Reuben spends one more night in ‘ER’

Gloria Reuben raised more than a few eyebrows in 2000 when she left the front lines of NBC’s “ER” to become a backup singer/dancer with Tina Turner’s rock ‘n’ roll tour.

Now she’s starting the new year by stepping forward into her past.

Reuben, who won accolades for her groundbreaking portrayal of Jeanie Boulet, a physician’s assistant grappling with an HIV diagnosis, returns to the role tonight (10:01 p.m., KHQ-6 in Spokane).

She called the experience, which is being billed as a one-time appearance, both emotional and exhilarating.

“It just felt incredible,” says Reuben, 43, who joined “ER” in its second season.

“Of course, there was a lot of apprehension and anxiety, like returning home after not having been there for so many years. I didn’t know what to expect. But when I got there, it was like no time had gone by at all.”

But much has transpired since she last walked the halls of the fictional Chicago-based County General Hospital. “ER,” which recently aired its 300th episode, is struggling in its 14th season, and some industry insiders predict that the series could reach the finale this year.

And there were few familiar faces to greet her. None of the key cast members who co-starred with her was around. In addition to Reuben, the show helped launch the careers of Julianna Margulies, Anthony Edwards and Noah Wyle, and it made George Clooney a star.

Reuben’s Boulet was a first for a prime-time series network television – a woman stricken with HIV determined to continue with her life and career despite the stigma surrounding the virus. She contracted it from her estranged husband, who had had unprotected sex with another woman.

“It really felt kind of great to step back into the shoes of Jeanie,” she says. “There’s no better thing for an actor to ask for than to have the opportunity to step back in time and yet have new dimensions to play.”

When Boulet’s character departed “ER,” she was still adjusting to her HIV status. The new episode finds her as a divorced mother, running two AIDS clinics. When her son injures himself in a fall in gym class, Boulet winds up back in the ER, instantly clashing with Dr. Gregory Pratt (Mekhi Phifer), whom she doesn’t trust.

In real life, Reuben has spoken at recent World AIDS Days and this year produced a Showtime project, “Positive Voices: Women and HIV,” in which she interviewed several women who are living with or working with HIV/AIDS. She also co-starred in HBO’s “Life Support,” which starred Queen Latifah as a woman with the virus.

Reuben’s return to “ER” was sparked by a recent conversation with executive producer John Wells.

“We were catching up on things, and I was talking about my HIV activism in the last few years,” she says.

“We realized we had really done some great stuff on the show in terms of bringing this to the forefront of people’s lives. In recent years, that issue seems to have slipped off the radar, so it’s great to get back into it again.”

The plot surrounding Boulet is typically heavy and emotional. It’s that intensity, Reuben says, that largely prompted her departure from “ER.”

“When I’m in a part, I go to the places that are necessary, and because it was so impactful, it was not something I could just leave on the set,” she says. “So I was burned out, emotionally exhausted, and I had to take a step away from it for a few years.”

When she left the show, says Reuben, “I really didn’t know what was going to happen next. Then I met Tina. … I thought, ‘This is crazy and fun and wicked.’ Five costume changes! It was fantastic, and I would do it again.”

She has not kept up that much with “ER,” but she has run across an episode or two when traveling abroad.

“There I’ll be, speaking Italian,” she says. “It’s way, way too weird to see this younger version of me. … I just turn it off.”