Why Pam From Meet The Parents Looks So Familiar

In the last season of The West Wing, Teri Polo played poised, sophisticated First Lady Helen Santos, wife of President Matthew Santos (Jimmy Smits). The character was a bit more conservative than Polo is, which appears to have contributed to her feeling out of her element when she walked onto the set.

"I think I was a little too crazy for them, not quite as subdued as they would like Helen to be," Polo told The West Wing Weekly. "So my hair was a little crazy, I had tattoos and piercings and stuff like that, so that all kinda went away, which was great! Because it made me feel more like Helen." 

She said she always felt like a guest on that show, even though, had it continued, she would have probably featured prominently in coming episodes. "I just was in so over my head," she said about the experience of entering an iconic show. Still, as she played a reluctant woman in politics, it worked for her. "So I think that translated really well on the screen, to be perfectly honest," she said. "I think that that in a way kind of works for Helen, because she was — she was in over her head and a fish out of water."