Brenda Strong Returns to Desperate Housewives

[Brian Damage]

Desperate Housewives’ omnipresent Brenda Strong spends a lot of time being heard but not seen as the show’s empathetic narrator, deceased Wisteria Lane matriarch Mary Alice Young, but the actress tells TV Guide Magazine she’ll be back on screen in both voice and body for the April 25 episode.

“I will be on-camera on Desperate Housewives, not just doing the voice,” said Strong, who’ll reprise her character in flashback – her first physical appearance on the show since season five in January 2009. “They did a really nice arc for Mary Alice where she is on camera to illuminate the history of one of our more mysterious characters on Wisteria Lane, so there’s some juicy stuff.”

As Mary Alice tends to reappear at crucial moments in the show’s history, is this a pivotal point in the current season? “Absolutely – this is the ‘Do not miss’ episode!” said Strong. “You see a different side of Mary Alice that has never been revealed before.”

“I think traditionally you always see Mary Alice’s warmth and her loneliness and a little bit of a sense that she’s removed because she was carrying such a big burden,” the actress revealed. “In this specific episode, you get to see her fierceness. And you get to see her compassion, and those are the two aspects of the character that I was so happy to be able to bring forward. Because interestingly enough, you get to see a lot of the other characters and really know who they are, but Mary Alice is still a bit of a mystery. So to see these other layers that we haven’t had a chance to see yet brings a freshness to the show from a familiar place. I think it’s much more fulfilling on a lot of levels, at least for me.”

Strong explained that series creator Marc Cherry typically holds off bringing Mary Alice back in flashback, saving her appearances for key episodes – sometimes to the actresses’ frustration (she still shows up on set every week for each script’s table read). “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to him and said ‘You know, wouldn’t it be great if Mary Alice had a sister, or somebody moved on to the Lane that looks just like Mary Alice and let’s find out who she is?’” Strong laughed. “I’m constantly trying to figure out ways to get back onto Wisteria Lane in a more integral role.”

“But the way Marc likes to bring Mary Alice on is in a standalone episode that flashes back to a particular time,” she explained. “Like we did last year with the 100th episode with Beau Bridges. And everyone gets a chance to look back at some pivotal event from a different perspective.”

“It’s very difficult – and I really can appreciate this about our writers – to write in flashbacks when you’re constantly trying to move the storyline forward,” Strong said, “so it almost has to be a standalone event, which is special because then you have these great episodes that really are complete in and of themselves. You don’t have to have watched the week before to know what’s going to be happening. There’s enough history there present already. I hope it turns out as well as I feel like it will.”

http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/news/...ives-4675.html