I spoke with actress Kathryn Joosten (Mrs. McCluskey on Desperate Housewives) about her role in the May 17 finale in between shooting scenes for it. shorter interview ran in my daily gig, Soap Opera Weekly. This is the full interview. Enjoy!
MAK: Nice to meet you.
Kathryn: Hello.
MAK: How are you?
Kathryn: I’m just fine.
MAK: Anything you can tell me about the finale and what part Mrs. McCloskey plays in it?
Kathryn: Let’s see ... yes, Mrs. McCloskey and her sister Roberta [Lily Tomlin] help discover some information. That’s all I can tell ya (laughs).
MAK: I assume it’s about Dave's revenge plan?
Kathryn: Yeah, there's lots of stuff going on.
MAK: Does your character have any scenes with Dave?
Kathryn: I don’t think so; he’s gone some place else with somebody else [Dave, played by Neil McDonough, is taking Susan — Teri Hatcher — and son MJ on a "fishing trip."].
MAK: Can you tell me what character’s fate or actions might be most surprising to the viewer?
Kathryn: It’s going to be a cliffhanger, I know that, but I don’t even know what the final scene is; they’re being very hush-hush about it. It’s not even in the script.
[Note: I also spoke to DH's executive producer Bob Daily, who told me at the end of the two-hour finale, the show will make a "tiny jump" into the future, a couple of months ahead, and that what happens during that jump will be dealt with in the series' first episode of next season.]
MAK: So viewers will be surprised and shocked then you think?
Kathryn: Viewers will be left wondering, I can tell you that.
MAK: Your role has grown into one of the best-loved characters on Wisteria Lane. Was that always planned ?
Kathryn: No, I don’t think it was. I really came in replacing an actress, an older woman who wasn’t working out, and I think it was only going to be a once-or-twice kind of thing, but the character took hold and to my delight became a regular part of the street.
MAK: It was the hurricane episodes last season when I first really noticed how important your character was to the series...
Kathryn: Uh huh.
MAK: Do you have your own favorite episodes?
Kathryn: I think that has to be one of them, one of the first episodes which I’m running up into Lynette’s house to get something my son made, and then I have a whole scene with the children where I give them peanut brittle — that was a fun show. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed the one we did this year, where we were all in the car taking Edie's ashes to her son, and [the episode] remembering [Mrs. McKluskey's neighbor] Ida on the baseball field.
MAK: The relationship that you had with Edie was a special one for episodic TV. How did that happen?
Kathryn: That really evolved and it was great fun. I think what Marc was looking for was some kind of contentious thing that could go on and on. And the fun part for both Nicolette [Sheridan, Edie] and myself is while [our characters] were contentious, we were friends. As I explained [on the show] at one point, this is the way we are: I say you’re easier to get into than a Junior College, and she tells me my face looks like an old bean, but that’s what we do. And then I think in subsequent scenes, where we see that we’ve gone out and had a drink on my birthday, or I’m over in her kitchen doing something, that just kind of [cements it]. And I’ve got friends that I play with that way — we don't really hate each other, but we go after each other.
MAK: The way the series is structured, we might expect a surprise visit from Edie in the form of a flashback, right?
Kathryn: There may be times when we see Edie again. They certainly don’t run those decisions by me! But I wouldn’t be surprised if Edie showed up on occasion.
MAK: How does it feel to be one of the few senior characters on a primetime drama who actually gets a storyline and airtime? Do you feel a certain responsibility to play her a certain way?
Kathryn: Well, she has dignity. I’m not a regular on the show. I’m a guest star, a recurring character. Quite frankly, I’ve always felt that there should be more regulars of my age on various shows. You know, it’s taking television a little time to realize to catch up with us. It’s always been, "Oh, nobody would be interested in what an older person is doing." Well apparently they are (laughs). And it’s time for the studios to wake up and say, "There’s something going on here." Everybody's loving the stuff that Lily and I do, and neither one of us are spring chickens.
MAK: Some of my favorite moments from the season have been watching the two of you together.
Kathryn: And it continues. We’re shooting now, today, our last scene together.
MAK: Is it true what Marc Cherry said at PaleyFest09: he promised you he’d never kill off your character?
Kathryn: Absolutely. And he put it) just that way. I’d been bitching and moaning at him. I said, "You know, you got to make me a promise that you won't kill me off," and he actually said okay. (pauses) And then I reminded him of that publicly on several occasions (laughs).
MAK: Your characters have been killed off series before, right?
Kathryn: Every time I turned around, I got killed off. I got killed off on West Wing, and then I did Scrubs and I got killed off there, and then I did General Hospital — and they hung me on that one. Murdered.
MAK: Gruesome, but that’s a soap, so what can you expect?
Kathryn: Yeah — so now they’re paying attention that old people are supposed to be a part of the scene — and then they keep killing us off!
MAK: Maybe that’ll stop, too.
Kathryn: At least I’m in a situation where I said, "Don’t kill me off," and he won't.
MAK: Any word on whether you're getting a new playmate on the show?
Kathryn: No, I brought it up to Marc and said, "What’s going to happen? I don’t have a playmate." And I think he’s working on it. Of course, I would love to have a love interest; I was holding out for one of Lynette's twins, but I don’t think they’re going to do that.
MAK: (laughs) Now that would be truly groundbreaking, right?
Kathryn: Wouldn’t it?
MAK: Even for primetime.
Kathryn: That’s not going to happen on a Disney show.
MAK: (laughs) Is there a possibility Tomlin will come back next year?
Kathryn: I don’t know. I would love it, though. Maybe Lily and I will go off and do something else — there’s always that possibility as well.
MAK: Well actually I’ve heard that rumor, you two doing a Murder, She Wrote sort of thing where you're solving crimes.
Kathryn: Really? I’ve heard that rumor, so I‘m trying to track down where it’s starting. You know, that's how things happen, so who knows.
MAK: Was it fun working with Tomlin?
Kathryn: She’s fabulous! We get along very well. We’ve been friends. I got a new playmate [on the show]. MAK: You’ve been at it for a long time. You’ve done everything from Seinfeld to West Wing to Joan of Arcadia to Hellraiser: Inferno...
Kathryn: I just did Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
MAK: Do you have any favorite appearances?
Kathryn: No. There’s some I hate. This show, I’m delighted with. I love coming here every day and working with these people. There have been other shows where it has not been, oh, that much fun.
MAK: And they shall remain nameless.
Kathryn: There were a lot of half hours, I refer to them as my "Bite me" [shows], because I was literally hired to walk down the hall and say, “Yeah, bite me,” or something of that nature. But it was obvious that’s what I was there for. I’m about to go into rehearsal right now, so I have to say good-bye.
MAK: Okay. Just one quick question: Is there anyone you forgot to thank in your Emmy speeches that you would like to take care of now?
Kathryn: Um, no. I’ll hold off until my third Emmy speech and I’ll say it then (laughs).
MAK: (laughs) I hope that happens. Take care Kathryn. It was a pleasure speaking to you.
Kathryn: Same to you.
