'Desperate' Times
November 08, 2004
James Denton turns Wisteria Lane into our town
By Sarah Kuhn
James Denton knows a thing or two about turning heads. The
actor was cast in his very first role thanks to an eagle-eyed
churchgoer. "I was singing in the choir, and we used to
do Easter musicals and stuff like that," he remembers.
"This lady saw an Easter musical where I had, like, two
lines playing Jesus. She was doing Our Town for this big
celebration outdoors in Tennessee and said, 'I think you'd
be great at this,' and talked me into it. That was how it
started."
These days, Denton is inspiring decidedly non-churchly thoughts
and generating water-cooler buzz as Mike Delfino, the dashing
plumber with a secret on ABC's blockbuster Sunday-night hit,
Desperate Housewives. The show blends sudsy storylines with
compelling characters and a juicy mystery: Why did cheery suburban
homemaker Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) take her own life?
As Mike, who may or may not be connected with this twisty central
storyline, Denton is the resident male heartthrob on Housewives,
inspiring a battle of feminine wiles between sweet Susan (Teri
Hatcher) and scheming Edie (Nicollette Sheridan). Don't expect
him to let that "hunky plumber" label go to his head,
though. "You just have to figure, 'Well, it's a role in the
show that's designed to make people pull for Teri's character
and hope that she gets the right guy,'" he says. "No
matter what you look like or how you play Mike, as long as you're
not a serial killer, people are going to love you if you make
Susan happy. That's really the way I look at it, because if you
get too caught up in the whole 'romantic lead' or 'leading man'
or physicality of it, then you just pick yourself apart, because
you know there are going be women that watch the show and go,
'What's the big deal with him?'"
Denton's job doesn't merely require that he stand around and
look handsome, however. It's been hinted that Mike has a hidden
agenda and is secretly investigating the colorful residents of
Wisteria Lane. Denton manages the neat trick of making Mike an
engaging regular guy while also lending the character an air of
sinister mystery. And though he doesn't know all of Mike's secrets,
he says he knows enough. "I have to admit that it's just
curiosity that I want to know more [of the storyline]," he
says, laughing. "I don't need to know it. As long as you
know where you're trying to get in the scene, what your intention
is and who you're talking to and [what] your relationship [is],
you really don't have to know what happens in Episode 15. It'd
be nice, I'd love to, but it's really not necessary. [Housewives
creator] Marc [Cherry] is great about making sure we're comfortable."
Long before he shared the small screen with scheming domestic
divas, Denton was involved in community theatre in and around
his hometown of Goodlettsville, Tenn., just outside of Nashville.
His enthusiasm for the stage proved contagious. His father ended
up building sets and props for that fateful production of Our
Town and found himself similarly smitten with theatre. "He
died not long after that -- I guess he was into [acting] about
four or five years -- but he kind of found himself,"
remembers Denton. "He was a dentist and very introverted, and
it was a really great thing for us to share in the last few years
of his life, community theatre. Before he passed away I was back
in my hometown at the bank, and the [teller] saw my name. She said,
'Oh, you're the son of the actor,' and I said, 'No, actually, I'm
the actor.' She said, 'Oh, no, I just saw your father in Arsenic
and Old Lace at Lakewood Theatre, and he was brilliant.' It was
really fun for me that suddenly he was the actor."
Denton bounced around from show to show in the community before
deciding to roll the dice and quit his well-paying advertising
job to move to Chicago and try his hand at theatre. Shortly
after arriving there, the actor landed his first role in A
Streetcar Named Desire. "I had no idea what I was doing,"
he says. "I'm so glad that I didn't, because I would have been
terrified. They hired me to play Stanley in this big 200-seat
theatre in Chicago. I was so out of my league, but [I] survived
it and went on from there."
Denton appeared in 16 plays during his five years in Chicago.
"[It] was really necessary for me," he says. "I
didn't go into any of the graduate schools for drama -- in fact,
I've never even been in an [acting] classroom of any kind. It was
a great crash course, trial-by-fire time for me."
The actor eventually caught the eye of a friend of manager John
Crosby. "He called me out of the blue and left me a message,
'Hi, I'm a manager from Los Angeles,' and I thought it was bogus.
I didn't even call him back," says Denton. Luckily, Crosby
was persistent. He called Denton again and had the actor put
himself on tape for a sitcom Paramount was doing for CBS.
Paramount bit, and before the actor had time to contemplate
a move from chilly Chicago to sunny Los Angeles, Denton was
on his way out to test for the pilot. "When I was flown
out here, John, who became my manager, was able to say, 'Hey,
he's just here for the weekend, Paramount flew him out, you've
got to meet him while he's here.' Kind of an illusion of
importance that was completely false," says Denton,
laughing. "But you know how it is in this town. That made
such a difference, because people were, like, 'Oh, he's only
here for the weekend, they flew him out, gotta see him while
he's here!' Little did they know: I was living in a $300 studio
in Chicago, making $15,000 a year."
Denton relocated to L.A. and has worked steadily ever since in
movies (Face/Off, Primary Colors), television, and theatre. One
of his breakout roles was as the twisted Mr. Lyle in the cult
sci-fi series The Pretender. During the show's run, Denton was
also cast in the play In Walked Monk as Steven, "an Everyman,
Tom Hanks kind of role." The actor spent several weeks morphing
from sociopathic villain to nice guy every 24 hours. "It's an
actor's dream come true, really," he says. "I was in heaven
for a while there, because I just got to do such contrasting things.
And theatre's so great, because you get to do the whole character
arc every night."
Denton says Mr. Lyle's trademark costumes and sinister nature made
getting back into character fairly easy. "There was a thing
about Mr. Lyle: He wore very expensive suits and very slick clothes,
and the character didn't have a thumb. He had crossed the Japanese
mafia, and they had cut his thumb off. Once I put on the suit,
put on the thumb-less glove, it was easy to slip into," he
says. "He was kind of slimy and obnoxious, and it was such
a fun character to play. After doing it for three years, I got
to a point where I could slip into Mr. Lyle pretty quickly. That
was much easier than the play; [it] was tougher to shift gears.
It's much easier to be unlikeable than to sell yourself as likeable."
Prior to landing on Housewives, Denton starred in series such as
Philly and last season's Threat Matrix, both of which were cancelled
despite promising starts. This can be a frustrating situation
for an actor, but Denton says it's important to develop a thick
skin. "My only advice would be, don't take it personally.
It's the same advice that you apply to everything in this business,"
he says. "There are so many influences that cause a show to
succeed or fail."
And as far as succeeding as an actor in general, Denton says
there's no pat answer. "I have gotten jobs in every way
imaginable, and I have lost them in every way imaginable. I've
lost jobs because I looked too much like the producer's ex-husband.
I've also gotten jobs that I was a long shot for, like That Old
Feeling, the Bette Midler movie. I had no business getting that
job, but I walked into the audition, and [director] Carl Reiner
said I reminded him of Dick Van Dyke. He insisted they hire me,
even though the studio was determined to get a name."
When it comes down to it, he says, just remember to follow your
gut. "The path has been completely different for all my
friends who are successful. Everyone has a different way they
arrived at it."
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