Desperate Daughter

Sure, we love all those Desperate Housewives, but when it comes to sass, no one dishes it out like Susan Mayers daughter, Julie, played by the delightful Andrea Bowen, who is rather sassy herself. At just 16, the young actress has done Broadway (Les Miserables, The Sound of Music, Jane Eyre), film (she even voiced Bambis girlfriend in the Disney flicks sequel), and, of course, television. Now shes tackling the third season of Housewives and going back to her rootsliterally. I feel like Julie is the unsung hero of the show. She gets all the good lines. She does. That she does. Doesnt get much of the credit though. No, but this season she has much more of a prominent storyline. Shes getting a new love interest, which is very fun. A very hunky love interest. Hes going to be the new Jesse Metcalfe. I have a feeling. And a hair color change. Love the new blonde! Yes! This is my natural hair color. My natural hair color is very blonde. Youre kidding. No! And they dyed it darker for the show. For the last two seasons every six weeks they dye it brown and everyone always thought it was brown. And then this season I was like, I dont want to be brown anymore. I want to let it grow out and I want it to be healthier. So I asked and they were like, Sure, you can keep it, and I was like, Wahoo! But everyones so shocked. Theyre very confused. So theyre working it into the story? They dont mention it. Theyre just going to let people assume that she dyed her hair. Now Im a big musical theater geek, and you just did The Sound of Music at the Hollywood Bowl. Thats kind of a full-circle thing for you, isnt it? Yeah, right, it is, because I did it for two and a half years about nine years ago on Broadway and I was Marta. I was the second youngest one. Now Im Liesl and its so weird to have the Liesl lines coming out of my mouth. Its very confusing. But Im having a blast and its so good to sing and dance again and to be on stage. I feel like Im rusty and I want to get back to itI love it so much and I love doing what Im doing. Its great to be doing both so I feel very complete as a person right now. And Marc [Cherry, the shows creator] Im sure is very supportive, since hes a huge musical theater fan. He is. Hes great, yeah. He loves musical theater so much, like, all of our scripts are named after songs. We have fun conversations about theater. Going on that, I imagine growing up in the theater you must have known a lot of gay people. Oh, yeah, my whole life. Was it ever something that you always took for granted and then realized, Oh, its a big deal to some people. I never thought of it as anything out of the ordinary because my family just always has raised me believing theres nothing wrong with it. I always knew gay people and always loved them. As a young girl, meeting them and knowing them, I didnt understand how people could not accept it. If someone loves someone, why does it matter who it is, you know? When I got a little older and I started to get more into politics and pay attention to more things, it was shocking to me how many people were not OK with it. I have so many gay friends and I love them all. I dont understand how people cant love them as well. Do you find you get a big reaction from gay people? With the show? Yes. Its very fun. I have gay men coming up to me all the time and just telling me how much they love my character and I love it. I really enjoy that.