Jesse Metcalfe, who played teenage gardener John Rowland in Desperate Housewives, has said he was “oblivious” to the apparent feuds simmering behind the scenes of the hit US show.
Speaking at a panel at the Southfork Experience last week, Metcalfe recalled his time on the series, which ran for eight seasons and was plagued by persistent rumours of tension among its leading female cast members – Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Nicollette Sheridan.
Metcalfe, whose character had an affair with Longoria’s Gabrielle Solis, said he was simply thrilled to be working. “I was just happy to have a job,” he said, noting that he had failed to book anything during pilot season before testing for Desperate Housewives, which was a recast. He added that he was “very grateful” to be a series regular in the first season and to reprise the role later. “I was just kind of riding the wave,” he said. “There's a lot of stories about all the drama on that set between some of our lead females. And I was like, I was oblivious to it, basically.”
The show’s biggest star at its outset, Hatcher previously denied claims of difficult behaviour on set after her co-stars Cross, Longoria and Huffman reportedly sent the crew a farewell gift without involving her. In a 2013 interview with The Daily Mail, she insisted: “That crew knows I’d have jumped in front of a bus for them at any moment.”
Meanwhile, Sheridan filed a lawsuit against Disney, ABC, production studio Touchstone and show creator Marc Cherry after her character Edie Britt was killed off in 2009. She alleged that Cherry struck her on the head following a disagreement and wrote her out after she complained, claiming wrongful termination. A judge threw out the case in 2017, and an appeal was also dismissed on the grounds that her contract was simply not renewed.
A reboot called Wisteria Lane is in development from Kerry Washington’s production company, described as a “fun, sexy, darkly comedic soap/mystery” about five friends and “frenemies” living on a cul-de-sac. Metcalfe said he was unsure whether the original cast would be involved, telling the panel: “I don't know if they're going to use any of the original cast.”
