The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, May 23, 2005
JL: Congratulations. You are now on Desperate Housewives, one of
the biggest...
SC: No, I am not on it anymore, Jay. I'm dead. I'm dead.
JL: Well, ok. Played Bree's husband, now you are DEAD. So tell
people what happened exactly.
SC: Well Bree & I were divorced, at one point getting a divorce, and
Bree decided to go out with this guy to spite me and he developed this sort of
obsessive crush on her and because Rex is so smart, and he has a heart
condition, he goes to this pharmacist to get his medication. Can't figure out
what is wrong with the old ticker.
JL: So when did they tell you that you were going to be unemployed??
SC: Am I unemployed? What's today?
JL: You are off the show. I know this is like a top secret show and
you get pages only when needed. Where you elated or did you go "oh I'm out of
work"
SC: You know all the guys knew the name of the show is Desperate
Housewives and we've always known that. And you got to keep the housewives
desperate.
JL: Yeah, welcome to real life.
SC: Yeah, its a lot like that. So we all know we are very expendable
and when I took it on I was giving it 2 years max. for the character because
there is only so many times you can play this scene over and over again. I think
in the first episode I was asking for a divorce and was poisoned and by the
third episode I was moving out and I wondered 'how much longer are they going to
go'. I think I was lucky to get to the end of the first year.
JL: Now, I've seen you in other shows and you always seem to get
killed during the sweeps period. Now what other show...
SC: This has become a May sweeps tradition. Lets see 3 years ago I
did a part on this show JAG and I was beaten and left for dead by the end of
that season, but I came back. Then last year they killed me again on JAG and I
also died that week for real in Star Trek: Enterprise. I was playing this
Special Ops Commander.
JL: You died for real?
SC: On the show. But then I came back on JAG and then this year I
died on Desperate Housewives. So I am thinking it's a career.
JL: It must be tough to get a home loan. Every job you get you
die. Now Rex had an interesting sex life.
SC: Very
JL: He was a big kinky guy.
SC: Well I don't know if he was a big kinky guy, but he was into
S&M. He liked to be walked on with spike heels...
JL: So who's idea was that?
SC: Well we actually.. Marc Cherry who is our creator, producer,
God, said 'come up with a secret, come up with a fetish of
some kind and then our writers also came up with one. We initially
said no gay, its too obvious. No to S&M, because it was too obvious. We finally
went with S&M just because we love it so much. Marc actually decided that. He
wanted something he could throw out there and not have to explain so much.
JL: What was yours? What fetish did YOU, Steven, come up with?
SC: I did a lot of research, but I actually didn't find this one,
but it sounded funny to me that Rex is not into men, but women
dressed as men. So I spin out this whole scenario where he would
finally reveal it to Bree and that she would get into the fantasy with him and
she would become so obsessive, so anal, about wearing exactly the right thing,
that she would ruin the fantasy for him. A lot like life.
JL: Now how were the network censors. Because they can get in...
SC: Well it was funny. We did this scenes which was kind of edgy and
dark that ended up with Sharon lawrence tying me up to a bed. But Marc thought
it wasn't funny enough. So we did it again with just a whole S&M parapharnelia
stuff that you had no idea what it was and some of the stuff they would not let
us show. She was basically handling them the whole time we were talking.. But
then later Sharon and I went in to loop, because I have a heart attack while we
are having one of our sessions. So we went in to loop some background sounds
and the negotiations.. they go 'Ok, I'll give you to groans, but you have to
take out the whip.. seriously they are talking about all this!
JL: Now any chance that you could come back like a ghost, because
that happens...
SC: You know it was discussed to bring back Rex for flashback scenes
next year. But that,.. you know... I said 'Great, you can pay me a truck load of
money. But I don't think that's going to
happen.
JL: SO you are really dead. Now you've been on The West Wing.
SC: I've been doing a reoccurring role on West Wing and haven't
talked to them yet, because this was revealed last night. But
it's a great show and a wonderful role.
JL: And being in the Senate, I imagine the S&M thing comes into play
again.
SC: Yeah, yeah. Specially if you beat yourself with the hammer.
JL: Well congratulations buddy with all your success.