Soap viewers best remember Jennifer Finnigan as Bridget Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful. Now, she is tackling a primetime family saga with the premiere of FX's Tyrant, the story of a middle-class family drawn into the turbulent politics of a fictional Middle Eastern nation when she goes to visit with her husband, who is the second son of the country's dictator.

Jennifer plays Molly Al Fayeed, who doesn't understand why it has been 20 years since her husband Barry (Adam Rayner) has visited his homeland.

She encourages him to return for the wedding of his older brother's son, and quickly learns that the culture clash is a bigger gap than she expected.

During our chat, Jennifer talks about staying in touch with her former B&B cast mates, filming in Israel, comparisons between Tyrant and a current ruler, and more.

Do you ever turn on The Bold and the Beautiful, or stay in contact with anyone?

Yes. I am in touch with [executive producer] Brad Bell. Maeve [Quinlan] is one of my closet friends, though she hasn't been on the show in a while. Winsor [Harmon] will text me every so often. Ron [Moss] as well. I direct message Katherine Kelly Lang. I am friends with Ian [Buchanan]. I went to Adrienne's [Frantz] wedding. I went to Sean's [Kanan] engagement party. I always keep up  with them. Last year when they shot in Cabo, Brad and I found out that we would be in Cabo at the same time, so I hung out with them the whole time. We love each other.  When I am lonely and I miss them, I tune in. The last time I was watching regularly was the Susan Flannery stuff and I was in puddles of tears every day.

Have you seen the Sally Field's movie Not Without My Daughter? There are hints of that in Tyrant.

We were sitting next to each other in a van for a very long, three-hour commute from Rabat to Marrakesh. We were so bored, so I said, "Why don't I put on a movie?" I had downloaded  Not Without My Daughter on my iPad, so we watched it again. There's a lot of inspiration from that. I hadn't seen it years.

What I thought was really interesting about that, and what I think we are going to explore in the rest of the season, is that visceral switch that goes on. It is the same way that the leader of Syria [Bashar al-Assad] at the moment, he came from this Westernized world in London and was brought back to take back. Everyone thought he was Westernized and moderate to a certain extent, but the moment he arrived back in his country, his switch flipped and he became his father.  He became who he was always destined to become. How does that happen?

Did you pay any attention to Queen Noor of Jordan, who was American born, as you were preparing for this role?

I was supposed to meet her a few years ago. It was a benefit and I was out of town, I was so disappointed.

One of the aspects of your casting as Molly Al Fayeed lis the fact that you are blonde, makes for a big contrast. But more than that is the fact that Molly has a naïvete about what she's getting into.

Well put, because I don't want her to be seen as naïve. However, I agree with you that there is a naïvete about  what she is about to embark on about that situation. I think she is going to get real, real fast. I think that moment at the end, where she hits her saturation point, and she has tried and tried for so long to break down the walls that her husband has built over the years, to know who this person is, to know what this life is that he never shared with her.

Don't you think the fact he hasn't shared is the fear of her learning who he was? She doesn't have a way of comprehending.

She doesn't because she can't relate. That's always the issue when you go through a traumatic thing in your life. It is so hard to share that with people who haven't gone through what you've gone through. I think that is one of the things that will bring Barry and [his sister-in-law] Leila together. Leila is from that world and can relate a little more, but Molly can't. But he's never tried to share with her, so even though she could perhaps never understand what she's gone through, he's never given her the opportunity and that's painful that you can't share a formative moment in your life with the woman you've been with for 20 years. The fact that she breaks in that last moment, states, "I won't do this anymore," I feel the naïvete breaks there a little bit. Then her eyes are open and she knows that something is wrong. She feels if she doesn't find out what it is, their entire relationship will dissolve.

Do you think one of the reasons Barry became a doctor was to make up for some of what happened in his youth?

That's a good point. I am a well-traveled girl, pretty savvy. The idea of being brought into that world -- the palace, the riches, the power, the intoxicating foreign aspect of it is seductive on every level. Of course, there is the realism that the rest of the country is suffering. All of that will come into play almost immediately. But the first impression that she is given -- from a private plane to being alone on the freeway to this massive palace to meeting this family that she thinks is maybe something else entirely -- her introduction is seductive. She will quickly learn that it is something else completely, and, I think, that is when the fear will come that she is in over her head completely.

With all that is going on in the world with terrorist attacks, do you have any fear of doing such a political drama?

Yes, I do. I have a fear of doing a political drama in the Middle East. I think Tel Aviv is very Westernized. Listen, timing is everything. If I am ever in a situation where something bad happened in Israel, something just as bad could have happened in L.A. or anywhere else I have traveled?

"Tyrant" premieres Tuesday, June 24 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX.