Cinderella story: Poppy Montgomery plays J.K. Rowling in cable biopic

Actress Poppy Montgomery attends the 2011 CBS Upfront party in New York. ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge

"J.K. Rowling went through an incredibly difficult time as a single mother," Poppy Montgomery says. "She was very poor — she was on welfare — and she struggled through that to make her dream happen."

Montgomery, who plays the noted author of the Harry Potter books in the cable biopic Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story, says that she has only one thing in common with Rowling: the grit to make her own dream happen. In her case, the dream was to become an actress.

"It’s easier to be determined when you have a lot of support," the 36-year-old Montgomery says, speaking by telephone from her Los Angeles home. "What she did was remain determined, having almost nothing. Her road was extremely hard."

Based on Sean Smith’s unauthorized J.K. Rowling: A Biography (2003), Magic Beyond Words is scheduled to air on Lifetime on July 18.

"It’s a Cinderella story," Montgomery says. "It’s a story everybody wants to see. It’s wish fulfillment.

"At first I was reluctant," she continues, "because I knew the film was unauthorized. It didn’t have Rowling’s blessing. But when I read the script, I thought it was inspirational, with nothing exploitive, tabloid, or silly. I was moved by it, and I wanted to be a part of it."

The film begins when Rowling is 6 and already inventing magical stories to entertain herself and her younger sister. It follows her through her teen years, her rejection by Oxford University, and a series of unfulfilling jobs.

After Rowling moves to Portugal to become a teacher, she marries a Portuguese journalist and has a daughter. The relationship turns abusive, however, so she takes her daughter to Edinburgh to be near her sister. Her struggles continue, but she keeps writing.

Although Montgomery had read all seven Harry Potter books before she was cast, she admits that she had a great deal to learn about the author.

"For instance, I didn’t know that her mother had been so sick and had died so young," the actress says. "She didn’t live to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1997) published.

"Our film doesn’t touch on her depression so much," Montgomery adds, "and I was OK with that, because it’s unclear how she dealt with it. We all know that she was a single mother, coming out of a bad marriage, living on welfare with a baby, and trying to write a book. That could inspire some pretty low feelings in anybody."

As the film unfolds, audiences will see glimpses of some of Rowling’s inspirations for incidents in Harry Potter’s life.

"My favorite is the trolley lady on the train," Montgomery says, referring to a scene in which a railroad employee pushes a refreshment cart down the aisle. "It’s a nod to the kids taking the train to Hogwarts and buying candy, the chocolate frogs that jump around, and the liver and tripe jelly beans.

British author J.K. Rowling penned the Harry Potter series. ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge

Best known for her seven years as FBI agent Samantha Spade on Without a Trace (2002-2009), Montgomery — an Australian who grew up in Sydney — is at her best in drama, but by her own account her life has been more of a comedy, beginning with her parents’ decision to name her Poppy Petal. Her four younger sisters are named Rosie Thorn, Daisy Yellow, Lily Belle, and Marigold Sun.

It was perhaps inevitable that Montgomery, who was drawn to acting at an early age, would be a rebel.

"I was pretty rebellious as a teenager," she recalls. "I got expelled from six schools. They were strict girls’ schools, so it didn’t take much. I was a loudmouth, and I spoke my mind. I still do. In my youth it wasn’t appreciated."

Montgomery dropped out of school at 15 and took a series of jobs, none of which worked out.

"I worked at The Gap and lots of restaurants," she says, "but I kept getting fired. I was terrible. My own father fired me from his restaurant. I don’t know how I got jobs. I guess I was cute and fast-talking."

While drifting from job to job, Montgomery also was taking acting classes.

"I knew that’s what I wanted to do," she says. "But I never really acted in Australia."

She was 19 when she reached America, and at that point she got serious about acting.

"There was a guy I was madly in love with in Florida," she recalls. "That lasted about a week. I had two other friends in America, one in New York and one in Los Angeles. I called them both from the Greyhound bus station. I thought I’d go to New York and audition for Juilliard, but the person in Los Angeles was home, so that’s how I ended up here."

Montgomery bought a copy of How to Make it in Hollywood (1992) and decided to bombard Bob McGowan, then Julia Roberts’ manager, with telephone calls and pictures.

"Even if things are hard and scary, you have to keep going with your passion," she says. "Don’t quit. I think a lot of people succeed because they don’t give up. Very talented people will end up walking away from a difficult business."

After a monthlong siege, McGowan yielded to the inevitable and helped Montgomery find an agent. Soon she was guest-starring on Party of Five (1996) and NYPD Blue (1996). A seven-episode run on Relativity (1996) led to such movies asDead Man on Campus (1998) and The Other Sister (1999).

Montgomery’s big break came when she was cast as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde (2001), a miniseries based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel. That led to her starring on Without a Trace.

The series ended two years ago and, after some time off spent with her young son — Jackson, whose father is actor Adam Kaufman, was born during the final season of Without a Trace and is now 3 — Montgomery will return to series television with Unforgettable. Premiering this fall, the CBS procedural casts her as a former police detective who has a condition called hyperthymesia, also known as perfect autobiographical memory: She can remember every detail of her life — except the murder of her sister, the one thing she most wants to recall.

"I just had lunch with Marilu Henner," Montgomery says. "She’s consulting on the show. Only six people in the country have this condition, and she’s one of them. Ask her about July 26, 1972, and she’ll say, ‘It was a Tuesday, this and this happened, I was wearing this and I had this for dinner.’ It’s superhuman.

"The show is a procedural," she continues, "but with much more of a personal twist. My character solves crimes but struggles with her personal life. She’s tough, smart, strong, independent, and good with weapons."

Montgomery herself is good with weapons ... except when it comes to using them.

"I can pull a gun apart and put it back together in three minutes," she says. "But I’m not so good with my aim. On TV I seem to just love to use guns, and I do know what I’m doing, but in person I’m not so fond of them.

"They’re too loud and too scary for me."