And you wore it even in scenes where it wasn't going to be shot?

When we got to Arizona and it was 100 degrees in the shade, and it's this great little independent movie they're doing for $2 so there really aren't chairs, and I had the underwear, pantyhose, girdle and the wig, there were times when I left Andy out because it would have been too crowded in my clothes for two of us.

Well, the scene where you pull Andy out by the side of the road is pretty mind-blowing. Did that feel like a major primal shift for you?

It is mind-bending. You have to get to a transgendered point of view. It's as if you woke up or I woke up this morning with a penis. And you'd just kind of be like, "What is this?! Yuck! Get this out of here; this isn't me!"

Duncan came to me in the desert in Arizona and said, "We want to get a shot of Bree pulling over and peeing," and explained, "You're squatting to pee and then you hear a coyote so you stand up." I had kept it together for pretty much the whole film, [but at that point] I just burst into tears. It felt so vulnerable. I didn't know whether it was just the character living in me -- the one thing she doesn't want anyone to see, this thing she's getting rid of in a week. Or if it was just me going, Oh my god I don't want men -- I don't want anyone -- to see me as a man. But that's sort of Bree living in me anyway.

Did you feel professionally vulnerable playing this part? Because this is not a glamorous role for you.

I'm so amazed you say that! [Laughs] I felt so ugly that whole movie, and there I am acting with beautiful [costar] Kevin Zegers.

Yeah, he's hot.

Yeah, he's so beautiful you're like, that's stupid pretty.

Obviously you didn't realize how visible "Desperate Housewives" would make you, but did you consider it a threat to the way people see you as a star to look so unglamorous?

Obviously, duh, for me, and I don't say this self-deprecatingly, but I'm not the glamour-puss. My talent doesn't lie in my face. So I've found the demands of Hollywood to be pretty and thin to be burdensome, because I never quite get there. I wasn't born with that kind of face; I was born with a different kind of face. So to be able to put it aside and concentrate on something else -- trying to create an authentic character -- is a relief.

And the same thing goes on "Desperate Housewives." Thank god I'm not the pretty one, because I get to wear pajamas and it's just a relief. We have the beautiful Marcia Cross and the beautiful Eva Longoria and the beautiful Teri and Nicollette [Sheridan]. We've got that corner covered, thank god.

You're 42 and experiencing success like never before. Do you think prospects are brightening for women over 35 in Hollywood?

Oh, I definitely do! I don't ever think that it's going to turn into: Hey, 20-year-olds aren't valued, 40-year-olds are valued! But it used to be that the glass ceiling was 40 and now it's more like 50 and I think maybe in the future it will be 60.

"Desperate Housewives" -- god bless [series creator] Marc Cherry -- has changed the landscape of pilot season. Friends have called me to say, "Thank you, thank you. I'm going out on so many more auditions now," because there are so many parts for women over 35.

Is that actually true?

Oh yeah! Or friends of mine who have been trying to get a pilot made that features women 35 or older and suddenly there are bidding wars for these shows! So yes, I think it's fantastic.

The "Desperate Housewives" effect sounds remarkable. But why does the show exist to begin with? Why is the business moving in this direction when it used to be impossible for middle-aged women to get hired?

That's a fantastic question and I don't know the answer, but here's an angle, though I'm not sure this is it. I think gay men appreciate women differently than straight guys do. It's funny; we're not the objects of their sexual desires, but they always consider us sexual objects. They appreciate women. And I think that because it's OK now to be gay in Hollywood -- and that's taken a while -- that finally maybe there are opportunities now for Marc Cherrys to be the source for a series. I think gay men write women differently and appreciate them and maybe it took them getting in a creative position of power for us to be seen that way. I think "Sex and the City" is the same thing. Those women were younger, but not a lot. And there's ["Sex and the City" creator] Darren Starr. So I wonder if it has something to do with it.

So what can you tell me about this Vanity Fair article?

I haven't read it yet, can you believe it? All I was interested in was if my legs looked fat on the cover.

Well I'm sure you've heard about it.

Uh, yeah! Oh my god, are you kidding? How could I not?

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