Swoosie Kurtz is a veteran actress known for portraying quirky characters. So, how does the person herself stack up against these eccentric individuals?

"I get life fright, I don't get stage fright," Kurtz recently said to The Record in Canada. "I can get up in front of 2,000 people without a nerve in my body and feel just great, but, when I set out to drive to Santa Monica, I start shaking in the car."

Of all the roles this actress has slipped into, though Kurtz says Aunt Lily on Pushing Daisies is the most far out there.

"Lily is the most eccentric character I've ever played," said said. "When I read the script, I went bananas."

The multiphobic, one-eyed Lily is bitter and shutdown, but Kurtz insists that there's more to her than that.

"Lily is very isolated but very passionate, lusty and sexual," she added, "but she has no way to release that in the life she's living. She's definitely a little dark, because she's harboring a lot of unresolved mental baggage. But I know a couple of big secrets about her that will be revealed later."

Meanwhile, here's an odd twist of fate: Swoosie's father - Air Force pilot Col. Frank Kurtz - was also formerly a diving champion who won a bronze medal at the 1932 Olympics... and underwent a botched surgery that cost him the sight in one eye and left him with an eye patch.

"That's why I see Lily as not so comedic," Kurtz said. "I know what my dad went through. It was so tragic . . ."

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.