No more kidding around

Andrea Bowen's Desperate Housewives character Julie Mayer has some surprises in store for viewers this season. Photo / Supplied

Andrea Bowen has always seemed beyond her years. Last season her Desperate Housewives character, Julie Mayer, was shipped off to Princeton as the rest of the cast were catapulted five years ahead. Her return to the show tomorrow means she's also five years older - making her 24 when she's actually 19.

This doesn't faze the actress in the slightest. On the Los Angeles set of Desperate Housewives she possesses the poise and calm of a Hollywood veteran. Most of her friends are older, she says, so she had plenty of inspiration to draw on. Getting to grips with the life experience befitting a young woman in her early 20s, Bowen isn't about to admit to any method acting, other than visualising herself finishing university.

"I'm imagining what it would be like to be at that point in someone's life. And then on top of it, imagining what it would be like for my character to be at that point in her life. So it's challenging, you know; it is definitely not as comfortable as playing what I was before. But it's more fun. It's unchartered territory for me and I have been having a blast with that."

It's not often actors get to play such a wide age range. When Bowen started on Desperate Housewives, she played a 12-year-old, half her character's lifetime ago. She was also the youngest core cast member, a privilege she can no longer lay claim to.

This season, Wisteria Lane fills up with young people so Lynette's son Porter won't be alone now that his twin has gone to Europe. They include new kid on the block Danny (played by Beau Mirchoff), the son of new housewife Drea de Matteo's character Angie. Ana (Maiara Walsh), Carlos Solis' manipulative niece who moved in during the finale, also continues this season. Then there are the youngest cast members in Lynette and Tom Scavo's ever-expanding brood. Sitting alongside her new cast-mates, Bowen has an air of control - she's no longer the baby on the show.

Still, it's not exactly a pretty return to the spotlight. Julie may wish she'd never come back, despite what could be a burgeoning romance with Danny. It could also be time to kiss Julie's goody-two-shoes image goodbye.

"I have secrets of my own this season, which is really fun," says Bowen. "You get to see some exciting stuff and the evolution of my character, where she's ended up will surprise people ... She didn't go the path a lot of people thought she would, including myself."

Bowen, on the other hand, was always destined to be an actress. As the youngest of six children, all of whom work as actors, her upbringing was the polar opposite of Julie's. When she was barely out of school, Bowen starred in Broadway musicals Les Miserables, Jane Eyre and The Sound of Music, developing her singing skills alongside her acting chops. She gets her musical streak from her father, who is a composer.

"I have a very big family and my parents have been together forever, and [Julie's] an only child with the single mom [Susan], so that's very different. But in terms of personality traits, I think very highly of my character. I don't want that to sound like I think very highly of myself, but she's very determined and she tries to be very responsible. "She likes to be intelligent and works very hard, and she had a lot of responsibilities as a child. There are similarities there."

Growing up on Desperate Housewives, it was inevitable Bowen would have a hard time leaving at the end of season five. On the last day of shooting she collapsed in tears on Teri Hatcher's lap. Creator Marc Cherry deftly sugar-coated her exit when he told her Julie would need to go away for a season for fans to miss her. Bowen went on to star in the play Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, a raunchy update of Charles Schulz's Peanuts cartoon. It was a bold move for Bowen, who threw off Julie's shackles as Charlie Brown's foul-mouthed, pot-smoking sister.

Julie's return this season means the mother-daughter relationship may have to withstand more conflict than the besties are used to - Susan will finally get the chance to reprimand her daughter.

"This season you see some changes in my character," says Bowen ... After six seasons, to get surprised by your character is a good testament to a show. "I'm really looking forward to this new territory that we're both walking into."

* Desperate Housewives returns to TV2 tomorrow at 8.30pm. It is preceded by the season five finale at 7.30pm.