Marcia Cross makes rigid manners funny by playing them with complete seriousness. We rate her most for Bree Van de Kamp, whose difficult behaviour remains understandable even when the plotting of Desperate Housewives becomes harder to defend.
Fi1m perspective
Bree Van de Kamp's formality makes an unreasonable reaction seem, to her, perfectly reasonable. In Desperate Housewives (2004), Marcia Cross plays that certainty for comedy while keeping Bree's vulnerability visible. We laughed at the seriousness with which she plays Bree's rigid manners. Cross makes us understand how much the rules matter to this woman, even when her response is absurd. It is a carefully controlled performance, with enough anger beneath the politeness to stop the perfectionism becoming simply quaint.
Her early work in daytime soaps led into the more volatile demands of Kimberly Shaw in Melrose Place (1992). That part drew on her ability to make a soap antagonist intense and unpredictable. Dr Linda Abbott in Everwood (2003) was the television role immediately before Bree. The change from Kimberly to Bree shifted the emphasis towards control, though both belong to a pattern of women whose polished appearance conceals trouble. For us, Bree remains the part to start with.
Marc Cherry's suburban soap also gives her colleagues who stop that formality from setting the tone of every scene. Felicity Huffman's Lynette Scavo brings a more abrasive impatience, while Teri Hatcher's Susan Mayer and Eva Longoria's Gabrielle Solis supply different kinds of comic energy. Cross's exactness works in that company because Bree need not loosen up for the programme to vary its rhythm. The weakness is the writing's appetite for another scandal. When the plotting grows overexcited, it crowds out the smaller distinctions the actors are making.
Later work includes Claire Haas in Quantico (2015), though typecasting has limited the opportunities to get beyond Kimberly and Bree. That is a frustrating restriction for an actor who can find vulnerability in someone so determined to behave correctly. We would welcome a part that lets her keep that precision without making perfectionism the subject again. Start with Desperate Housewives for the comedy, allowing for some frantic plotting.
Biography
Marcia Cross is an American actress. She was born on 25 March 1962 in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and trained at the Juilliard School, graduating with a BFA in acting in 1984.
Cross began her career in the 1980s with roles in daytime soap operas including The Edge of Night (1984) and One Life to Live (1986–1988). She later appeared in primetime series such as Knots Landing (1991–1992) and as Kimberly Shaw in Melrose Place (1992–1997).
She is best known for portraying Bree Van de Kamp in the series Desperate Housewives (2004–2012). Cross has also had recurring roles in Everwood (2003–2004) and Quantico (2015–2017), and guest appearances in series including Seinfeld, Cheers and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
