Jane Lynch discusses career highlights from Glee to Manhunt: Unabomber

Catch more from Jane Lynch in the full episode of Entertainment Weekly: The Show, available now on the new People/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN). Go to PEOPLE.com/PEN, or download the free app on your Smart TV, mobile and web devices.

Role call! Jane Lynch dropped by EW: The Show to take a walk down memory lane, reminiscing about some of her favorite stories and projects over the course of her career — from her film work in The Fugitive, Best in Show, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin to her memorable turns in TV shows like Party Down and Glee to her latest role as Janet Reno in Discovery’s Manhunt: Unabomber.

Lynch recalls how Harrison Ford taught her a valuable acting lesson on the set of her first major film The Fugitive and explains how she got the role in Best in Show after filming a cereal commercial with Christopher Guest.

She described her experiences on the set of Judd Apatow’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin as being “like an improv game.” The writer-director asked the entire cast to be on set every day even if they weren’t filming scenes. “It was almost like being on a basketball team and we were like sitting on a bench,” Lynch says. “Judd would say, ‘Jane get in there!'”

Shooting the Party Down pilot was a unique experience for Lynch — executive producer and co-creator Rob Thomas paid for the pilot out of his own pocket and shot it all at his house. “All of us, we had just met, we all changed in the same bedroom, his bedroom, the master bedroom, and we really got to know each other well,” she remembers.

Lastly, Lynch looked ahead to her newest role as former Attorney General Janet Reno in Discovery’s first scripted series Manhunt: Unabomber. “I was really proud to play Janet Reno. I was a big fan of hers when she was the Attorney General and I’m even more of a fan of hers [now],” she says. “She had great integrity and independence and let the facts lead her to where she needed to go in any particular case.”

Watch the clip above for more, including how she got her roles on The L Word and Glee.