Portia de Rossi had quit acting prior to 'Arrested Development' return

May 16 (UPI) -- Arrested Development star Portia de Rossi had quit acting prior to her return on the Netflix series.

The 45-year-old actress said on Wednesday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she agreed to Arrested Development Season 5 months after she stopped acting.

"I made this decision about 18 months ago," de Rossi said of her retirement from acting. "Shonda Rhimes wrote me off Scandal."

"I called [Arrested Development creator] Mitch Hurwitz and I said if there is a Season 5, I won't be doing it because I quit acting and he seemed really understanding and he totally got it," she recalled. "We had a great conversation and then he wrote me into five episodes. Don't know how it happened, but yes I am on Season 5."

De Rossi will reprise Lindsay Bluth Funke in Season 5, which debuts May 29. She explained to DeGeneres she quit acting to pursue other interests, including her art curation and publishing company, General Public.

"I just kind of was wondering is there something that I could tackle now that I've never done before that would be really challenging and different?" the star said. "I kind of knew what acting would look like for me for the next 10, 20 years, so I decided to quit and start a business."

Arrested Development originally had a three-season run on Fox from 2003 to 2005, and was revived for a fourth season on Netflix in 2013. De Rossi is also known for playing Elizabeth North on Scandal and Nelle Porter on Ally McBeal.