See Also: Marc Cherry (Creator) People Guide

A number of castmembers have teased that the newcomer Applewhites will have some shocking secrets in store, and Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry revealed that Alfre Woodard (Betty Applewhite) was cast without even seeing a script.

"It's nothing you've ever seen, nothing you've ever heard of," Mehcad Brooks (Matthew Applewhite) told Entertainment Weekly, talking about what the Applewhites are hiding. "It's nothing you want to her of in real life, truthfully." On-screen mother Woodard was equally as shocked by the revelations. "My mouth just hit the ground, she said. "I think people will be a little horrified, which will make them giggle."

For Woodard, joining the show must have taken a leap of faith. When Cherry called her in April to ask her to join Desperate Housewives, she hadn't even seen the show and had to get friends to fill her in on what it was about. Cherry admitted that she then had to agree to the show without even seeing a single line of a script. "Alfre had to agree to play her without a script because we were so behind at the end of the season," Cherry said. "I hadn't written any stuff for her yet!"

Desperate Housewives was probably the most talked-about TV program of last season, but Cherry said he wouldn't mind the hype quietening down a bit. "Everything about the first year was too much, too soon. We had so much attention, so much heat. I'm looking forward to being a little less hot." However, not everyone is convinced that'll happen. "He's going to be waiting a while," ABC's entertainment president Steve McPherson said.

The full interview, which also includes quotes from Marcia Cross (Bree Van De Kamp), can be found in the September 9 edition of Entertainment Weekly. Scans of the interview are online at Desperatefans.org.

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