeared on CBS' "Without a Trace" and "The Unit," quipped that "not working at all had a lot to do with it."
Brennan, she added, performed "a little seduction . . . and I thought, 'Well, why not? You know, I've been living a life of a retired old person for quite a while. So perhaps I'll just change all that and work harder than I've ever worked in my life.' "
Her rapper-turned-actor co-star is already a fan.
"I love watching her work. It is incredible for me," LL Cool J told reporters. "It's an education that, you know, I don't think you can put into words, you know, getting an opportunity to watch Linda work every day."
