Shortly before being handed the award, Felicity Huffman (Lynette Scavo) put her odds at winning the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy last weekend at "Absolutely no way. Never. Not in my lifetime."

In Toronto to promote her film Transamerica, for which she has also won a Best Actress Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, Huffman told the Toronto Star that she did not believe she had "a snowball's chance in hell of getting that award" for Desperate Housewives. In fact, she believed at the start that her presence on the show might be bad luck because she had been in so many unsuccessful series. "I wanted to say to everyone 'Sorry I'm a part of this, because it obviously means it's headed straight for the dumpster.'"

After her turn as Dana on Sports Night, recalled Huffman, she was involved with "lots of shows and pilots that died ignominious deaths. I started to think of myself as the anthrax of the weekly series." Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry was undaunted, though Huffman said, "I loved the scripts, I loved Marc and I was so happy doing it, I knew we must be bound for failure." She said that halfway through the season, she finally conceded, "'I don't think they're going to cancel it,' and they said 'Cancel it? We're the biggest thing on television!'"

In Transamerica, Huffman's transgendered character's name is Bree, which caused her some confusion in the early days of filming Desperate Housewives when she believed she was being addressed rather than Marcia Cross. "Every time I'd hear 'Bree to makeup, please,' I'd start down the hall before I remembered it wasn't me they were talking about."

Huffman's wardrobe has undergone a change during the show's second season because Lynette has gone back to work: "Last year I got to wear really big pants and my husband's shirts covered in raspberry jam. This year I'm in very posh suits, Dolce & Gabbana and Armani." She said that she believes this season is as good as last year, but when asked whether people would want to watch it as much, she protested, "God, I don't know!"

"If you're an actor," she observed, "the fact that you know you have a job for the next few years can change your life."

The original interview is from The Toronto Star.

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