Unfamiliarity is the new familiarity for Paget Brewster. It’s the reason why the former “Criminal Minds” actress left one crime procedural for another.

Brewster is famous for playing Emily Prentiss on “Criminal Minds” for six and a half years. However, she says she became too familiar with the rhythms of the character, and the other people she was worked with, causing her to become “lazy.”

Brewster guest-stars as district attorney Paula Foster on the two-hour season premiere of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” tonight at 10/9C on CTV.

“I became too familiar and I didn't appreciate it to the degree that I should,” she says. “(But) on ‘SVU’ it was actually absolutely terrifying that the bar was higher (because) what I had to provide was trickier and harder for me because it wasn't a character that I knew.”

There’s no word yet on whether or not Brewster’s “SVU” role will turn into a recurring character, or if she may pop up again on “Criminal Minds,” but the actress is sure that at this stage of her career, she wants to focus once again on comedy.

“I'm more interested in comedy right now just because I haven't done it in a while and I miss it,” she says. “It's sort of a muscle I need to strengthen again but it's what I did primarily before I did ‘Huff’ and then ‘Criminal Minds.’”

Actively looking for comedy gigs, Brewster admits she couldn’t refuse a guest spot on “SVU,” especially when it involved working with Emmy Award winner Mariska Hargitay.

“In real life I honestly think Mariska is one of the funniest women I've ever met and I just love working with her,” she says. “I really look up to her immensely and I think she's just a powerhouse and I enjoy her very much.”

The season premiere picks up immediately where the season finale left-off: “SVU” Captain Don Cragen (played by Dann Florek) waking up to a dead woman beside him in bed.

While Brewster can’t give too much away about the “SVU” season premiere, she does let it slip she shares a lot of screen time with Hargitay.

“My character and Mariska’s character come together to offer each other information,” she says, “and it becomes a friendship to a certain degree of two strong women working in this line of work. At the beginning they had different end goals (but) they team up to exchange information in searching out the situation and what's happened.”

Don’t miss a new season of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CTV two.