Delany Dishes on ‘Sarcasms’ and ‘Desperate’ Characters

Set in 1979, Brooks Branch’s “Multiple Sarcasms” takes audiences on a familiar journey of a successful architect, Gabriel (portrayed by Timothy Hutton), who is dissatisfied with life. He’s unable to pinpoint what exactly is prompting his midlife crisis, especially since he seems happily married to his patient wife Annie (Dana Delany) with a lovely daughter and great BFF Cari (Mira Sorvino). Oddly, his only satisfaction is derived from hovering over the toilet with a typewriter on his lap, attempting to transform his life experiences into a play (Stockard Channing portrays his literary agent). As expected, issues arise when his wife, best friend and business partner begin to reexamine their own lives and relationships with him.

While seated in an intimate setting with a handful of reporters, the delightful Dana Delany dished about the film – which opens May 7, “Desperate Housewives” (including Nicolette Sheridan’s lawsuit), relationships and what makes her happy.

Q: What did you like about your character Annie and what would you like to change about her?

Dana: I grew up in the 70s, so I love that the whole movie had that 70s Paul Mazursky feeling, because I remember ‘Unmarried Woman’ just had a huge impact on me when I was getting out of college. And what I loved about the movie is a similarity in terms of the way Mazursky’s movies used to go from screaming to laughing and take emotional left turns all the time. So my favorite moment in the movie is when Tim and I are fighting and then I just start laughing and I fought for that, because I thought, ‘this is what we do in life but we don’t see it in movies anymore.’ And what I’d like to change is the ending.

Q: Are these two fixable?

D: Who knows (laughs)? Is anybody? That’s a question larger than me. I’ve had many relationships where I could say, ‘Was that fixable?’

Q: I see her as being jipped, wasting a big part of her life for this guy who spends his time with a female friend, but she’s there for him whenever he wants her to be. Did you feel that she was jipped?

D: No, it’s just life. Sometimes when we feel like we’re jipped, it becomes a huge opportunity but we just don’t see it at the time. I like to think she goes on to have an interesting career and a different kind of relationship.

Q: How was it collaborating with Brooks the director?

D: You don’t know going into it what it would be like and thinking, ‘Wow, he’s never made a movie before,’ but it was so relaxed. What I like about him and why we’ve remained friends is that he’s very collaborative and has a great sense of humor and likes the messiness of life and I do too. He accepts that things are odd and weird and he makes odd choices and goes with it. It’s good. It’s human.

Q: What do you look for in terms of projects, especially since “Desperate Housewives” is such a huge commitment?

D: Whether I can fit it in my schedule (laughs) is the main thing right now. I’m really only going to get two weeks to myself this year. I’m not complaining, it’s fantastic, but my agent keeps saying, ‘I want to find you a movie’ and I keep saying, ‘No, I’m going on vacation. I’m taking two weeks and doing nothing.’

Q: Are you returning to “Desperate Housewives?”

D: I don’t know. I just did a pilot and we’ll find out in a month whether it gets picked up or not. So, it’s up in the air now but I’ll know in a month. I will either have a new show I’ll be starring in, I’ll be back on ‘Desperate Housewives’ or I’ll be out of a job and looking for something else.

Q: Do you have a standing contract with “Desperate”?

D: I have a seven-year contract and I’ve done three of them, so they have the choice of bringing me back, but I don’t have the choice of whether I stay or not.

Q: Your characters in this and “Desperate” are similar but the show and the movie are so drastically different. Yet isn’t this a problem you’d see on the show?

D: Yes, but on ‘Desperate Housewives’ it would be about a woman and not a man having the midlife crisis.

Q: What do you like about Katherine on “Desperate” – can you relate to her at all?

D: Oh god no. I have to find something to relate to each character, but on the outside no. I’ve been lucky because I wasn’t one of the original four women, so my character is not so iconic and she gets to do all the weird stuff that Marc Cherry [the creator] wouldn’t let the other women do, like have a nervous breakdown, stab herself or become a lesbian – if that happened to any of the other women, people would be very upset.

Q: What was your reaction when Nicolette Sheridan filed the lawsuit against Marc Cherry?

D: I was kind of baffled by it. I certainly didn’t see that behavior. It’s been a great experience for me. I don’t understand it actually. I hope it works out for her and that everyone gets what they want, but that was puzzling.

Q: Do you still get fan mail from fans of “China Beach?”

D: Yes, I do. There’s some crossover with ‘Desperate Housewives,’ but a lot of letters are prefaced with ‘I always loved you on ‘China Beach.’

Q: Are there any plans to update “China Beach” for a film today?

D: People have asked that, but the biggest issue now is just getting it released on DVD. There’s a problem with the music rights I hope it happens, because there are bootleg copies but no official copies of the show.

Q: What’s the new show you’re working on about?

D: As ABC likes to say, it’s ‘a procedural with character.’ But it’s both – I play a medical examiner and it’s really well-written and smart and she’s very complicated. It’s a drama comedy.

Q: Did you get a lot of freedom to improvise on this film?

D: Yes, which I loved. When I’m allowed to improvise, I don’t take it lightly because I know what a privilege it is to improvise, so I’m very serious about it. I think that I help when I do it, and it’s not about me looking better, but helping the story, so Brooks was great.

Q: I love the fact that in this role you have so much emotion just below the surface but you weren’t high strung. How did you do that being always on the verge of tears?

D: Well I’ve been in that position with a relationship ending, where you feel you can lose it at any second but you’re trying not to. But you need to be in the piece and not into your life, so I tried to concentrate on working with Tim and how I felt about him.

Q: Do you believe in the concept of soulmates or is it that we can have different soulmates at different points of life?

D: I think different parts of your life. We are constantly evolving, but I do think there are people you have mysterious chemistry with, which I like, but you still have to do all the [relationship] work.

Q: You seem to be a self-possessed person who has gotten to know yourself. How does that help your attitude about Hollywood or roles you get or don’t get or building character?

D: I think I’m in a place in my life right now where I know none of that really matters. I don’t take anything personally and feel like I’m on my own path; whether that involves acting great, if it doesn’t, fine. There are so many other things I’m interested in like traveling that I have a healthy sense of detachment from all that.

Q: Can you tell us about your role in the upcoming film “Camp Hope”?

D: It’s a Catholic horror film. I play a mom, Patricia, who was my son on ‘Kidnapped,’ Will Denton, who feels like he’s possessed. It was written and directed by George VanBuskirk, who is a producer who has had a lot of films. He was raised Catholic and went to a Catholic camp, so this is his story. And I get to play the Virgin Mary, which was fun.

Q: If you had to change your career path, like this man in the movie, what would you choose to do?

D: I could see myself traveling around the world and just helping people. I get great satisfaction meeting people from different walks of life and I like being helpful. It sounds so corny, but I get great enjoyment out of it, which is kind of egotistical in the long run, but it makes me feel good.