Now, as you said, she’s pretty vulnerable because she just spent some time in the loony bin, and she has caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people. How do you think the other characters are going to react?
Oh, God, I’m sure they’ll each have their individual reactions. It’ll be very interesting. I can’t wait to see what the writers come up with because I’m sure they’ll have some twists ... the one woman you’d think would have a problem with it won’t. That kind of thing.

Who do you think will be the most OK with it?

I think Bree will be.

Really?
Yeah, because her son is gay and I think she’s already gone through that. And I think Bree and Katherine really do love each other, and I think that, even through thick and thin, there’s an affection there. In fact, Marcia [Cross] and I always used to joke that we wish we were the couple.

Now, that would be crazy.
[Laughs]

You were given a lot of really tricky, heavy stuff this season that could have very easily gone too campy, and I thought you did an excellent job of keeping it on the level.

Thank you.

When you started this story line, how did you prepare? Because it had the potential to take Katherine to an irredeemable place she couldn’t be brought back from.
Yeah. I actually just kind of tapped into my own life [laughs]. After a certain amount of romances in our lives, we’ve all been hurt and we’ve all been dumped. I just looked at those and was thinking, What if I just couldn’t let it go? There was something liberating to me about it because, in my own life, I have to sort of rein it in an be proper. But that’s what’s so much fun about Desperate Housewives ... you can kind of push it a little bit. I found it really fun to do and very cathartic. Because there are so many times in my life I wish I could have done that.

Katherine has been telling people that Mike was the love of her life. She’d never felt anything quite like what she felt for him. In bringing on the Julie Benz character, is there anything about this new relationship that will negate what she said about Mike, or is this just another person?
I think it’s just another person. And, you know, who knows if Mike was the love of her life? We always say that, and then if you really look at it, what was that connection? I think as we get older, our ideas of love change. When we’re younger it’s all about a physical connection, and then when you get older, it’s about a deeper respect and trust. I don’t think she and Mike had that.