Katherine Heigl Explains How Happy She Is To Play An Adult In 'State Of Affairs'

Katherine Heigl's newest TV venture State of Affairs premieres on NBC tomorrow night. The Grey's Anatomy alum revealed that she is finally playing an adult in this series and she couldn't be happier.

When Katherine returns to television on Monday, she will be playing a CIA foreign policy analyst named Charlie Tucker. Charlie is in charge of briefing the President (played by Alfre Woodard) every morning. This grown up role is different than the previous characters that Katherine has played including Izzie Stevens in Grey's Anatomy.

"At 35, I just really wanted to play an adult," Katherine told Zap2It. "I'd been playing young, just trying to figure it out women for so long. Charlie is really unbelievably good at her job. She has a really strong and powerful position in the CIA and I thought, 'Why wouldn't I want to play that kind of chick?' That's so cool."

"Charlie herself was really intriguing to me. I got to have a real voice in creating her with all her flaws and her strengths. That was really compelling and exciting to get to be a part of, just developing this person."

Despite playing an in-the-know political character onscreen, the 35-year-old actress admitted that she is not good at politics when it comes to real life. "It's ironic that I am doing a CIA show and it's about D.C. - I'm terrible at politics. I don't understand the politics of things," she told USA Today.

In order to understand and embody her character, Katherine turned to some of her executive producers. "I've gotten to know our two executive producers really well, and they are ex-CIA. I find them so fascinating. Why the hell would you want to do this? I wanted to dwell into that psyche a little bit, people who make that choice," Katherine explained to the publication.

"There's a lot of things you can do with that level of intelligence. Why dedicate that kind of time and energy to something with no glory, no money? The stakes are so high. These people deserve a ton of credit."

Tune in on Monday night to see if Katherine has mastered her character onscreen, when State of Affairs premieres on NBC.