Drea de Matteo Reflects on  ‘Sons of Anarchy’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ Roles - video Dailymotion

Drea de Matteo Reflects on  ‘Sons of Anarchy’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ Roles

Transcript

00:00You know, Sons of Anarchy, were you happy with how Wendy, that ended for Wendy?

00:05Yes, I mean that was a surprise. You know, Sons was always meant to be a cameo on the pilot

00:10and that was it. I knew the producers and it was a friend got me the job and just asked me if I

00:18would do it as a cameo because they didn't have anybody that was recognizable from television on

00:23the show except for Katie. She was the only one, nobody knew anybody. Same thing with Sopranos,

00:28it was really just, it was Lorraine. But then when the show tested, when I said yes to doing

00:36the show, they wanted to keep me. They were like, can she stay? Like, would she actually do the

00:40whole series? And I was like, sure, I would love to. I was like, but what are you gonna,

00:44like who am I gonna be? I know that Jax's girlfriend's already cast and everything

00:49and they tested the show. The show tested through the roof and FX comes back and they're like,

00:55well, we'd like you to stay, but we don't really need you, so we're gonna cut your pay in half.

01:01And I was like, I don't think so. So I went into Desperate Housewives after that and then I was

01:10watching Sons and I was like, I'm fucking obsessed. All my friends are writing me,

01:15Dre, you gotta go back, you gotta go back and shake shit up, you gotta go back. And I was like,

01:19okay. So I wrote Kurt and I go, you want me to come back? I'll do it for nothing.

01:23It wasn't him, it was FX that was strong arming me in the beginning and Kurt was like, whatever,

01:29let's do it. So I came back and it was for very small pay, but I wasn't always in Los Angeles,

01:37I couldn't always show up. Then for the final season, he was like, look, FX is gonna pay you

01:42and you need to be in town for a month. And I was like, okay, I'll do it. He's like,

01:46I wanna end the story with you. And I was like, wow, that's a turn. Everybody hated Wendy,

01:52but okay, she'll redeem herself. Wow. That's amazing. That's incredible.

01:58So I'm the only living SOA character, right? Uh-huh. What was your Desperate Housewives

02:03experience like? We were talking before, you were like the OG housewife at one point.

02:09It was weird because I didn't know what Mark really wanted me to do, Mark Cherry.

02:14I think he might've been disappointed in my kind of acting because the girls were,

02:21this is a funny story. I remember I got Botox on the show.

02:27Eva was like, come on, just go do it. Do it, it's gonna look great. And I come back and I'm like,

02:32Eva, I can't move my fucking face. And she's like, Dre, it looks so good. Just always have it.

02:40It looks amazing. I'm doing a scene with her and I'm looking at her like this.

02:44And I'm like, I can't act. I felt like I was suffocating. I couldn't act. Yes, I think Mark

02:49was sort of like, I didn't fit the mold there very well. And they didn't know what to do with

02:55me if they wanted me to be Italian or not Italian, or then I was a hippie because they were like

03:00kind of basing it a little bit on who I am. So then I became like this hippie with a New York

03:06accent, which is basically me, I guess. So it was a little confusing and they write in the moment

03:13and I couldn't keep up with that. I got very nervous a lot of the time, that fast paced TV

03:18stuff. I was used to cable TV. So ABC, I think it was ABC, was a very different feeling for me.