Keck's Exclusives: Susan Lucci Plays for Laughs
After 41 years as All My Children's Erica Kane, Susan Lucci is (hopefully) heading to prime time. She stars in the ABC pilot Devious Maids, and producers Marc Cherry and Eva Longoria say the comedy will show us the former daytime diva in a new light.
Susan's character, Genevieve Delacourt, is a flamboyant, wealthy woman with a gorgeous son, a flirty teenage maid named Valentina and a serious personality disorder. "When we first see her, she's attempting suicide again," Marc teases. "Of course, we play it for comedic effect. Susan spent her first scenes under a bed clutching a bottle of pills. And she threw herself into this with a total sense of humor about it."
"She's hysterical — so amazing," raves Eva, who thinks Susan "missed her true calling. She's a strong comedic actress and the loveliest person you'd ever meet. Not at all the soap opera diva." Eva should know. Having worked on The Young and the Restless prior to being cast on Desperate Housewives, Eva recalls not everyone being so warm and fuzzy.
Marc is keeping the rest of Devious Maids' sensational story lines secret for now, including the circumstances that lead Genevieve to attempt suicide. But he will say that the new series was filmed "in all these mansions in California, including one that was 35,000 square feet. I kept going into all these mansions thinking, 'Wow. I really need to create another hit series so I can live here.'" With Marc now slumming it in a 7,000-square-foot house, I'm pulling for him to finally catch a break.
