Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

they began to write what you call “writing to your voice” which is
writing to your style of voice and to your style of comedy and
appreciate this and they still do this.
They give me all these great lines to say when we’re still walking
around the set. A few seasons ago we were doing a voting on a
black cat kind of scene and I’m running this voting and I say
“let’s take this pig!” [laughter] and that’s become standard on the
 set when we’re working on something the crew guys will say
“let’s take this pig!” [laughter]. And they write these wonderful
lines for me, I don’t know where they come from out of their
heads but I enjoy every minute of it.

That shows that your character is probably an easy character
to write for which is a good thing for you when you’re playing
that part.

I think so. And the writers they’re in a writer’s room, there are
several of them and they all bring their own sensitivity and their
own impression to it. There’s another particular line that I enjoyed, when we’re looking at the gay guy’s house and I say “Bree you talk to them” and she says “why me?” and I say “because you’ve got a son that just bolted out of the closet!” It’s those kinds of lines that are so yummy that I really appreciate so much.

Where you sad to see Nicollette Sheridan leave last season? Your characters were quite close on the show.

Yeah at the time I said “they’ve taken away my playmate!” [laughter] as we got to interact a lot so I thought “wow what are they going to have me do now?” but as it turns out this year I get a boyfriend so I’m safe. So yeah I get a love interest this year but I had good times with Nicollette playing against her and with her at the same time.

So what’s this new love interest like?

He’s around my age and he’s grouchy. [laughter] And is being played by Orson Bean, an old Broadway actor and he’s just a guy in the neighbourhood who I get to know and we get to know each other very well.

So does he move onto the street?

No, not yet. [laughter]

For your work on Desperate Housewives you’ve won two Emmys, what was it like to receive that kind of recognition?

It was delightful because the first Emmy, my son’s were with me at the ceremony and so it was a wonderful experience as they were with me since the very beginning and so it’s like the three of us all got the recognition together. And then the second Emmy was quite wonderful because it really was an affirmation that the group who decide the awards meant it and that it wasn’t just a popularity thing, they really thought the work had been deserving of an Emmy and that’s quite a compliment.

Your character is also getting a spin-off, can you tell us anything about it?

It’s not quite a spin-off. Lily Tomlin and I are both working with a writer/producer type and talking about the possibility of developing something to take to one of the cable networks to putting it into production so we’re at a point where we’re beginning to explore what might be possible.

Oh so it’s going to be more like say Frasier which came from Cheers?

Yeah we would be sisters but we wouldn’t be the same sisters we were on Desperate Housewives, those characters are owned by ABC.

Are you working on anything else apart from Desperate Housewives at the moment?

Well I’m auditioning. I’ve just had two auditions last week, one for “Cold Case” and one for a Disney television movie of the week and today I have an audition for a show called “Dollhouse” so I’m continuing to audition for parts. The fantasy is you know that when you get an Emmy they’ll just ring you up and offer you a part but it doesn’t work like that [laughter].