See Also: 'One Wonderful Day' Episode Guide
See Also: Steven Culp (Rex van de Kamp) People Guide

As much as viewers may have been shocked to see Rex van de Kamp die on last Sunday's season finale, actor Steven Culp said Monday he was mostly surprised his character even lasted this long.

"We all knew from the get-go that we were very expendable," Culp said on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, according to a partial transcript posted in the Television Without Pity forums. "When I first took it on, I was giving it two years, max, for this character, because there's only so many times you can play this scene over and over again. I think in the first episode, I asked for a divorce, and was poisoned, and I think in the third one I was moving out, and I thought, 'How much longer are we gonna go,' so I think I was lucky to get to the end of the first year."

Culp actually recalled the precise moment when he realised his tenure on Desperate Housewives was going to be a short one. Early on during the production of the show, Culp learned that the Van de Kamps were a distorted version of Marc Cherry's family. After a while, Culp got the courage to ask Cherry what happened to this father. When the answer was, "he died of heart disease," the actor realised it was over.

However, Culp added that he may not be gone for good from the show. "There was some discussion about me coming back for Rex/Bree flashbacks," Culp said, then jokingly added, "I said 'sure, just give me a truckload of money.'"

Despite Culp's comments on the Tonight Show, in a separate brief interview that Culp gave to E! Online TV Diva Kristin the week before the finale aired, the actor seemed to suggest he didn't know yet whether his character was going to survive. "You know, most of that really does lie in the--and I'm being honest about that--in the imagination of Marc Cherry and what he has in store for us," Culp said last week, according to Kristin. "And I've been saying that all year, and I know you've been thinking I've been lying to you, but it's really been the truth. They honestly, really, do not tell us anything."

Kristin also added that Rex might not be really dead, paving the way even further for a possible return of Culp. For Kristin's original report, head over to E! Online. Meanwhile, more quotes from Culp on the Jay Leno show can be found here in the TWoP forums -- thanks go out to the posters there who went to the trouble of transcribing his comments!

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