When “Desperate Housewives” creator Marc Cherry was approached about turning a juicy Mexican TV hit into an American prime-time series, he said, “No thanks. I’ve already done that show.”
The series was about five smart, sexy, scheming Latina maids who work for the filthy rich and know all the dirt. A group of American producers scooped up the rights.
“And they showed me a 5-minute sizzle reel,” says Cherry. “It was so much like ‘Desperate Housewives’ in that there was a narrator, and five different storylines and mystery. And I passed. But in the next four days, I kept thinking about it. Because what it unlocked in me was a rush of memories of what life was like when I was working for [actors] Dixie Carter and Hal Holbrook in their home in Bel Air. I was 25. And it was my first job when I came out to LA.”
Cherry has now hired the first cast of all-Latina leading ladies and is working on post-production for 13 episodes of “Devious Maids,” the first of which will air June 23 on Lifetime.
Q: What do you know about being a maid?
Cherry: I was the help. I was Dixie’s assistant. And after some of the things I witnessed, and my perspective after working in that big, grand house, I started thinking how funny it was that 25 years later, I now have a big house and I have people who come to work for me. And I thought, I have stuff to say about the relationships between employers and employees, especially that intimate relationship that occurs when you have people working in your home.
Q: How did you take to being a “maid”?
Cherry: The truth is there were days when I just loved the job. But there were other times, the way I was spoken to, or treated, I felt like, “Oh, that’s right. I’m the help.”
Q: Still, you’re a white guy writing about the lives of five Latinas?
Cherry: I knew I might raise a few eyebrows by casting an all-Latina cast. I thought that would be kind of ground-breaking. I knew I was going to be writing parts that were about multi-dimensional, fun, interesting, ambitious, somewhat flawed women. And I just thought, you know what? I know I’ll get a little criticism, but I want to do this. I also called my good friend Eva Longoria (“Desperate Housewives”) and said, “I’m going to need some help learning about this culture — what things I need to stay away from, what things I need to stress.” So Eva came aboard immediately [as an executive producer]. I also got two amazing Latina writers.
Q: You’ve already received some strong criticism, including a letter published in the HuffPost from Cosmo for Latinas Editor-In-Chief Michelle Herrera Mulligan who called the show “an insulting disgrace.”
Cherry: When people view things merely through the prism of race, you can’t win. Because everyone has something in their head that they believe. At some point, you just throw up your hands and go, “Look, I’m gonna do the best I can.”