‘Scorpion’ Star Katharine McPhee on Jumping From ‘Smash’ to Dodging Bombs (Video)

“We get to do a lot of different things,” McPhee tells TheWrap of new CBS series “Scorpion”

Former “American Idol” fave Katharine McPhee is beginning to build quite the diverse acting portfolio.

While McPhee was last a series regular on NBC’s musical series “Smash,” McPhee has quite a different project on her hands with the upcoming CBS drama “Scorpion,” which premieres Sept. 22.

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On the series, McPhee plays Paige Dineen, a waitress and single mother who finds herself allied with a group of super-geniuses who’ve teamed with the government to save the world from destruction. To hear McPhee tell it, her new gig is a big departure from belting out tunes.

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“We get to do a lot of different things. Like, my first day of shooting during production, I was running and bombs were going off. I went from singing and dancing to running away from bomb explosions and nuclear disasters being an imminent threat to society,” McPhee told TheWrap at the PaleyFest screening of the series Sunday. “So it’s constantly changing. I’ve always liked procedurals, but this is a really different kind of procedural. It’s not your everyday procedural that you see. It’s got a lot of heart and humor and heroes, basically, And each episode, the characters get to kind of trade off on which ones are the heroes and which ones are the heart.”

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As for seguing from “American Idol” to acting, McPhee noted, “I set goals for myself, so I didn’t know exactly what it would look like, but I set goals for myself … It’s never as you planned, but I’m not complaining.”

Watch the full interview above.

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