For this exclusive interview, Marcia Cross steps inside the extraordinary world of Paris’s legendary Hôtel de la Païva – one of the city’s most opulent and enigmatic private mansions.
by L’Officiel Monaco
Photographed by Greg Alexander, the actress is captured in a haute couture story where Hollywood allure meets the grandeur of 19th-century Paris. An actress whose presence has defined some of television’s most memorable characters, Cross reveals a more intimate side of herself – reflecting on her career, the passage of time, reinvention, and the woman behind the icon.
Marcia Cross speaks with the intelligence, candour and singular elegance that have accompanied her throughout an extraordinary career.
1. You’ve spoken before about choosing authenticity over perfection. How has your idea of success, beauty and happiness changed over the years? When do you feel most like yourself today?
I can’t say that I intentionally choose authenticity over perfection. It is simply the default for me, as I know I cannot even come close to achieving it. (God knows I have spent years trying.) And that is, finally, most of the time, just fine with me now. Which, in turn, makes for so much more internal peace.
I feel most at home when I’m on a set or standing on stage, performing, directing or teaching. I have a depth of understanding, instinct and clarity there that I don’t in other areas of my life. I find it fascinating. I think it is not an unusual phenomenon, but it is so interesting to me where one is their most powerful, intuitive and authentic self.
2. Bree Van de Kamp is still one of television’s most unforgettable women. Looking back, what do you think she was really hiding beneath that perfect exterior, and why do you think so many women connected with her?
I think people connected with Bree for a variety of reasons. The perfectionists understood and felt seen; the women who were desperately trying to make it look like they had it all together could relate; women who were hiding their secrets and vulnerability were onto her, as well as alcoholics and humans with OCD because, let’s face it, she had a lot of that going on. And anyone who felt unseen, judged or not accepted in the world for who they were knew that Bree would love them no matter what.
And all of this rang true because I have so much empathy and love for our human struggle and how we are all just doing the best we can. But Bree did not believe she was lovable unless she could achieve perfection….
3. We hear a lot about Hollywood becoming more inclusive, but has life really changed for actresses over fifty? Where do you still see the biggest challenges?
I don’t think about “Hollywood” the way I used to. After being told TWICE that I was too iconic to play other parts (for long periods of time), and told I had to prove to the powers that be that I could play other roles, I lost interest.
I was always told, “Go meet them, they don’t know who you are and what you can do,” but I’m an actress… I was playing a part… I finally just didn’t care anymore about trying to prove first that I wasn’t crazy Kimberly and then I wasn’t Perfect Bree.
Now I do what makes me happy: theatre, which is what I always wanted to do and the reason I went to Juilliard. It is so deeply fulfilling and challenging. And in this time of tech, it is the one place where people turn off their phones and have an intimate communal experience.
Of course, if someone asks me to do something in film or television, then I am thrilled to work. I am just not interested in proving anything to anyone anymore. Those days are long gone.
Dress: Charbel Karam
4. When you decided to speak publicly about your cancer journey, you helped start conversations that many people were afraid to have. Was there ever a moment when you hesitated? And what made you decide your story was worth sharing?
In the beginning, while I was going through treatment and then recovering, I was not thinking about sharing my journey. I wanted to get through it and get on with life, but one day I posted a photo of my hair and the frustration with losing it and didn’t really think it through. So, I then needed to post that I was fine. Which I was.
I didn’t lose my hair because of chemo; I lost it due to a condition called telogen effluvium – which can cause shedding due to an emotional shock that forces active hair follicles into a “resting phase.”
However, while I was dealing with my cancer, I did a lot of reading about the shame and secrecy around anal cancer and how women and men hid their diagnosis and often suffered through their treatment alone, or by lying about their cancer to avoid the shame and stigma.
My reaction was in line with my no-nonsense New England pragmatism. It was a cancer caused by a virus, the HPV virus, which is nearly ubiquitous – and it was in the anal canal, a part of our bodies we think little about and take for granted.
I felt like it was an outdated and silly taboo, much like body taboos in the past: the breasts, the colon, the prostate, testicles… All of these had come into the zeitgeist, but the anus was still verboten.
If I had had breast cancer, I would most likely have been quiet about it, as so many have and continue to speak out. But reading about the deaths that were occurring because people were too afraid to go to the doctor, or about missed diagnoses due to doctors being uneducated about it, made it clear that I had to speak out.
The information and cracking of the taboo could literally save lives because this is a cancer that can be successfully treated if caught early. The stigma and shame were costing people their lives! How could I not speak out?
It wasn’t a journey I would have eagerly signed up for, “being the poster child for anal cancer,” but that is what happened, and not speaking out became a choice I couldn’t live with.
5. Women are constantly told to ‘age gracefully’ – which can sometimes sound like just another expectation. How do you personally navigate aging, beauty, and all the pressure that comes with both?
As far as aging goes in terms of beauty, I have the utmost compassion for all women. We are navigating the shift in our faces and bodies and what that means to us as we approach our mortality. As we lose the bloom of youth and until we die, what any woman decides to do on that journey – nothing, everything, a bit here and there – should not be up for public debate… it is her choice.
For me, I have days when I feel happy with my face. I love that most of the time I don’t have my glasses on when I look in the mirror, so I see myself with a nice soft focus… and then often in photos I am shocked by the sagging of my skin, but I was judgmental of myself even at my best, so I figure 10 years from now I will think I looked great!
I have yet to have a facelift. I suppose I will when the time feels right. Or maybe I won’t. Who knows? I would be very happy to say goodbye to the jowls and turkey neck.
What does matter to me is continuing to look like myself. I see my mother and my father in my face, and I don’t want to lose that. And then there are simply all the years I’ve spent looking at it in the mirror – that face carries my history. I want to look like me.
It really isn’t just about beauty, or about what other people think; it is a profound decision on loss. As we age, we lose so many things that are not our choice, and as one friend said before her plastic surgery, “I’m just not ready to go there yet,” and I understood.
If I could get new stronger bones or the scoliosis in my back to go back in time, I for sure would. We are all going to succumb to our end, so before that day, go ahead and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” in any way you choose to.
Dress: Lena Erziak
6. You’ve spent decades in an industry where appearance is constantly under the spotlight. How have you managed to keep a healthy relationship with the way you look?
My mother was very pragmatic and not one for compliments. I was never told I was pretty; in fact, I really wasn’t. I looked like my dad, had lots of odd freckles and nothing about my face was remarkable.
So, though I dreamed of being an actress, I always felt, for all the decades of my life, that being attractive was something I had to strive and work for.
Now that that striving is primarily off the table, I feel a great deal of relief. Even if I do get a facelift, those days of having or trying to be beautiful are gone. I will never miss them. It made for so much anxiety and so little joy.
Now looking back, I see photos and think, wow, I look so pretty, but I never could see that at the time. I think young women today are a bit better at enjoying and embracing themselves – or TikTok has me fooled.
7. Away from premieres and photo shoots, how would you describe your personal style? Has getting dressed become more about expressing yourself than impressing anyone else?
My personal style has evolved to clothing that doesn’t make me itch!!
It also cannot be white, which I look frightening in; black, which is very harsh on me; or prints, which make me look, well, just bad.
So, by default, I wear lots of navy blue and white cotton T-shirts with the highest cotton crew underneath (because even the best cashmere might irritate my skin) and the same jeans on rotation.
I wish someone would make a capsule wardrobe for redheads with sensitive skin!
My stylist, back in the day, Jessica Pasteur, was fantastic at finding gorgeous clothes for me and I was thrilled to wear them. I love and appreciate fashion but, on my own… as a dear friend said with much love while looking at me in yet another unstylish outfit, “It’s just not your thing.” To which I laughed and agreed.
But my secret fantasy is imagining that one day… one day… I will look like one of those stylish women on the millions of TikTok videos I have watched in awe.
8. As a mother of two daughters, what do you hope they understand about beauty and self-worth that your own generation wasn’t always taught?
My girls have a healthy enjoyment of themselves all around and I absolutely love that!
They genuinely like who they are, have found their own style and have confidence in themselves. It took me decades to get to where they are now.
My only sorrow is my complete failure to convince them of the dangers of the sun. I have tried. Believe me, I have tried. Fingers crossed that one day they’ll understand that the beautiful sun-kissed look they love so much comes at a price and wear sunscreen.
Dress: Dany Atrache; Jewellery: Rohin’s
9. When you look at the world today, what concerns you most? And despite everything, what still gives you hope?
As for mankind today and our future… that is a tough question, but here goes.
I do not believe the world as it is now is how it should or has to be. I often think to myself: What if we could start from scratch? How could we inhabit this beautiful planet differently?
What is occurring now is the result of years and years of unconscious men (not all) calling the shots. The common denominator of these beasts in power has led to war and domination, dictators and fascists, like Hitler, Pol Pot, Ivan the Terrible, Josef Stalin, Mao, etc., taking power and shaping mankind.
I don’t mean to leave the United States out of this conversation, as we slaughtered the Indigenous population, imported slaves from Africa and then wrote a Constitution that said “We the people…” when it really meant, “We the white MEN of America,” not to mention that we dropped an atom bomb… I mean two… Enough said.
So, though my belief about the future is bleak, I do not think it has to be this way.
There are millions of evolved intelligent people with raised consciousnesses who could change the entire fate of our species. (I do not say fate of our planet, as the planet will be just fine without us.) The question and challenge is how to take the most avaricious, most rapacious, insatiable humans who are truly the least evolved of our species and get them out of power.
Perhaps they could go to another planet as they so aspire to, or take off in one of their rocket ships… and then we can start over and reinvent our world. In this moment I truly believe it can be done. Maybe the job of the “inevitable” AI takeover will be to weed out evil and corrupt humans and give power to only the most evolved of our species.
I could go on… but you see where I am headed.
10. What feels most exciting about your life right now? Is there still something you’re hoping to discover: about acting, about yourself, or simply about life?
Which dovetails into your question about my future – what interests me and what excites me. I want to do more of all those things that, in some way, contribute to the world. There is so much that needs attention – personally, professionally, and globally. And at this age and stage of my life, what matters most to me is spending time on the people and things I truly value and letting go of the rest.
11. Finally, when people think of Marcia Cross years from now, what do you hope they’ll remember beyond the characters you’ve played? And if you could finish this sentence: Today, beauty is…?
What I hope to be remembered for are acts of kindness, or for a performance someone appreciated – maybe one that helped them through a tough time or simply made them laugh. Maybe someone will appreciate that I saw their gifts before they were able to truly see them in themselves. And for some, sharing our health journeys together and trying to prevent more people from getting HPV cancers. I hope I’m also remembered as someone who inspired people to learn more about the issues I stood for and to become better informed.
Dress & Cape: Inclover; Jewellery: Rohin’s
12. What are your future plans?
My work future is a bit precarious at the moment. I just finished a movie with Susan Sarandon and Bill Macy called EXIT RIGHT, and before that did a production of the play HONOUR by Joanna Murray-Smith, playing HONOUR, which was a true highlight of my artistic life.
There is a theater not far from where I live, The Ruskin Theatre, which has become a kind of home for me. I can be the actress there that I always dreamt of becoming. It is my piece of heaven.
As for the future, I am navigating family members with different demanding health issues, so I am having to say no to things and put myself second. I am hoping things ease up, but in the meantime, I will act locally, perhaps direct and focus on some writing.
I did get to participate in the first-ever Desperate Housewives convention and it was a love fest of epic proportions!
Dress: Abbas Harajli; Ring: Rohin’s
Starring Marcia Cross @reallymarcia
Photography Greg Alexander @gregalexanderofficial
Art Direction Sébastien Vienne @sebastienvienne
Production & PR Méphistophélès Productions @mephistophelesproductions
Hair & Makeup Max Roman @straight2themax
Assistant Emmeline Yalaz @emmeline.yl
Jewellery Rohin’s @rohinsjewellery
Cover dress Lena Erziak @lena_erziak
Designers:
Dany Atrache @danyatrache
Charbel Karam @charbelkaramcouture
Abbas Harajli @abbasharajli
Inclover @inclover_official_
Coordination @alyjaffal