Full Transcript for Desperately Devoted to James Denton aka Mike Delfino

episodes, but that was it. So anyway, cut to we get canceled early. Michael Ettelstein was the showrunner on it, and he became the showrunner on Housewives in the beginning. Yeah, we went under Mark Cherry with Mark Cherry, and so he and a lot of our crew, Dougie Shamberger and all those guys, Okay, came over from Thread Matrix. And so when Michael got over there with Mark Cherry, he said, you know this guy who was the lead on the show Pretty Good shows up sober and doesn't knock the furniture over and he does all this stuff. So he said you should see him. And Mark was like, oh, but you know, I want somebody who's Italian. But Michael really pushed I think, and so thank god, so you auditioned those. So I went in and I went and read with the macaroni scene. Okay, I met you at at the table and eating the macro actually ate the macaroni, or pretended to in my test, and you had to react to your macaroni. Well, well, I had to pretend I liked it because she was so cute. I was like, we're really good. But I think. 00:06:12 Speaker 2: People would be interested to know that we didn't test never met together. 00:06:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, we met you after we were both cast at the first table read right on the set and we're backing picture like it was yesterday. So I got cash from that Mike. In the audition, I did the thing and Mark Cherry sat back and said, can you be more Italian? And I was like, I'm from I'm a redneck from Nashville and I'm barely hiding my southern which I really didn't and and so I couldn't believe. But they I was the only person they tested for Delphino, which is you know, it was really unusual for a role that's not one of you guys. 00:06:41 Speaker 4: Wow. 00:06:42 Speaker 3: So yeah, so to be such a big role, it was not hard to It is an easy casting process. Okay, but yeah, we never met, which is crazy, which is crazy considering they knew that we were going to be together and they never had us reading. 00:06:55 Speaker 5: Did you know that Terry was cast as Susan at that point when you were testing or no, yes you did, okay, because I didn't know until I got it that Terry was Susan. 00:07:04 Speaker 3: Were you first, what do you mean cast? 00:07:07 Speaker 2: No? I think I was last. 00:07:08 Speaker 3: I thought I've heard you say that, which was that's just like. 00:07:11 Speaker 2: The lore that I've heard. I don't. I mean, I don't know, but I think they were. 00:07:15 Speaker 3: They were out to you, like I think you they were like you were negotiating it, but they teased it with Terry Hatcher is probably going to one of my callback not. 00:07:24 Speaker 2: Even meant anything. 00:07:27 Speaker 5: But at my callback there was chatter in the waiting room because Felicity had just been cast, okay, and so that they but I think she was first. 00:07:37 Speaker 2: So no, I think Eva was first. Oh right, right? 00:07:39 Speaker 5: Maybe yeah, I think you said that, but then maybe Felisy was early on. But anyway, I never knew who's I thought they were saying that she was Susan and oh I saw she's blonde and I blonde and they made that my hair. 00:07:50 Speaker 2: Anyway. 00:07:51 Speaker 3: But it's fascinating that nobody read together because it's such an ensemble asked the SAG Awards. It's such an ensemble show. Yeah, none of you guys even read so interesting. 00:08:00 Speaker 1: So what was it like when you met for the first time at the table root. 00:08:06 Speaker 3: It was they had tables were like a big u all and there were like a thousand people there. But this was you know, ABC was at the bottom of the barrel. They were running Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Four nights a week. It was all game shows. There were no scripted dramas that anybody was watching because I had been through it is one that was canceled. I was on one before that that was canceled after one year, and I did two pilots, so I've been trying to be on ABC for four years. So we weren't that optimistic that anybody was going to see it. But they knew the pilot was good because we are a lot of executives at three D. So I was there before you, I think, but to which would be shock because you're always early. But I remember you came, Oh yeah, I can do I can tell stories. Ye But anyway, anyway, anyway, I'm gonna say it. I'm gonta. You asked how it went. I walked in and and you were you and you were standing there talking to somebody, and I think you had glasses on, maybe to read I don't know, even though we're also young, but but you were smoking hot, and I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna be Terry Asher's boyfriend. And uh, that's and that's how it started. That's how it started absolutely sincere and they so we sat next to each other and we spoke and you were very cordial, but it was you know, it's a big deal that first table read. So there everybody's a little bit not nervous. 00:09:26 Speaker 2: But protective formal eggs formally. 00:09:29 Speaker 3: Yeah. So it was like a handshake and nice to meet you. And there wasn't even really much talk about we're probably gonna be a couple, even though Delfino was the single guy, which is why I was number five. So yeah, it was it was like because I knew you so well. I mean, let's be honest, you were the star. You were the person who had done so much before Housewives had, you know, went on the air, which is why I was always kind of baffled by the talk of the photos and who's in the middle of what photo? And who are we featuring like you have Terry Hatcher on the show. But anyway, wow, but anyway. 00:10:03 Speaker 2: See, there's a lot there that I'm sure people want to hear about, and I don't know if I want to talk about it or. 00:10:09 Speaker 5: Not make you uncomfortable, But Joy, I always joke with Terry that as the you know kid coming onto the show. I knew her at that point from radio shack commercials. 00:10:19 Speaker 3: Oh my god. 00:10:21 Speaker 5: So I was like, my mom's the RadioShack lady. 00:10:24 Speaker 4: It's a little different. I also was like,

gosh, she's so beautiful. 00:10:28 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was nothing to do with any of the other actors or actresses, because all of them, of course blew up and we're all brilliant. I mean, you as you've talked about, but when I got to the show, you had been you know, all't it's your resume, but I knew who you were, was very aware of who you were and was really I mean, that was the attraction to me because I was so tired of being on failed ABC projects that when they came to me for the test, I said no. I was like, you know what, there was five years in a row of ABC failures and I just thought, you know, it's not I'm going to do something else. And luckily my manager is like, this pilot's pretty good. It was really, And then I heard that they were out to you. That's what was. 00:11:05 Speaker 5: Hearing that she might be attack made a big difference. Wow, Wow, that's cool. 00:11:09 Speaker 2: Well, I I just also think it's it's it's like chemistry is a thing that you just kind of can't make up. And I mean good actors can obviously. You know, I've definitely worked with people that I don't necessarily even like, you know, like like but but but you you can do that. But then the bonus is when you just have that natural ease and chemistry and then also when you come to care about a person like off screen and who they are and their family and whatever. And I'm just I so treasure the eight years of your support and that relationship that we had, I mean me too. It was priceless. 00:11:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it was important. I think I think get Red You're right, you can act chemistry. I mean I was. I was with other women on that show too besides you, and all the craziness and the chemistry was you know, no offense to anyone with us was just completely different. And but we you know, we had a way of working. I think that helped. And also, you know, you caught a lot of incoming on that show, I mean from the press from I felt very much a responsibility to protect you from that kind of crap from some of the vibes. You know, again, this is not about anybody except to you. It's not about other people, but you know what I'm saying, there's a lot of tension around that show. It blew up so big, and you were sort of at a target on your back because you were the biggest celebrity, and so I felt and I think that helped that. I felt that sort of protectiveness of view and it made us a little tighter and then it worked. In the scenes. We talked about how the fact that you would sometimes grab my arm. Yeah, I grab a hand before and I've never done that with anyone else. 00:12:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is something I think you're doing it right now. 00:12:55 Speaker 3: Yes, I think. 00:12:57 Speaker 2: Fans would want to know this. Like sometimes when you're doing a scene and it could be an emotional scene, like I like you could maybe the scene brings you to a point of tears or whatever, like there is something about me as an actor. So this is like my process that

in either either. So when you shoot a scene, you shoot it from a lot of different angles. Sometimes the coverage of it takes a couple of hours, and you know, you'll sometimes hear actors say, like, you know, don't give it your one hundred percent unless it's your close up like that, Like you don't want to waste it. You don't want the idea, you don't waste it. I never could do that. I never could be purposefully any less than what I felt the scene called for, Like I couldn't reserve something with like a consciousness only waiting until the closeup was on me to really like give it my all. It's not how I approach it, which is probably not great because you end up like doing it in dancing terms, you're doing it full out every time. 00:14:01 Speaker 3: But the product is. 00:14:02 Speaker 2: Better, right maybe, but but so over like a long time. When you're shooting a scene like that, sometimes you stay in it. Like if it's a short setup, if they're only going to take five minutes to move the camera around, sometimes you're going to stay in that whatever that emotional space is. But if they have to rig the whole camera around and it's you're going to go to lunch in your trailer and then you're gonna have to come back, obviously, you're gonna have to let yourself come out of that space. And one of the tricks that I always had with Jamie not Dame's Damie want was that I would just like reach over and I would just hold his arm and I and I said to you consciously, I'm going to do this thing where I'm going to hold your arm and it's going to help me ground into where I need to be. Is that okay? And you would be like yes, and and it really did like it's a it's I'm a touch person, right, It. 00:14:52 Speaker 5: Was an actual physical touch point for you to help say. 00:14:55 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:14:56 Speaker 3: In the beginning, I remember, Oh, there's nice of you just ask before you. I mean, of course, after a couple of years. 00:15:02 Speaker 2: I've just touched you anywhere. 00:15:03 Speaker 3: Yeah. I just was waiting for it. But I remember you saying, they go, oh, that's kind of cool. I get it. Sure whatever you yeah, whatever you need to do, and then sure enough, depending on the scene. I remember one specifically. I think it was that night we had that we did the big car wreck where Neil McDonald's trying to kill us in them and then with him Jay and you did it, and it was almost like electricity. You grabbed my arm and it almost made me cry. It was like there was something about it. Because so many actors will just stay on their phone or duck yak yah yack okay, action and maybe even just keep talking through action until they decide to turn and do the scene. And what was great about working with you was it's more of a sort of a theater approach and more of a methody, but you just stay in it, stay in it, and it gets better. And you would do that sometimes and it would really I mean I would feel it and it would change, It would really change the dynamics. 00:15:59 Speaker 5: Said something that it actually is on my list of questions for you, which is that you had mentioned that you felt kind of protective of Terry, you felt, you know, and I relate to that as someone who has just loved her for so long and worked so closely and felt so much gratitude around getting to work with her. 00:16:16 Speaker 4: And I was wondering, if. 00:16:17 Speaker 5: You remember early on, I don't remember what season it was, I don't remember how early on. 00:16:22 Speaker 4: But it was pretty early days. 00:16:24 Speaker 5: Terry had come to set and she had somehow read something not so nice about herself on the internet and shared that with us, and in an effort to protect her make her feel less alone, less targeted, or just better in general, you and I then went and read some bad things. 00:16:45 Speaker 4: About ourselves on the internet. 00:16:46 Speaker 3: Do you remember this? 00:16:47 Speaker 2: Oh? 00:16:47 Speaker 3: Yes, okay, okay, So I would and I would float. Yeah, it was all about. 00:16:54 Speaker 4: My looks, by the way, which for a thirteen so rough. 00:16:58 Speaker 3: I it was all about cifically and I won't repeat it. The one that you read. Yeah, yeah, I know this too. 00:17:04 Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, let's just say it was politically incorrect. 00:17:08 Speaker 5: But yeah I was commenting and well, yeah it was but commenting on my looks for me. 00:17:14 Speaker 3: We did, we did. 00:17:15 Speaker 2: It reminds me of Jimmy Kimmel's like reading mean tweets about yourself totally like, yeah, we're actually the og on that you were reading things to make me feel better. Yeah. 00:17:27 Speaker 3: The worst thing was we didn't have to dig far is. 00:17:34 Speaker 5: But it also just made me feel so much love for you that both of us had that we wanted to kind of dive in and be supportive in that way, but that you were so I don't know, able to laugh at yourself and what might be negative out there about you. 00:17:50 Speaker 4: And we had a good time with it. 00:17:52 Speaker 3: Yeah, we did. I remember one other time that you came to base camp in tears and I was like, get in my car and I'm gonna get to it. But I remember just grabbing you and I didn't know what happens. Something happened and you were sobbing and I started like crying. I was like, you know, it's okay. And then I tried to figure out that you went home, and I found out later it was you know, things happened. 00:18:08 Speaker 4: Yeah, but I. 00:18:09 Speaker 3: Remember that feeling that way about you too, because we were really kind of a family. 00:18:12 Speaker 2: I know that story or not really and you know. 00:18:15 Speaker 4: What, we'll get there, it'll come up back in the story. 00:18:19 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:18:20 Speaker 1: Later we were a little family, which was great, but I felt watching the little family from when I would visit set, and. 00:18:29 Speaker 3: You know, kids are so perceptive. 00:18:30 Speaker 1: I was

obviously seven when the show started, and you know, sixteen ish by the time it ended. But I think growing up and I don't know you that well really. I mean, we ran into each other last night, which is so kiss me before we did this, and I was like, oh, it's me. 00:18:44 Speaker 3: H, it's ever sent. 00:18:46 Speaker 1: But I have always felt towards you, or any stories about you, this incredible feeling of like, oh, yeah, Jamie is the guy that's like really really like holds it together with my mom and with Andrea, and like, I feel like your presence in my perception of the family I grew up in even though I wasn't actually on set all that often, just from the times I visited or even I remember visiting like the band from TV rehearsal spaces and laying on the ground while you and my mom were rehearsing, and just you carry an incredible grounding energy that I really value and value that you've brought to my mom. 00:19:25 Speaker 3: Well, that's really sweet. I appreciate it. And I felt like that was sort of part of what I could bring to that crazy set. Was it you and I Because then we spent some time in your trailer just talking about all of the like like shutting out the noise and doing the work and that kind of stuff, and so it's that was a it was quite a run, but that was part of the What I enjoyed the most, I think was the fact that we were really a team. I mean, it was your show. You were you know, I've joked before it wasn't called desperate plumber. I mean, it was not about I was a passenger on the train, but it was. It made me feel a little more valuable. But it felt like I that we kind of we kind of pulled each other through some of that junk together. 00:20:05 Speaker 2: Well, it brings me to a couple of things. One thing that we have noticed in rewatching, certainly the first season, which is where we still are in, is how important the men are in the show, and that we feel they didn't get their due at the time because all the press was around Housewives. You all were so great, and to that end, I'm wondering if you how much did you know about the journey of Mike, how much of it continued to be written like basically in real time and you sort of bobbed and weaved, like did you know you were arrested for drugs? So all of these neither yeah, er, So all of these things like popped up as it was going along. 00:20:51 Speaker 3: And I've heard you talk about that how you just have to sort of do the most rep you can and know as much as you can and be ready to kind of roll with that because you know, we get pages the morning off at the end. So all of that stuff in Delphino's background, I just knew there was a lot of shady stuff. They kept assuring me that he's not a bad guy, and that helped. 00:21:09 Speaker 2: That was kind of always at the base. 00:21:10 Speaker 3: They'd tell you that he's not a bad guy. He saw all the stuff about the murders, and you find out there was a good motive. There's a reason that he killed the person. And so it was always an explanation for why Delphino did something that seemed shady. So I had that to kind of hang on too, that my motives were never nefarious. But other than that, I didn't know a whole lot. But speaking of the Men, I'm gonna say this because I've said it before, and I heard Doug Savant's episode and the men not being appreciated the fact that Doug Savant didn't win an Emmy or a Golden Globe or something for that show. They shouldn't even give him out. He was brilliant in a couple of those seasons. And I heard you. I was so glad you pointed it out, because he was always underappreciated because it wasn't a regular it was a guest star, and he was underpaid. And then he slowly they brought him along. But the stuff he was asked to do I thought was tougher. I mean, I was just me. I had to pick up truck and a doll. 00:22:00 Speaker 2: Again. 00:22:00 Speaker 3: I'll fix things, I just do it at home because I know Doug's been on the show and I told him that and he just blushed and laughed. But it's true. I thought he and Ricardo was fantastic too, But Tom Scavo was a fantastic character, and I thought he killed it. 00:22:13 Speaker 2: I think it was a very underrated character because it was so tricky, because he could have just been such a jerk, and he found some sort of I don't know, loving vulnerability layered thing. 00:22:31 Speaker 5: But talk about not aging well, because apparently there's a lot of hate for him on TikTok. 00:22:38 Speaker 3: And not for Eva for making her daughter run behind the car. I think he is interesting. 00:22:41 Speaker 5: We have issues with Gaddy and Gallas, the storyline in the first season a lot, and John the Gardner, obviously I. 00:22:47 Speaker 1: Have a question speaking of I mean, obviously Mike's like grounded character, the fact that you always knew that you were a good guy. There's obviously more serious undertones, but I feel like Mike and Susan how a lot of incredible physical comedy together as well. I mean, I'm thinking about even the scene when Susan falls through the floor in the first season and yeah, Mike comes up the stairs and like, do you have any fun favorite moments from how much physical comedy the two of you ended up getting into together over the season summer. 00:23:21 Speaker 3: There was so much and that was a great one, being stuck in the floor, and then of course when you were naked blocked outside in the bushes, because that was. 00:23:28 Speaker 2: Early days, it was very absolute. 00:23:31 Speaker 3: Yeah, what was filming that seemed like, well, you know exactly. I heard you guys talk about it when when you watched it, and it was you know, it's one of those days where you know, I think, oh, we're girl, it's gonna be a tough day because you're out there naked all day and you had a little bit of tape on and you were like, yo, let's you know, I don't want to look fake. So you had it as little as possible and you didn't tell the crew like here it is everybody, and luckily, luckily

had a great crew and they pretended not to stare at you all day. But then I had the scene where you fall in the bushes and I have to walk by and really tend not to look at you and go, oh, so you're fell in the bushes. A little look down at you and you cross your legs. But then later it sets up my favorite scene in the entire eight years, which is when I walk you home that night after the dinner a breeze and I say, by the way, I wasn't that much of a gentleman. You got blushed and I started to walk away, and I said, for what it's worth. 00:24:20 Speaker 2: Wow. 00:24:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's my favorite scene in the entire series, just because it was set up and it was so true, and it was like and shooting that had been so much fun, and like you say, it's really an iconic scene. I think, probably maybe the most in the series. 00:24:36 Speaker 2: Okay, well, I might challenge you and jump all the way to the end with the other iconic scene and surprising scene and horrible scene in my opinion, which was Mike's death. So tell us about what you knew about that, how that came up for you, and what you remember about shooting it. 00:24:58 Speaker 3: No, I've told the story about shooting it a lot, well, but two reporters at the time, And I think, but fun fact that hear you talk about always God, that's your that's your necklace, mom, those are your clothes. I had these boots on when my Golfino was killed. He was killed in these boots oh wow. In fact, they still had they had some of Dougie's sticky black stuff on him. Yeah, sound and you could see it when the crane pulled back on lying their dead you could see the sound pads on my boot, I know, but nobody knew what that was except me. They called me in when they decided to do it, which they didn't need to do, which I thought was really sweet, and Mark said, look, we need to do something huge with four or five to go before the finale. Everybody knows the finale will be big. We want to blow people away with about five to go, and we think we might. We want to kill Delfino. And of course they had decided. He wasn't asking my permission, but he framed it that way, which I thought was very respectful and very nice. And it really was great for me at the time because I was all shows produced, so I got paid anyway, and the next one was my funeral, and then at the end it was as a ghost. So technically getting killed is always fun because of the special effects. You know, you have one electric wire up one leg and a tube of blood up the other leg, and you had literally a charge of dynamite which blasts you against the door in the play, so it's fun as a guy to get killed. So all those things, I thought, no, this is fine. I got to go do Ellen and the View and Lenno and all the talk shows. And because Delfino got this big sind Off and all the other guys just faded away into boredom. That was my first and that was my first instinct when I heard they were going to do it, I had no reluctance whatsoever. I thought, this'll

be cool. I didn't think about what it did to Susan and what it did to the viewers, and pretty quickly I learned, you know, the problem with it is the obvious one. Then when those people drive when they drive away, you guys drive away in the moving van from Asteria Lane, where Susan going? And why doesn't Susan get to be happy? And people care? Now that I've watched shows and gotten more attached to him, like you kind of it's silly, but you think about what happened to him afterwards. 00:26:59 Speaker 2: With singularly my one reason why there's no reboot. I mean, I'm there are a million reasons why there hasn't been a reboot, but it would be the reason that I I don't know what Susan's what? What? What would anybody want to see? Like maybe Susan wouldn't be in the reboot. Here's the thing. No fans would want to see Susan now with a new love of her life, right, No, nobody wants to see that. So nobody really wants to see Susan just old and decrepit with older children. Nobody wants to see that. Like is Susan and Nun somewhere like doing charity? Like I mean, nobody wants to see it. 00:27:46 Speaker 5: We floated the idea of Susan and Eadie developing a romantic relationship. 00:27:50 Speaker 2: That's that's a different show. That Susan and Eadie are both single and have had whack a doodle lives and they hated each other, but now they have to live together, and so what happens when they do. I think there's a show in that for sure. If anyone's listening, I have to say. 00:28:06 Speaker 1: I have to jump back to Mike's death because I remember very distinctly the day that you shot that scene. Oh wow, okay, and I you know, was a teenager then I was like sixteen, So memories more formed, and I remember you coming home at the end of the day and you were I'm going to tear up. 00:28:29 Speaker 3: You were wrecked. 00:28:32 Speaker 1: And I remember you trying to explain to me what that feeling is like, and you said, you know, I know, I can know in my mind, like this is fake and I'm an actor and I am in a scene, but your body doesn't know. And you were like, and I just spent eight hours in my body feeling like the love of my life was dying. And it really I think about that now, even as like a or and a director, when you think about the positions you put your actors in, having not to say you don't do that. You know, it's a great that you don't have great storylines and great tragedies, but that you're asking humans to go to this place in their bodies and then live there. And I just, I really, actually distinctly remember the day that you shot that death scene and how hard that was. 00:29:25 Speaker 3: I believe that she was like that when she came home, because that's when I realized shooting it is that we knew for a while, they told me weeks before, but then shooting it, I realized, oh, because it was so heartbreaking. And I've said this before too. You were so watching and you had to do it over and over and over in the crane pulling back and you are lying

in your lap and bleeding out and you just sobbing uncontrollably, and I remember lying there thinking this sucked. No, like this sucks because this is like, this is real to people. To viewers, you know, would thought like, oh, fun like theater before, and I thought about the logistics and the money and the talk shows and the exit. And then I'm lying there in your lap and you are sobbing uncontrollably and it was so heartbreaking, and I was like, oh, and. 00:30:12 Speaker 4: I think you're right. 00:30:13 Speaker 5: I think a lot of people feel like why did that have to happen to Susan? 00:30:21 Speaker 4: You know, like, why why did it go? 00:30:24 Speaker 3: Yeah? Right, I know it was weird. I know it wasn't I mean, I assume it wasn't meant to be right, but it sure felt like you were sending her character to a real unhappiness, and you know, she had you had to do Gray Scott and the other Gail. You had different boyfriends and stuff, and people loved it because you're funny and they were you know, get to fish you out of the get you, fish you out of the pond, do Gray? But so you could have had another boyfriend. 00:30:47 Speaker 2: But you know, I have completely blocked all of that out, like you, it will be really interesting to as we go further into the episodes to see that come to life. I have blocked all of this out. Wow, Like I only live within the memory of Susan and Mike, and so the other thing I've blocked out. Tell me about this, how this was you had you almost married Catherine? 00:31:12 Speaker 4: I know, yeah, I don't remember. 00:31:14 Speaker 5: And then we did remember, and then we were like, wait, that was a full season or something. 00:31:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, you story. You know what happened there when we did the brilliant time jump, which I guess in retrospect was a good move to reset everything. Wasn't a good move for me, I'll tell you that much. 00:31:31 Speaker 4: Maybe for you guys. 00:31:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, well I remember the time. I hated it, and I guess you know, they were sort of stuck maybe, but we you find out, of course they wanted and also it gave them we weren't the main storyline, but it gave them a chance to take get us apart and then put us back together and one of the I think it was Larry shaw I'm also still in touch with the director. It was one of our direct full time directors. We love Larry, we do, which why his takes. I love David Grossman, but shout out to Larry Shawton. Yeah, well there were so many. I mean, we had great directors. 00:31:58 Speaker 2: We did. 00:31:58 Speaker 3: But we talked about that too, that they just, you know, they put us together and then now what do we do? And it gave them a chance to break us up and start us over. So what happened was we broke up and found out we'd been in that horrible wreck and those people had died, and as it often does, that broke us up. And so when we come back from the time jump, we're divorced and Catherine has come to the town and we I don't remember where we met, but we're talking about bad dates and we ended up hitting it off. And so yeah, and I'm the same way with you, and I think of the show, it's my consusan. It was almost a season with Dana, who was wonderful by the way, and was fantastic, but it ended, if you remember, with her getting me to hand her a knife in my kitchen. And I pick up the knife. Am I spoiling here? No? No, no, people have seen it. And so I pick up the knife and give it to her and she stabs herself with it with my fingerprints on it, and calls the cops to send me to jail, to frame me for trying to kill her, and I'm like, what up? So I grab her and I pull the knife out and I'm holding a knife and then she's calling the cops and it was really intense. So I went to jail. 00:33:02 Speaker 2: All because I showed that I wasn't in. 00:33:06 Speaker 3: Because I told her I was. I told her I was in love with you. I said no, you know, I realized it's because we kept seeing each other. And I said, I'm still in love with Susan. And so that's how she ended it was to try to get me, and she succeeded in sending me to jail, framing me for her own. 00:33:20 Speaker 2: Well, I told you pretty good story. 00:33:24 Speaker 3: There's also a scene with Dana that we did completely naked. 00:33:28 Speaker 4: You weird. 00:33:29 Speaker 3: We were all we were busted on a security camera and Breeze TV kitchen. Remember she had the kitchen where she was like doing a clicking show or something and she had cameras in there, and Catherine and I were at Bree's house and we ended up like having sex in the kitchen. It was on a black and white camera. It was like that. We never got to do that. 00:33:46 Speaker 2: We got robbed. 00:33:46 Speaker 3: I know. We did. 00:33:49 Speaker 1: Some pretty other sexy scenes. I must say, when they first sleep together. That is a sexy scene a white camera, but it. 00:33:56 Speaker 2: Was when missus simultaneously being murdered. Yes. Yeah. 00:34:00 Speaker 3: The other one was like on grainy security camp. So it wasn't really saying, but I was remembering this as we're talking about it, because you're right, it kind of comes back to you because I forgot that season completely when mc donna was. 00:34:11 Speaker 2: Honestly don't even remember. I mean I do remember being out in the woods. 00:34:15 Speaker 3: Neil thinks that you you killed his wife in the car wreck, so he's trying to kill get me back by killing you, okay, and that's why he sets us up and we have a big car crash. 00:34:25 Speaker 5: So much happens on the sho Jimmy, I'm amazed at your memory recall because Terry and I are constantly telling each other like, don't know, don't remember this, don't remember that. 00:34:33 Speaker 3: It was all. Since I decided to do this, I thought I've got to refresh myself a little bit, and so I thought, okay, what was the story with Dana? Went back and then the story with Nicolette where Edie convinces me that Susan's bitch and she's been mean to you. And you know

you were with me when you had the accident. 00:34:48 Speaker 2: So when you're like in a colmab, I wake up. 00:34:50 Speaker 3: And she's the first one there and she convinces me. This tells me this whole story. So when you come in, I'm like, oh, you were mean to me and I'm with Eatie now and You're like, what right? Yeah? 00:35:06 Speaker 4: Can we go back? 00:35:07 Speaker 5: Because I'm now I'm just I'm so invested in learning a little bit more about this call sheet situation. 00:35:13 Speaker 3: I'm invested to yeah can you Yeah. 00:35:16 Speaker 5: So you teased that there was some issues around the number five on the call sheet thing, Well. 00:35:20 Speaker 3: It tells you a little bit about and this sounds like kind of self aggrandizing, is not at all. I actually came up in court when I was on the witness stand. 00:35:27 Speaker 2: Can you we need to hear? Is this is this? Though? When Nikola, Nichola Ry and I got called her allegedly hitting allegedly hitting her. 00:35:35 Speaker 3: Okay, so Edie sued march Cherry, which everyone knows, saying that he hit her like demonstrating a scene. And so I got called to testify because I worked that day, I didn't see it happened, but I was on set. I was the only actor that got called, and I found on later. I didn't have to go, but you know, Disney has been good to me. I've been working for them for thirteen years at that point. And then their attorney asked me to go and just say what happened. I was like, I'll do that. Didn't. Nicholette was not happy with me, and I understand that from her perspective, but so that was really hard to be on the stand and have Mark Cherrie at one table in front of me and Nicolete at the other table and then both just glaring at me. What are you going to say? But what happened was they claimed that Nicolette's death was unusual because nobody's ever killed anybody that high on a call sheet before that. She was not some you know, she was number six on the call sheet. Nobody ever kills those characters. There are other, you know, tertiary characters and that never ever happens. And George Perkins took the stand and said, well, it's Sunday night, Mike Gelfino dies and he's number five, And that's how people found out that I was dying on the show Friday before it aired on Sunday. 00:36:38 Speaker 2: Wow. 00:36:38 Speaker 3: George Perkins was on the stand and he had to say, that's that's not true because Michaelfino's number five and he diesed after tomorrow. 00:36:47 Speaker 2: Wow. 00:36:48 Speaker 3: So that was a bummer And luckily not a lot of people saw it. It was in there. They put it on the next day on Saturday, so it did come out. But that was how it came up that I was number five on the call sheet because it was the four women, and then Delfino was the next guy because they weren't sure. They knew I was going to be your love interest, but they weren't positive that you and I were going to get together and stay together. I was just going to be this mysterious guy, the one single guy. So it was the great It was the best role, I mean, aside from working with you, And that's why I was number five. Then Nicolette was six and Steve Cope with seven and Ricardo's eight. But anyway, so that was it became an issue in court. Wow, right, weird. 00:37:26 Speaker 5: I'm just thinking, imagine if social media had been what it is now today, like that it ran in the La Times and then that's that, but like it would have been everywhere and spoiled that huge. 00:37:35 Speaker 3: Somehow, there were not completely no, there were a lot of people that and some people didn't believe it, but it was still hinted at it. 00:37:44 Speaker 1: But I mean, in a way, I feel like some people and he dies tomorrow night, like as a big headline to tune it. 00:37:50 Speaker 3: That's the thing. I know, it really is so but George didn't really have a choice, didn't think and you know he's on the nicest guy. George Perkins is one of our producers. Yeah, but yeah, that's how that laid out. So it seems like forever ago. Yeah, you escaped that you didn't have to. I was the only actor that had to go in there. 00:38:06 Speaker 4: Yeah, I didn't know any of the actors went in. Wow. 00:38:09 Speaker 2: I just I could say, and I just like, I don't know if we should go there or not. 00:38:14 Speaker 4: I know, I know it's hard. 00:38:16 Speaker 3: That's one thing I've noticed listening to you guys, is how I mean. We weren't all best friends by any means. Everybody's impossible in a cast that big, but you're so respectful to everybody. If you didn't like all of these people very much, I would never know it. And you hear all the bs you know about what happened behind the scenes, but well talented people, I don't not. 00:38:37 Speaker 2: I don't not like anybody, and I have never seen no one has ever heard me say anything negative about any of them, because I haven't because it's not who I am, and it's also not what I do. 00:38:50 Speaker 3: In the same way, I have great memories and experiences with with everybody, particularly the women. They're all brilliant, which is why the show was listening. 00:38:56 Speaker 2: I mean, they were all and that's what we keep saying. I mean, especially like these guys joke with me all the time about being obsessed with Marshall so good. 00:39:05 Speaker 3: Yeah, I oh my god, Yeah, it's true. 00:39:08 Speaker 5: And as we're rewatching, Terry and I are sharing, obviously the memories that we have behind the scenes, and we're so enjoying getting to hear Emerson's take on it as a writer and a director. And we don't talk as much about the the other dynamics around the show because honestly, for one, there's so many different perspectives and we can't speak for other people's perspective. We can share our own stories and our own personal feelings and when there were good days and bad days and things like that. 00:39:34 Speaker 4: But we do so love watching how good everyone is. 00:39:39 Speaker 5: I mean, and there is

so much to comment on when it comes to that, because we were so lucky, the three of us to have been on this show. 00:39:45 Speaker 4: You two more than me and then me and this you know, as a thirteen to twenty two year old, like, we were so lucky to be on a show this great. And and yeah, I just it's so nice to have you here and get to hear all of your experiences and just yeah, I guess I just also want to knowledge how great you are. 00:40:03 Speaker 2: And you don't have any like specific memories of scenes with the three of us, like the walking in the wood. 00:40:09 Speaker 3: Well, I want to say before we leave that topic, Yeah, I will go I do, but in defense of all of the women, And I say that because you guys were in the spotlight that you had and Nicola included not in Vanessa and Dana so much because they were later in the beginning, it was clear this was a monster hit. It was the number one show in the world I think in O five, o six, and we were all none of us were kids, you know, and I think everyone felt a pressure to capitalize on it and make the most of it, and every press avail and every photo shoot and every magazine mattered. And so I think when people and people snipe at the women and they do withing like oh tell me what the cat fights? How was I'm like, you know, these were five brilliant actresses who were really kind of in the role of their lifetimes, and they needed to not let it slip by, and so you had you had to be really aware of all of those things, which I think kind of fed some of the misinformation and in faux competition and that bs. 00:41:06 Speaker 2: All I know though, is I mean, I don't know that I did approach it that way because I was the only one without a personal publicist, I know, So that that should tell you right there that I actually was the only one not going let me get the cover of the magazine, let me get the whatever, because I was the one going, you know, I just still want to do the game. I'm just not going to do a personal publicist. I don't want to. I don't want to be more get more than anybody else. Like if I had the agenda of being like wanting to be the one or whatever I had, the first thing I would have done was hire the most kick ass publicist in Los Angeles. And I went the other way. 00:41:50 Speaker 5: What does that say, I mean, you stand by that now in retrospect, do you think, yeah, Oh, I thought. 00:41:55 Speaker 2: It was a mistake because I think I got hammered. I think I think what I didn't realize is that by taking my voice out of it, I let everyone else's voice just narrate the whole thing and I had nobody narrating my story because I chose not to. But I got pretty creamed by that, I think. But you know, again brings you back to you look in the mirror. You know who you are, You have people that you know, plenty of people that were there that validate the truth, and you know, I still just I still I just I just love the fact that we all got to do the show, and I love how good everybody

was in it, and I love that I was a part of it, and am I sad that like it wasn't just like some flawless love fest or whatever, like, yeah, that would be better, I guess. But like I said, there were so many things at play, most of which none of us had anything to do with. A primary thing for me that doesn't get counted really at all is that I was the only single mom at the time, you know, who had custody issues that were at play. That was a big priority to me. Maybe that's why I didn't get a publicist, because I just wanted to go to work, be a good actor, be the best Susan, and then go home and be the best mom. 00:43:38 Speaker 4: Well that you achieved. 00:43:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's all I really cared about. Yeah, you know. Yeah, but you know, I go back to wishing everybody well, and I really really mean that. You know, every time I see anybody have any like positive thing, I'm happy for them. Yeah. Yeah, what are you? 00:44:00 Speaker 1: What are you working on now? Are you working on anything that you want to tell? 00:44:03 Speaker 3: Music? I do, yeah, not as much. 00:44:06 Speaker 2: You know. 00:44:06 Speaker 3: The band kind of went away, but that's because we were all on TV shows. There were head shows, and then we all kind of scattered. 00:44:11 Speaker 2: Wait a second, were we not all four of us, not just all three of us, all four of us. Were we not singing a song on West Suria Lane with the band from TV? 00:44:20 Speaker 3: We were the finale party. 00:44:22 Speaker 2: We were wasn't it that song? That country Western Martina McBride? Yes, yes, what is that song? 00:44:30 Speaker 4: Oh God, it's. 00:44:31 Speaker 5: About three generomen and that's why we picked it. Yes, we each took a verse and there's some adorable This one's for the girls had a broken. 00:44:44 Speaker 2: Yes, you had a broken hats. 00:44:48 Speaker 3: That's a whole We'll have to have you back for to talk about the whole. Other podcast it's on American Idol. And you had one hundred and four degree fever. 00:44:55 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's that too. 00:44:56 Speaker 3: So we had a lot of those stories. 00:44:58 Speaker 5: And and then because you know we're gonna we're gonna wrap everything up, and we'd ask you if you had any specific standout memories or moments from I think Terry. 00:45:07 Speaker 4: Were you asking about the three of us or some sort of yeah. 00:45:10 Speaker 2: Or any like your favorite scene in the whole? I mean you talked about loving the death scene because of the squibs. 00:45:16 Speaker 3: No, no, I think one of the best, the most memorable scenes for me of us was the wedding in the woods because it was just us, right, you know, we decided we had a great engagement scene where we brought the trailer, remember, brought the trailer used to live in and set it up in your yard. I did to ask you to marry me again, and then we said to get married in the woods with just I think you just the three of us and minister right, And of course it was two

am, which it always is. Yeah, but you were I remember it was just us there getting married and was really sweet. I think that's so sweet. 00:45:43 Speaker 4: I remember that. 00:45:44 Speaker 2: I can see that picture like it was taking me too. Yeah, there's a close the three of. 00:45:49 Speaker 3: Us floating lanterns in the trees and stuff. 00:45:51 Speaker 4: Fair romantic. Yeah, I remember that too. 00:45:53 Speaker 2: I want to talk about your Christmas movie. You've done a lot on Hallmark, and Hallmark is a great second home for you. 00:46:00 Speaker 3: And you know I went straight there when as soon as Housewives and we want to get the kids out of La so we moved to Minnesota, where their mom's family's from, and immediately Hallmark came to me and asked me to do a series in Toronto, which was right around the corner an hour and a half flight, they said I can go home every weekend, and so I got on the series called Goodwitch and was there for seven years. 00:46:17 Speaker 2: From Desperate Housewives for seven years to that for seven years. 00:46:20 Speaker 5: You're the only Housewives alum who did something like that. 00:46:23 Speaker 3: I don't know, but anyway, Hallwork was really good to me. And then I started doing movies and producing movies for them, and one of what's you were kind enough to do? Because which many people? Kissed Before Christmas? What many people have told me that it's they think it's one of the best and there's so many or that it's their favorite Hallmark Christmas movie ever, So that's no small party. 00:46:41 Speaker 2: Well I loved it. Yeah, you should check out it. Kiss I Kissed Before Christmas. I loved it too, because it was like the only nod of Susan and Mike getting back together that we could be in control of for the fans. So, even though we were playing totally different characters and a totally different story for the fans, I felt like it was Susan and Mike getting back together. No, And so you have a Christmas movie. 00:47:02 Speaker 3: It's called Grand ol Opy Christmas. Brad Paisley's in it. Sings in it, and it's you know, it's the only one I did. I've done a number of them, but I've been knocking around there for a while. But on that same note, I want to say, and I'm going to say this earlier about working with you, and I know this is roundabout way. When I was on Goodwitch, I had a son, and I worked with a couple of more young people, and I learned from you at the beginning of talking about being a professional, about not bringing sides to set, and you would never bring your side. You came to set memorized, and I never seen that before. And I'd been around a while and there was like you just because you were ready. I thought, that's great because you have so much more time to rehearse. And I've passed that along and I've told every person that I learned it from you. So the kid on Goodwitch is his first job ever and now he no longer he comes to set memorized because of Terry Atcher. So anyway, that's one like that's a legacy that lives on. 00:47:49 Speaker 2: For well, that's a very good legacy. I do love that as a work ethic habit, mostly because you know, it allows you to have your hands free and your mind free to focus on the actual fun of it, which is, you know, the physicality of bringing the scene to life and off the page. But I do understand that in television, especially on shows that we've worked on, sometimes you literally are hand in the script. I should walk onto the set, so there's no chance you can do that, but if you can, you should do it. And I do try to approach my work and. 00:48:19 Speaker 3: I don't judge people to do it because everybody has their own process. You have Richard Bergie who brings him to set and tapes them around the sets so you can read them. So he brings him to set while we're shooting again. But Bergie knows that cracked me up when we did that before. But when we have the scene in the doorway where he had taped his sides all around the doorframe so he would look around while he was talking and he was just reading off the brilliant and it was brilliant. It was hilarious. You never would have known, like you, sucker, I'm memorizing my lines and you're just brando like taping them everywhere but anywhere. So you were more professional, I know, giving your editor fits where he's going to put this stuff in. 00:48:56 Speaker 2: It's too much life. Mike is too big of are it has just one to have. 00:49:02 Speaker 3: Desperately devoted to Jamie Part two. Yes, when you get down the road because you're in season one now. Yes, happy to come. 00:49:10 Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much. Like always, we are desperately. 00:49:16 Speaker 2: Jamie. We're desperately devoted to James down. Thank you for being here, thank you for eight years of fabulous work, and thank you for your friendship. And don't please