Learning to play bad-girl character
TV: ROLE TESTS GOOD-GIRL ACTRESS

By RICK BENTLEY Comments 0
Published: October 17, 2009

Actress Maiara Walsh always has been a good girl — at home and on TV. That was before the 21-year-old moved into the naughty neighborhood of "Desperate Housewives.”

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Walsh arrived on the ABC series at the end of last season to play the Lolita-ish Ana Solis. She wrangled with the reigning queen of man control, her aunt Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria Parker). The battle continues in the sixth season of "Desperate Housewives,” which airs at 8 p.m. Sundays. If you missed Walsh’s debut, the fifth season of "Desperate Housewives” is available on DVD.

Walsh wanted the role because it is so different from her real personality.

"About the only thing we have in common is that we are very independent. I’m not like this nasty, manipulative person at all,” Walsh says with a wicked laugh. "Growing up I tried to stay away from nasty characters because I didn’t want to get typecast that way.”

She’s not kidding when she says being bad is a stretch. Walsh is involved with the motivational group Young Women’s Empowerment Network and is a youth ambassador for In a Perfect World, an organization that looks to build strong social leaders. She grew up in a household with a very strict Brazilian mother.

Since Walsh doesn’t have her own bad-girl experiences to draw on for the character, she takes characteristics from people she’s met who have used their sexuality to get what they want. She’s too discreet — part of her good-girl nature — to offer any names.

The role — with some of the things her character says and does — makes Walsh a little uncomfortable. That’s not a bad thing, she says, because it pushes her as an actress.

Walsh likes the complex nature of Ana Solis. She promises viewers will get to see more of that complexity this season.