Actress
Joy Lauren is worlds apart from her character on ABC's
Desperate Housewives, so when she found that she was going to be in the center of the show's teen pregnancy storyline, she knew she would be facing a tremendous challenge.
“[It was] definitely something I've never experienced before — I'm not really angst-ridden and I'm not pregnant — so it was definitely a stretch for me to play!” Lauren, who portrays Bree Hodge's (
Marcia Cross) notorious daughter Danielle, told
TV Guide.
Despite playing a character with whom she shares nothing but the same age, Joy Lauren has been very open to the experience, especially since it allows her to go through “all sorts of things that you wouldn't do normally.”
Lauren was bitten by the acting bug at the tender age of seven, and four years later, she and her mother, Nan Jorgensen, moved to Los Angeles so that she could pursue her acting career. Jorgensen has been very supportive of Lauren “in every sense,” and doesn't keep her daughter on a very tight leash.
“She always gave me a really long leash. So I never had the desire to go out there and do anything crazy because she never told me I couldn't. It's like, you're a teenager, you need to experience things,” Joy Lauren said. “But if you get into trouble, you're going to stay at home in your room for the rest of your life! If I messed up, she'd take that all away.”
Lauren made her television debut in 2002, guest-appearing in the crime drama
The Division. However, as she worked her way through the industry, she made it a point not to neglect her studies.
“I was 14 when I [passed] the California high-school proficiency exam,” Joy Lauren told
TV Guide. “But I continued taking some classes because I wanted to get a good education.”
Lauren's Danielle herself is in the process of completing her academics, having agreed to go to college while Bree and stepdad Orson (
Kyle MacLachlan) take care of her new baby. Although not much has developed in that particular storyline because of the writers' strike, Lauren is supportive of the cause, even if it has been proven to be quite lengthy.
“Of course I want to get back to work as soon as possible because I love what I do, [but] we're very supportive of the writers and feel like they need to take the time to get what they deserve,” she said. “It's something they need to stand their ground on.”
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: TV Guide
(Image Courtesy of ABC)