Dana Delaney Loves Wisteria Lane
Image copyright Lisa Finnegan
Dana Delaney doesn’t know why Desperate Housewives is so popular, but after turning down the role of Bree four years ago she was desperate to get onto Wisteria Lane herself.
After the show became a big hit she admitted “to a few 3:00 in the morning nights of, ‘oh my God’ what did I do?” she said at a press conference at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.
While in town Delaney picked up the festival’s coveted Annual International TV Audience Award on behalf of the cast and crew of the show. At the awards ceremony she told the audience, in typical Katherine fashion, “the other girls of Wisteria Lane all wanted to be here for this, but being the newest bitch on the block I told them it was next week.”
During the press conference Delaney was anything but snarky. She applauded the translator’s first conversion of her words into French, often threw her head back for a hearty laugh and even admitted her biggest lie was “probably telling people I didn’t sleep with someone when I did.”
She loves that her character is independent and hopes she remains sarcastic and witty in the next season. “Katherine is quite complicated, it’s kind of hard to define her and that’s what I like about her. She’s very controlling, but I think that is because she was very damaged in her life. She is also very clever,” she said. “One of the early directions that Marc Cherry gave me was, I was playing a scene and he said to me, ‘a little less Katie Couric and a little more Diane Sawyer.’ I think that means she doesn’t care what other people think of her. She is very much cool and in control and manipulates people because of that.”
In real life she said she is nothing like the character. “I am very messy and I don’t really cook. I do like to cook, but I live alone and cooking for one person is kind of a bore for me so I only do it when I have a big dinner party. Although, I am very good at deserts. My best thing is my ancient chocolate Mexican cake recipe.”
The five-year leap forward in the last episode was “sort of a reset button for the writers,” she said. “They didn’t want to deal with the same story lines and the kids.” Casting for delinquent Scavo boys is underway and Edie will more than likely return to Wisteria Lane with the others.
“I think Edie is coming back. I don’t think you could ever not have Edie on Wisteria Lane and Nicollette is so delicious you need that sexual energy on the street and she does it so well,” she said. “I think that Marc likes to keep Edie hanging, for whatever reason, but I think Edie will be back so there will be 6, definitely 6 (women of Wisteria).”
The winner of two Emmys for her hit show China Beach, Delaney has been on dozens of sets but none of them prepared her for the lavishness of Desperate Housewives. “It was wild,” she said. “I have done a lot of television but I have never been on such a successful show that has so much money to spend. It blew my mind.”
For example, each woman has her own hair and makeup person housed in “the biggest trailer I have ever seen in my life,” Delaney said. The food truck has a flat screen TV with movies showing all day and her house is completely “workable” inside and out. “It has air conditioning and it is detailed down to the tiniest thing,” she said. “When we had a tornado episode they totally tore a house down. They took Bree’s roof off — they totally destroyed the street. I think it cost a million dollars.” The street was reconstructed during the writer’s strike.
When asked if there is pressure to always look perfect, she said there might be a quiet competition among the women of the show in terms of dieting. “When I got on the show the costume designer said to me, ‘don’t get the Desperate Housewives disease.’ When I asked what it is she said that everybody loses weight and their clothes don’t fit. I do think there is that competitive dieting thing going on and because I am such a contrarian I am the only one who gained weight — my clothes got tighter.”
The atmosphere on the set is great, she said. “We all heard stories about the fighting early on the set and I don’t think that exists anymore. All these actors are so professional. Everybody comes to the set knowing their lines, everyone is on time, it’s really a fun, fun set. It’s a great place to work.”
She believes it is easier for an actress to slip into a successful series like Desperate Housewives than to work on a new program and said the women warmly welcomed her. “They were great with me,” she said. “They didn’t know I would be on the show until the first day of shooting. When I got there it, I already knew everybody on the show just from working over the years and it was sort of like, oh, hi Dana, what are you doing here? And it just went from there.”
Her favorite TV shows are Mad Men, 30s Rock and, “for a guilty pleasure, the Tudors. I love the Tudors because there’s all that sex and you learn a little history at the same time.”
A women who believes variety is the spice of life, Delaney said she doesn’t know what her future holds but would like to go back into theater and get married one day.
“As you can tell I like variety in life, which is why I have never been married,” she laughed. “I like a challenge and I don’t like to know what’s going to come next. And I’m not somebody who goes after things, I like to sort of let them come to me and so I’m not sure what’s next for me. I would like to get back into theater because I think the older you get as a woman the better roles there are in theater and they are more complex. I am just going to take life one day at a time.”
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1 opinion for Dana Delaney Loves Wisteria Lane
Dana Delaney “I Think Edie is Coming Back”
Jun 14, 2008 at 4:26 pm
[...] Delaney recently attended the Monte-Carlo Television Festival and thanks to Lisa Fennigan, we have some Wisteria Lane [...]
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