{blackbabes} Jennifer Beals searches for 'Proof' that there's life after death

Challenges don't get much bigger than proving there's life after death.

It's taken up by the surgeon played by "Flashdance" icon Jennifer Beals in the TNT drama series "Proof," premiering Tuesday (June 16). With "The Closer" Emmy winner Kyra Sedgwick returning to the network as an executive producer, the show finds Beals' Dr. Carolyn "Cat" Tyler mourning the recent loss of her teenage son ... but maintaining enough spirit and curiosity to accept a cancer-stricken millionaire's (Matthew Modine) offer to fund her research to prove something else awaits a person after he or she dies.

The theme of faith vs. science clearly is central to "Proof," and Beals tells Zap2it, "I don't think the two are necessarily exclusive. It's affirming to find this kind of material, but also really exciting to find how it can expand you as a human being. By playing certain roles, there's an aspect that's awakened me in terms of being able to stand up to what I think is wrong in the world and become really more involved with my own life.

"We're all going to take this journey," Beals adds of "Proof's" main subject. "This is something that's inevitable, and how we approach it structures our lives in some way. I've heard that Matthew has said something to the effect of, 'It's not until we realize that we're going to die that we start to live,' and I completely agree with that. I would take it one step further and say, 'It's not until you realize that we're all going to die that you really start to live.'"

Also in the "Proof" cast: "Scandal" Emmy winner Joe Morton as Cat's hospital boss; David Sutcliffe ( "Gilmore Girls") as the fellow doctor she's maritally separated from; Annie Thurman ("The Hunger Games") as the former couple's daughter; Edi Gathegi ( "Justified") as an intern who helps Cat; and Callum Blue ( "Dead Like Me") as a popular author who claims to have psychic gifts.

A recurring guest star on FOX's "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" lately, Sedgwick says, "I remember years ago when we started 'The Closer,' [that series' creator and executive producer] James Duff said, 'Really great television is about life and death,' and he was right. You look at all the great shows out there, and they're really about that."

Sedgwick also wanted to showcase a strong female character, as with her own part as police interrogator Brenda Leigh Johnson for TNT over seven seasons.

"That was my mandate going in," she states. "I wanted to give back what I was given so generously. I wanted a great role for a woman over 40, and the show had to be very much character-driven, even if it was something that was a procedural ... though I wasn't necessarily looking for that. And this is all of that and more."

For Beals, "Proof" continues a line of atypical television projects including "The L Word" and "Nothing Sacred." She reflects, "It's been a very interesting ride so far. I feel like I'm just now starting to come into my power in a way, in the sense of being able to effect change. I hope that instead of helping to define me, this helps to define [viewers], in terms of the questions that they ask themselves."