For four seasons on “The Killing,” Mireille Enos worked in a damp wool sweater and a pair of jeans to shoot the AMC series, set in rainy Seattle and filmed in Vancouver. As Det. Sarah Linden, she was too obsessed with finding killers to shop online — shop at all. Even her lush red hair was held captive by a pedestrian rubber band. Then Shonda Rhimes came calling. On Rhimes’ new series, “The Catch,” debuting Thursday night on ABC, Enos, 40, gets the network series star treatment. “I have pencil skirts, silk blouses,” she says. “I mean, my clothes are pretty.” More surprising was that Rhimes called at all. “I asked my manager, ‘How on Earth does Shonda Rhimes know who I am and why does she want me to be in her dress-up show?’” “The Catch” offers Enos a professional boost as well. As Alice Vaughan, she plays a top LA private investigator trafficking in high-end, white-collar crime, like art theft. It’s a good living: Alice lives in a well-appointed, mid-century aerie overlooking the city. But she discovers that she’s been fleeced by the biggest con artist of all — her fiancé, known by many as Christopher Hall (Peter Krause). When he empties out his half of the pad they share, he also makes off with a sizeable chunk of her cash, and she gathers her team of investigators to smoke him out. Before you can say “poof,” Hall, (real name Benjamin Jones), has vanished. That’s when Alice Vaughan and Sarah Linden merge. As an actress, Enos shines when she has a puzzle to solve and her singular focus is brought to bear. “Not that I can’t play a dummy, but if you’re to be a lead on a Shonda show, she’s got to be smart,” Enos says. “It’s drama with a brain.” Enos, who is married to actor Alan Ruck and the mother of two, met Rhimes and the female members of her team (producing partner Betsy Beers and casting director Linda Lowey) to discuss the pilot script. “Shonda was very quiet, very present and warm,” Enos says. “Then, when she did ask a question, it was direct and adult and made it clear why it’s a gift to work with her. She asked me how I felt about working on network TV for seven years. And the things I do and don’t want to do in my work.” “The Catch” underwent some changes between the completion of the pilot and the production of nine additional episodes. (If the series is renewed, that tally can go as high as 15.) “Scandal” alum Allan Heinberg was brought in as a showrunner and immediately responded to Enos’ take on Alice. “I knew after our first meeting that I wanted our Alice to be every bit as intelligent, as loving, as soulful, and as fearless as Mireille is,” he says. “And when I discovered, via YouTube, that Mireille was a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Alice became a martial artist, too.” TV mainstay Krause (“Six Feet Under”; “Parenthood”) was hired to play Christopher/Ben, and was able to help Enos learn the ropes at ABC, where he once starred on “Sports Night” (with Josh Charles and Felicity Huffman). “He’s a great partner in that way,” she says. On screen, Krause’s appealing reticence offers an effective contract to Enos’ vibrancy. Although the con on “The Catch” is the main plotline, the actors play it like they want their characters to get back together. “I think it’s actually ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ” Enos says. “What he and Alice had was real. And now they have to figure out a world in which they reconcile.” Enos says Heinberg is also drawing on real-life events to provide weekly cases for Alice’s firm to work on. “I thought they would all be shiny crimes,” she says. “But we’re doing [an episode] about the first woman to be accepted into the Rangers, the army version of the Navy SEALS. There was a huge backlash against her.” Ruck, who’s playing Geena Davis’ husband in the new “Exorcist” pilot, will also have a storyline on the show. Fortunately, Enos lives near the studio where the show is filmed, and her children, Vesper, 5, and Larkin, 19 months, can hang out on set. “They have a playroom on set,” she says. “Vesper’s been in rehearsals. It’s been great. “She called ‘Action’ the other day.” “The Catch” premieres 10 p.m. Thursday on ABC
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