'The Cleaner' version

Grace PARK appears in "The Cleaner," starring Benjamin Bratt, a new series that airs on A&E on Tuesdays. She is fresh off "Battlestar Galactica," in which she played Sharon Valerii/Sharon Agathon/Cylon No. 8. She lives in Vancouver, Canada.

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One second you're on a squeaky-clean Canadian soap, the next moment you're in high heels and panties in a Maxim shoot.

I wasn't like 18, where it was sending off sparks and it was taboo, you know how the American public likes to do that. The show's publicist one day called and said, "Would you be interested in doing Maxim?" And I said, "Do I get the cover?" And she said no. And I said, "Hell yeah!" So she broke it down and I was really happy with it. And that helped me get "Cleaner." Not that I was dressing like that -- but it put a different image in people's heads.

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When we know you as someone in an armor bodysuit, it does change the perspective on you.

Just look at media, and how they like to do headlines. You want to catch people's attention. Eh, I dunno! It happened to work. Some people will go further than others.

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Are there points where you've sat down with your professionals and said, "OK, what do I do? How do I get to where I want to be?"

Not really! At that point I only had one, if you want to say "people," I only had an agent. I didn't have anyone in L.A. -- I had an agent in Vancouver. And meanwhile I know people in the States collect a dozen people. Talking to my castmates, they say, "Oh, my financial manager, publicist, manager, agent" -- there are so many. . . . I think I actually follow my gut a little bit more. If there was a Jim Carrey movie? For sure I'd want to be in it. We have our lists. I just haven't hit too many of those.

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And your husband is very much not in the industry.

He's not. When he was young he wanted to be a director. He's got enough of an appreciation for it. But the extent is he took one acting class and maybe film in university. He was a restaurateur and now he's a real estate developer.

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Sounds relaxing.

It is really cool. That's his demeanor as well -- he could be a highly stressed individual and he's not. He's like, "You've got to go to these events and get all dressed up in heels" -- and I'm like, "Buddy, no. I hear you and that's cool, but no." I don't want to spend thousands of dollars to walk down a red carpet. . . . It'd just be too fake for me. I'm not that heels and lipstick girl.