'Bosch' star Jeri Ryan proud of bimbo-free career

Jeri Ryan doesn't play bimbos

Fox 411: Former stripper/porn star role on Bosch her latest strong female role

LOS ANGELES – Jeri Ryan plays a former stripper/hooker/porn star on the second season of the Amazon series "Bosch," but her character is no bimbo.

Based on author Michael Connelly's novels about LAPD Det. Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), the series has captured the hard-boiled school of detective fiction to a T.

Season 2 is based predominantly on the novel "Trunk Music," providing Det. Bosch a major crime to solve, and the requisite femme fatale.

The seductress in question is played by Ryan, who takes on the role of Veronica Allen, who married an Armenian gangster/porn producer to give her a life of wealth and comfort.

"She's got quite a colorful past, and I think she gets Bosch a little bit unbalanced," Ryan told FOX411. "He's not entirely sure what her real motives are. It takes him a while to figure out, I think, what's really going on with her."

Ryan, of course, is best known for her role as the Borg Seven of Nine on "Star Trek: Voyager," which featured her in a figure-hugging silver ensemble that left so little to the imagination that it may as well have been spray painted on.

Actress Jeri Ryan takes part in a panel discussion of ABC's series "Body of Proof" during the 2013 Winter Press Tour for the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, California, January 10, 2013. REUTERS/Gus Ruelas (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT) - RTR3CAVB

The mother of two -- son Jack, 21, and daughter Gisele, 8 -- who graduated from Lone Oak High School in Paducah, Ky. as a National Merit Scholar, says she is comfortable playing blond bombshells if the character is written right.

"I don't have any interest in playing a bimbo," Ryan says. "I don't have any interest in playing a character that's completely objectified, and I've been very lucky in my career that I haven't had to. So as long as the character is strong, smart and developed well, then I have no problem with what her physical appearance is or how she dresses."

Sitting with Ryan in a suite at the historic Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood, it is obvious that if need be, she could still fit into her Seven of Nine outfit, which is amazing when you consider she is married to French chef Christophe Emé, who happens to be a fan of the Bosch novels, and that the couple owned and operated Ortolan in West Hollywood for seven years.

"I've always been a foodie, so I used to cook a lot more before I met my husband, because once you have a chef in the family, if he can do it better and 20 times faster, I'm going to let him do it," she says. "But I do love to cook."

Ortolan shuttered in 2011, so Ryan, who took a year off from acting to be in the front of the house for service at night and in the office during the day to get it going, is now back to juggling acting with motherhood.

"It's balancing having a career and being there for your family, which is more important to me," she says when asked her biggest challenge these days. "Our daughter just turned 8; it just goes so fast, and my son is now 21. He's out of the house, so you blink your eyes and you miss it. I feel like I missed so much of my son's childhood when I was on 'Voyager' when he was 3 or 4 years old because I was on set all the time, so I was very determined that it was going to be a very different experience with my daughter, because I don't want to miss all this precious time."

Season 2 of "Bosch" begins streaming on Friday, March 11 on Amazon.

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