Living Out Loud airing on May 2nd, 2009 on the Hallmark Channel.

Emily Marshall (O’Grady) had aspirations and the talent to be a singer/songwriter, but instead, she decided to marry her husband, Brad, and together they raised two children, Melissa, 14, a cross-country runner and 10-year-old Ben. Now a busy mother and high school music teacher, Emily is shocked to discover that she has breast cancer.

Overnight, her life changes in ways she could never imagine. She finds herself having to face the challenges of her illness — the treatments, the difficult side effects, the emotions and relying on her family for help while continuing to teach her music class. Emily also finds unexpected inspiration and a whole new way of looking at life from a new friend who encourages her to wake up, stop sleepwalking through her life and start dreaming again.

Click “more” to read recent interviews in which Gail talks about LIVING OUT LOUD.

Actress puts heart, soul into breast cancer story

There’s been one common factor with every acting role Gail O’Grady has tackled — she invests every ounce of her heart and acting soul into each character.

The after effects have been different. Some roles are easier than others to leave at work at the end of the day. Her latest performance, the Hallmark Channel original movie “Living Out Loud,” wasn’t easy to leave behind.

In the film, slated to debut at 9 p.m. Saturday on the cable channel, O’Grady plays Emily Marshall. She seems to have a perfect life. Her husband is loving, her kids are normal and her job as a high school music teacher gives her great joy.

All of this is threatened when she discovers a lump in her breast and sends Emily on a road of uncertainty, fear, helplessness and eventually hope.

“I brought it home with me. It is the kind of role that just stuck with me,” O’Grady says during a telephone interview. “When you walk away from those very emotional scenes you have to find some humor in the day. If you don’t, then the work is just too depressing to do.”

Certainly, the main purpose of an actor is to entertain. That’s what O’Grady has been doing since audiences became aware of her work on “NYPD Blue.” Since then she has gone on to build a lengthy résumé of serious and comedy credits from “Hidden Palms” to “Hot Properties.”

Between work and taking care of her 4-year-old son, O’Grady, 46, has little free time these days. That’s why roles have to be special. O’Grady sees a film like “Living Out Loud” as having the added bonus of delivering a very important message. In times of economic troubles, the first thing most people ignore is their health. She wants to remind women, who might be caught up in so much worry and concern about other matters, how vital it is to self-test for breast cancer.

“If you don’t have your health, there is nothing,” O’Grady says.

“Living Out Loud” shows how cancer affects everyone in a family. A career-driven husband (Michael Shanks) learns there are more important things in life than his job. Children must face harsh realities about life and death.

There are several emotional scenes between O’Grady and Jessica Amlee, who plays Emily’s teenage daughter Melissa. O’Grady called on her own experiences as a mom to find the emotional level for those scenes.

The scenes only work if both actors have found that level. O’Grady has high praise for Amlee’s performance.

“A lot of times when you work with young people, because they are not actors, they are taught to behave. So it makes it more challenging for the adult actor to find something to connect to. This is a young girl who has genuine talent. Who could take direction. She was wonderful to work with because she was real. She was not just behaving,” O’Grady says.

Gail O’Grady Still Has A Nice Little Career Going

Don’tt look now, but it’s been 10 years since Gail O’Grady left her job on the iconic ABC cop show “NYPD Blue” on which she portrayed squad swcretary Donna Abandondo. And she’s kept right on working in the new millennium, which will be made abundantly clear if you flip around the dial this week. O’Grady already showed up in a high-profile guest starring role Tuesday night on NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU.” Now on Saturday night (9 p.m. ET/PT, 8 p.m. CT), she portrays a breast cancer victim who rediscovers life in the Hallmark Channel Original flick “Living Out Loud.” It’s her second film for Hallmark after having already starred in the yuletide-themed “All I Want For Christmas” in 2007. And the truth is O’Grady is all over the place, toting her four-year-old son, Michael, around while making her acting rounds.

In terms of getting work, it doesn’t hust that she’s 46 but could pass for 36. But O’Grady likes to think her success is about more then merely luck and looks.

“There’s an element of luck to it, for sure,” O’Grady stressed in a recent chat. “But having a career in acting is never about any one thing. It’s a lot of things coming together. It’s timing. It’s luck. It’s talent. And it’s tenacity. And when you get the work, you’d always better be grateful and happy you have it because it can disappear in a blink.”

And how was it portraying a breast cancer victim?

“I have to say that I learned an awful lot about what it is to go through this kind of major trauma,” O’Grady replies, “from the treatment to the impact on the family. It’s a horrible emotional ordeal. But that’s one of the great things about what I do. I get a crash course in some of the most important areas of life. I have to think it leaves me a more understanding and educated person in the end.”

O’Grady certainly has had plenty of acting experience with young actors through her starring work on the television drama “American Dreams.” In that case the believable mother-daughter moments were created by O’Grady and Brittany Snow.

The actress wants people to enjoy the cable film. She has hope the work will do more.

“You can never tell what people are going to get from your work. Everybody walks away with something different. But, if this raises awareness about breast cancer and one person gets checked, then that will be fantastic,” O’Grady says.

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