Marcia Cross: Bring Back My “Desperate Housewives” Men

Marcia Cross wants her men back.

With "Desperate Housewives" now set to conclude at the end of its eighth season, Cross says she'd like her appearances-above-all-else character Bree Van de Camp Hodge to get one more night with the many men she's wedded and bedded before the show ends.

“I do want to see all my fellas again. I have had the best male costars and I want them all back, dead or alive. Even if it's just a fantasy dream sequence, I really want to see them. There's just so many of them: from Steven Culp to Kyle Maclachlan to Brian Austin Green to Roger Bart – I've had a lot of fellas!” she tells Popcorn Biz.

As for how the show will end otherwise? Cross says creator Marc Cherry has long had something great planned.

“Marc has always said from day one that he knew how he wanted to end the show,” says Cross, “and Marc always tells everything eventually, but he's NEVER told anybody that. So I'm hoping that it's wonderful, which it probably is. He's had eight years to think about it, so I'm excited to see how he has envisioned this.”

Cross and co-star Felicity Huffman said word of the show’s impending finale was only given to them two days before Cherry’s announcement to the Television Critics Association, and they haven't been able to compare many notes with their longtime co-stars Teri Hatcher and Eva Longoria.

“Eva’s in Spain,” says Huffman, who spent eight seasons playing harried Lynette Scavo. “We've emailed back and forth, and I know when we were talking about it before she left, she said, 'Oh my God – If it's the last year I'm going to cry!' So I'm sure she's going to cry when she comes back to set. She wears her heart on her sleeve.”

Both actresses said they were pleased to end on a high note.

 “I think it's so ideal, not having to wait to see what the ratings are in year eight, maybe being on the bubble,” says Huffman. “I think ABC made a sacrifice of a year nine in order to treat the show respectfully. So I think artistically the writers get to work backwards from the end and choose the best way to end it, as opposed to going, 'Oh my God. They're not going to renew us', in Episode 18 and you're scrambling to make all the ends meet.”

Huffman admits that the conclusion of the show comes with mixed emotions. “I'm, like, 60-70% bittersweet,” she says. “You're never sure there are going to be future roles. If I was sure of that, I'd go, 'Yay!' But if all I'm sure of is that I'm going to be opening gas stations in Des Moines, Iowa, I'm like, 'Ooo, doesn't sound so good'. So it's bittersweet now. The sweet is that I'm really grateful.”

“It will be like an old friend that I will miss, definitely,” says Cross.” Although as an actor you look forward to doing other things, I'm sure I'll be heaving-sobbing at the end. Because we've had marriages, babies, deaths – the whole thing. We've been through everything with these people, so it will be very, very difficult to say goodbye, without a doubt."

And at the very least, the central stars will likely have decades of “Desperate Housewives” tributes, honors and appreciations as excuses to reunite socially.

“I never thought about that,” chuckles Huffman. “We'll be tottering onstage in our walkers. Oh, Lord.” “I just hope I'm Betty White then,” laughs Cross.

Contact Us