Early in the first episode of Season 3 of Showtime’s Californication, Kathleen Turner, playing Hollywood agent Sue Collini, sweeps into the office of her newly hired junior agent Charlie Runkle (Evan Handler), says several unprintable things, plants a few images in viewers’ heads that they’d probably rather forget and exits with a crisp, “Collini out!” She’s like a big, feral cat, with a growl that’s every bit as scary as her bite.

“I tend to look for something I haven’t done before,” says the star, who has wowed audiences for more than 25 years on film (Body Heat, Romancing the Stone, Prizzi’s Honor, The War of the Roses) and on stage (Tallulah, The Graduate, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) . “One of the Californication producers kept going by me and whispering, ‘Money, money, money.’ I think he meant that we were going to rake it in on this series partly because of what I was doing. I think it was a compliment.” She laughs her throaty laugh. “But it’s odd, you know, when one can’t be quite sure.”

MORE: What do you like about playing this character?
KATHLEEN TURNER: It’s truly some of the most outrageous stuff I’ve ever done, in terms of the language and some of the sexual references. I thought, well, thank god my daughter is grown up. Every week, we had a table read-through of the next week’s show, right? And half the time I had to ask what they were talking about. I think at first they thought I was joking, but then clearly I wasn’t. I’d say, “I don’t understand, what does that word mean?” And then I think they just started making stuff up to confound me.

What did they say when they approached you about doing the role?
Essentially they called and said, “We’re thinking of it in terms of a nymphomaniacal, sociopathic agent.” I said, “Well, I haven’t done that yet.”

Was there anything they wanted you to do that you balked at?
Yeah, there was one thing that I told Tom Kapinos, the creator, “Look, I can’t do that.” And he said, ”Fine.”

What was it?
I don’t want to talk about it because I really didn’t want to do it.

I understand. Do you have sex scenes?
Yeah, but I probably show the least skin on the show. As I said, “Look, guys, been there, done that, you know? It’s your turn now.”

She reminds me a little of legendary agent Sue Mengers. . . or what I imagine Sue Mengers might have been like.
I always think about that. I actually met Sue Mengers years and years ago. I was staying at the Chateau Marmont; it must have been the first film I was out [in LA] for. And I remember her coming over for coffee and telling me that if I didn’t sign with her, she was going to strip and lie down naked in the middle of Sunset Boulevard. And I thought, this woman is out of her mind. Why would I want someone who is out of their mind [to represent me]? But I certainly have never forgotten that coffee.

But she wasn’t necessarily in your mind when you were playing the character?
No, no, I don’t do imitations.

What else are you working on these days?
I was at Arena Stage in Washington helping with a one-woman show based on Molly Ivins. I knew Molly, and it was very odd for me to play the life of someone I had known. And really moving. It was more difficult than I would have anticipated.

In your memoir, Send Yourself Roses, you talk about how you pursued Edward Albee to let you play Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? You really made that happen for yourself.
I did, yeah. He was not interested in doing it again, even though the last time it had been done was ’76, with Colleen Dewhurst. But he had no feeling that it needed to be done again. So I had to prove to him that it did. I was amazed, frankly, because even though I set out to do it, and waited 30 years to get to do it because I had to get old enough for the darn thing, that when it really came together, there was this moment of it being scary—like, “Wait a minute, do I really have this much control? I don’t think so.” But it was an affirmation that was stunning.

Have you always been that proactive in getting the work you wanted?
One of my great friends still is a guy named Michael Zettler, who wrote the first play I did in New York, off-off-Broadway. Stephen Zuckerman was directing. I’d been in New York for two months and I went down to audition, and Michael says he remembers turning to Stephen when I left and saying, “Well, I think she’s decided to take it.” So perhaps that’s my nature. Anyway, so far, so good.

How is your rheumatoid arthritis these days?
It’s tough. I may have to use the fall for another surgery, a knee replacement. I’ve had seven surgeries in the last 10 years. It’s not that any more damage is happening, because the new drugs are fantastic; it’s the damage that was done before we were able to arrest the disease. I have accepted a Broadway show in the spring, a new play—I can’t say any more about it—so I’m thinking that I may have to get this operation done, because doing eight shows a week for 10 months is no joke.

Well, I know that there are many people who are inspired by the way you’re dealing with the disease.
I just cannot imagine not acting. I really, truly can’t. So whatever it takes to keep going, that’s what I have to do.

Season 3 of Californication debuts September 27 on Showtime.