ABC's 'Forever' actress Alana De La Garza embraces playing strong female characters

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The new drama "Forever" explores the lives of an immortal medical examiner and the no-nonsense cop who is both baffled by his brilliance and intrigued by his presence. Alana De La Garza plays Detective Jo Martinez.

The actress thinks the wonderful thing about "Forever" is that it offers something completely unexpected. She describes the show as "Castle" meets "Highlander".

"You can jump in and fall in love and you buy into this kind of fantastical world that meets a procedural world," said De La Garza.

On a scale of 1 to 10, she thinks her on-screen alter ego's toughness rates a "9."

"She's cool. She shoots guns, she fights, she yells at people," said De La Garza.

She also admits that the real Alana is much goofier than Detective Martinez.

"I'm very mild and kind of laid-back, and I always play very 'fight for justice.' I love that though. I love it," said De La Garza. "I like the idea that little girls can look up to me and go, 'Hey I can speak up for myself, I can speak my mind, I can be a cop, I can be a weather lady. I can do whatever I want to do.' And I like that. I think it's great, especially for the Latina little girls, I think that's cool."

"Forever" airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. on ABC.