Desperate Housewives Panel 2-22-05
(This is part of SC's quotes during a panel discussion with the cast of DH.)
(Re. Rex's character on DH)
Steven, why does it work? Why does this show work as well as it does?
Marcia Cross: Because he is on it…
SC: Beside the fact that I’m on it, (short laugh) you know the short answer
is, it is really entertaining. It's well written, the cast is great,
its well produced & directed, it moves fast, it has comedy, drama,
mystery, everything that you want and I think people want to find out
what is going to happen next in the story and I think that’s the real short
answer. It’s entertaining. But then you could also go farther than that
too, I mean I think a lot of what happens with these people is sort of far
out and heightened as we get is that its I think there’s things in people’s
lives that everybody can relate to. I mean just in our story, I mean there’s
the whole thing about how do you keep passion love alive over 18 years of
a marriage. You know what happens when you’re in the middle of your life
and you’re trying to find passion again somewhere. I think there’s
things like that about all the characters that people can tune into
and that makes it more than just a simply entertaining show. But the
bottom line is that its just fun to watch. It’s addicting.
Steven, can I ask you something that I’m sure has been asked of you before…
SC: I’m not… You’ve got a question?
Well I wasn’t gonna go to the place where I really wanted to go which was in all the work
that you’ve done before have you ever had to dress up and have this sort of sexual fantasies
that you’ve had for this part?
SC: On camera, no, I mean I’ve done a lot of ...(joking) I’ve always refused
to do that stuff on camera, I only do it live on stage... I only do it
in dark bars. No, at least roles on camera, no. I’ve never gotten
to go to these places, I mean it actually is more like a character
I would do in a theatre piece, to me, I mean its that complex, and that
varied, and more and that contradictory and more sides keep appearing
to him as we go on. And I find, you know, a lot of the time that, at
least roles done on camera, I play a lot of agenda driven people, you
know, they walk into the room and know exactly what they want, and it was
very confusing to me at first with Rex because the only thing Rex knew is
that he was confused. And I would actually show up on set going I don’t know
how to play this scene, I don’t know what I’m doing here. And it really, it
was great cause it’s been a great process for me because what I started to
do was realize that all these were appropriate feelings for Rex and as
soon as I embraced them and was not afraid of them the character began to
unlock himself more for me. So it’s been a great thing about trusting
uncertainty I mean this whole process. So, now I’m just reveling in all
his contradictions & his quirks, and I’m just looking forward to what
comes next.
Producer Marc Cherry:
Steven didn’t know, we didn’t know what Rex’s secret would be at first,
so I told Steven “you go do some research, give me something unusual,” and
he had a good one that we didn’t ultimately use.
SC: I said, I actually went on the Internet (he laughs) it was very useful
you know, I was like looking up sexual fetishes and its amazing what you
find…but...
They’ll arrest you for that, I think, and take your computer and everything…
SC: I..I...I you know I think it’s a big thing about Rex, too… if you just,
you know a lot of this stuff you have to go into like, pay to go to
download porn and I don’t want to do that, but you can surf into different
chat rooms and find out that there’s, I think like Rex, a lot of people
out there who thought that they were the only one. The whole time
they were growing up and suddenly over the Internet they found there’s
whole communities of people like them. And I imagine it would be empowering...
but it’s empowering and frightening as well. But anyway the thing I came up
with is that Rex doesn’t like, he’s not into men, he’s into women dressed
as men, and I’d sort of spun out this whole thing, you know, that he’d tell
Bree and they’d really, they’d have this passionate sex life for awhile, but
then she’d get so obsessed about what she was supposed to wear that she’d
ruin the fantasy.
Marc Cherry: Steven, the one I was thinking of was, it was the other one which was he
could only make love to Bree in filthy surroundings
SC: You guys came up with that one… the writers came up with that one...
It had to make you feel really vulnerable to do that, doesn’t it?
SC: Yeah, it’s terrific, I mean I loved it, it was just great, uh, I…
Marcia: She said vulnerable
SC: No, but its great, I, you know, I like being that vulnerable you know when
I first read the scene I told Marc, I said man, this is really, really
scary in a really good sort of way, its really dangerous and I loved it…
you know, more!
At the end of the discussion:
SC: I don’t think I could be anymore articulate or insightful than anyone
who just spoke. As far as being grateful for this opportunity, grateful
to you people for having us here. It’s a very weird thing that happens
now because you’ve got, no one could have predicted this “thing” that we’re
doing, you know, when you’ve got Marc’s writing, you’ve got all the
people who are bringing their thing to the show, we’re bringing our thing,
then you bring, the audience brings their thing and this other thing
happens that is somehow outside of us all, and its nothing we could
ever have planned for or controlled and we’re just enjoying it. Thank
you for having us here and thank you all very much.
Thanks Taylor for writing it up!
To listen/watch the DH panel: Click Here