PR.com (Allison Kugel): The View must have been exciting for you this morning. Your One For The Money co-star, Katherine Heigl, and the book's author, Janet Evanovich, were both on today's show. How was that reunion?

Sherri Shepherd: I was so excited! It was really great because Janet Evanovich loved the movie, so that's a big endorsement; she loved Katie Heigl's character, and she loved my character!

PR.com: Was your character, Lula, in the film version of One For The Money, true to the way Janet Evanovich wrote her in her novel from her Plum Series of books?

Sherri Shepherd: Yeah, absolutely. There probably was a scene that was a little bit more brutal than what they show in the movie. I took some license with my character, which Janet Evanovich approved of.

PR.com: When you say "brutal" what are you referring to exactly?

Sherri Shepherd: In the movie, Lula is trying to help Stephanie [Plum] (played by Katherine Heigl) solve a mystery and catch the crook. I don't want to give it away because it's bad, but in the book the ramifications that happen to Lula are pretty brutal. In the movie it wasn't as bad, but it is bad. But it was pretty much true to the book.

PR.com: In your memoir ("Permission Slips," Grand Central Publishing) you talk about being a fan of Janet's writing. I can see why you felt a connection to the characters she writes about in her novels. They're about women who find themselves in less than ideal circumstances and surrounded by troubled men, and they have to overcome that. Was that why you connected with Janet's writing?

Sherri Shepherd: I did, but even before all of the stuff went on that I wrote about in my book, I had read One For The Money over seven years ago. Even in the subsequent books (the Plum Series), I love the evolution of the character, Lula. She didn't stay a hooker. She became a bounty hunter as well as one of Stephanie's best friends. Janet Evanovich writes females that are very resilient and strong, and I loved her strength. I put that on my vision board that if this book ever became a movie I prayed to play this character, Lula.

PR.com: That's pretty phenomenal.

Sherri Shepherd: It's exciting for me because it's a dream come true. It's hard to articulate knowing that I actually booked a role that has been on my vision board for the past seven years.

click to read interview with Sherri Shepherd