Felicity Huffman is on the September cover of More magazine and talks about trying on Madonna’s thongs, how she landed the role of Lynette on Desperate Housewives and how she keeps her trim figure.
Huffman made her Broadway debut in 1988 in Speedthe-Plow and replaced Madonna in her role. Once in the dressing room Huffman found a thong buried in the Material Girl’s former dressing room, so she tried it on! “I was like, ‘This is Madonna’s underwear!’ Of course, it didn’t fit me.”
On audition day for the role of Lynette: “I’d just left two screaming kids in the bathtub and it was raining.” (At the time, her two daughters, Sofia Grace, now eight, and Georgia Grace, six, were toddlers.) “I thought I pulled myself together well. Later on, one of the producers said, ‘It was so great, because you were such a mess and so frazzled, and your pants were filthy!’”
Scoring the role of Lynette: “[The producers] said, ‘Tell us about motherhood.’” Huffman said she told them an anecdote about being reduced to tears by a group of women when they asked her, “Don’t you just love being a mother?” and she gave this honest answer: “‘No. It’s really hard, and I’m losing my mind.’ The women pulled back from me as if I’d said ‘I eat babies.’ I felt such shame and remorse and humiliation. And I guess that’s exactly what they wanted for Lynette.”
On success over 40: “If this success had happened when I was younger, I would have been too tortured to appreciate it. Now that I’m older, I can go, ‘God, this is fantastic!’”
Fitness…and muffins?: “I’ve had a lot of trainers through the years, and they’re always like, ‘Oh my god, you ate a muffin?’ and ‘What do you mean you weigh 125? You can’t shoot at that weight.’ [Kirsten Holtgreen is] the first trainer who’s said, ‘You’re not eating enough.’”
