Married to the job

Dana Delany and Jeri Ryan in 'Body of Proof'.

Just when you thought Body of Proof's heroine, Dr Megan Hunt, was about as improbable as TV characters come, it turns out the actress that plays her, Dana Delany, might be her real life counterpart.

Aloof and abrasive medical examiner Hunt struggles to play nice with her colleagues, hold down any relationship and balance motherhood with her ambition.

And Delany is just as hard to read as her character. She's cool and standoffish; sometimes she's witty and warm-hearted. The former China Beach star once called herself as a "female George Clooney", and the 57-year-old says she is still happily unmarried and child-free.

"I like to work, I'm a worker bee. So I can't say I feel like I'm giving up much when I work all the time," says Delany. "I'm working 15 hours a day, I don't have any other life. I've never been married, I don't have kids. I think that's the life that I chose. So I probably have given up that, but I get a lot back in return."

Delany has no regrets about her path in life, but her co-star Jeri Ryan, who plays Hunt's motivated superior, Kate Murphy, does. The 45-year-old has learned juggling her career and her personal life can be tough.

"Any time you have away from your family is hard, I've had to make conscious choices in my career to accommodate that," says Ryan who is mother to Alex, 20, and Gisele, 5.

"When I was on Star Trek and my son was 2, I feel like I missed his entire childhood, because I wasn't there. I'm not willing to do that with my daughter, I don't want to lose these years because it's too precious and it goes too fast."

As the series builds up to the final episode this year, the show's producers have decided to up the ante, changing the show's format so each episode centres around an event - next's week's episode even features a zombie rabies outbreak. Superhero fan Delany, who voiced Lois Lane in the animated series Superman, Justice League and The Batman, says she has enjoyed the changes and the new focus.

"It's been fun. Like I said, it's a little silly in the high heels, I have to admit. I feel like I should be wearing a cat suit or something."

Two characters who were killed off last season have been replaced by new blood, including Megan's former flame, Detective Tommy Sullivan (Boston Legal's Mark Valley).

Meanwhile, Ryan's character runs for office this year and has a few of her own romances.

When the show wraps this year, Delany will miss playing Megan Hunt, but says she will take a lot from the show.

"I think once you see a real autopsy, you're never quite the same again. It gives you a sense of wonderment and awe of the human body. It gives you a responsibility towards it, and a sense of finality. I think that has sort of informed the show and definitely changed me, I would say for the better."

Body of Proof screens on TV2, Tuesdays at 9.35pm.