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Child actors: Rachel Fox, Tyler James Williams and Sofia Vassilieva

ANY KID CAN PLAY PRETEND. BUT THESE THREE KIDS CAN ACT.

By Lisa Rosen, Special to The Times
June 4, 2008

CHILD actors, like tiny Rodney Dangerfields, have a hard time getting respect. Often viewed as puppets of stage-struck parents or grown fodder for where-are-they- now stories, it's easy to overlook the work they do. But family shows require kids as much as moms and dads, and some of those shows need the kids to carry a heavy load. Three young actors -- from the comedy "Everybody Hates Chris," the drama "Medium" and the hybrid that is "Desperate Housewives" -- make it all look easy. Here, and on Page 26, they take a moment out of their workdays to talk about their approach to the craft, and how to keep it real in this business of make-believe.

Rachel Fox, 'Desperate Housewives'

On the last few episodes of this season's "Housewives," the devil wears pigtails. Rachel Fox played Kayla, briefly ensconced in the home of her father Tom Scavo (Doug Savant) and stepmother Lynette (Felicity Huffman). Kayla, who resents Lynette and wants her dad to herself, cajoled her stepbrothers to set fire to a building and got one of them to jump off the roof. When Lynette became wise to her wicked ways, Kayla managed to frame her for child abuse. She watched from her window during Lynette's handcuffed perp walk. She was finally caught in her own web of deceit, but not before thoroughly creeping out anyone watching her at work. Fox, 11, has been acting since she was 7, but the recurring Kayla role has been her largest part to date.

If "The Bad Seed" came to mind while watching her at work, that wasn't a coincidence. The 1956 film, starring Patty McCormack, was mentioned at Fox's first table read. Fox rented the movie as research. "I didn't copy her exactly," she says, "but I kind of used some of the stuff, like the evilness in the eyes, and you could tell by looking at her she was evil." Fox decided that Kayla's was a case of nature rather than nurture. "It was inherited, because Kayla's mother was very evil," she explains. "I played her as completely manipulative." Even her final shot, crying for her father as she's driven away by her grandparents, is a manipulation; "I played that I can't believe I lost the battle against Lynette."

Although the "Housewives" season finale precludes any recurrences of Fox's Kayla, she thoroughly enjoys the recognition she's already received from people on the street. "They do come up to me and say, 'Oh, my God, you're so evil, I hate you!' " she says delightedly. In fact, she welcomes any and all attention -- from interviewers, the red carpet and even future paparazzi. "Absolutely, I like being treated like a star!" she says. "It's part of being an entity and I love that."

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'Desperate Housewives' unveils its newest bad girl

By Cristina Kinon Daily News Staff Writer
Friday, May 2nd 2008, 4:00 AM

Eleven-year-old Rachel Fox has a nickname around the set of "Desperate Housewives."

"Eeeevil," Fox told the Daily News. "Every time I walk onto the set and get into the makeup chair, everyone calls me 'eeeevil.' I love it. I love playing evil. I feel like I can do more with the character than just playing the nice girl."

Fox plays Kayla Huntington, daughter of Tom Scavo and one-night stand Nora Huntington, and the stepdaughter of Lynette Scavo on the popular ABC Sunday-night comedy-drama.

In season three, Kayla's mother was killed during a hostage-taking in the town's supermarket, and Lynette vowed to take Kayla in as her own daughter. In the beginning of their relationship, Kayla seemed to take a liking to Lynette and was sympathetic during her battle with cancer, but their relationship is about to take a turn for the worse.

On Sunday's episode, airing at 9 p.m., Kayla will reveal her evil side.

"She is every parent's worst nightmare," said Fox. "She does so many evil things, I wish I could tell you!"

"Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry took his inspiration for Kayla from the 1956 film "The Bad Seed," in which Patty McCormack played a girl who did whatever it took to get what she wanted.

"They asked me to watch [the movie], so I did," Fox said. "I love it. It was kind of scary, but Patty McCormack did a really good job. I loved her evil look."

Fox says she loves going to work every day with "Miss Felicity Huffman" and is most excited for audiences to see her first big onscreen stunt during the May 11 episode.

"I get slapped!" she said.

In addition to her stint on "Housewives," Fox is working on her music career.

"I like all my music to sound different," said Fox, who is a fan of Avril Lavigne, Miley Cyrus, Aly & AJ and the Jonas Brothers. "If you listen to some albums, all the songs sound the same, and that gets a little boring. All my songs have a different flavor."

Fox is also a huge "American Idol" fan and is rooting for David Cook now that Michael Johns has been eliminated.

"I actually met Michael Johns," Fox said. "He's so nice, and extremely tall."

And one day, she hopes to have her own "Hannah Montana"-type show on ABC.

"I was thinking prime-time television," said Fox. "I don't go small."

ckinon@nydailynews.com

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LITTLE GIRL EVIL ON 'HOUSEWIVES'

11-YR-OLD KID WATCHED 'BAD SEED' FOR ROLE

By MELISSA JANE KRONFELD

May 7, 2008 --

THE newest villain on "Desperate Housewives" is just 11 years old. How's that for evil?

After months in the background of the primetime soap, creepy little Kayla - the love child that pizza-store owner Tom Sacvo never knew he had until Season 2 of the show - is suddenly front and center.

Last Sunday's episode revealed that the mild-mannered 'tween was behind the torching of a neighborhood restaurant that was threatening to compete with Tom's pizza place and that she was not above blackmailing her stepmother, Lynette, to keep it quiet.

"Kayla is super evil," Rachel Fox, the young actress told The Post. "She's a lot like the girl in the movie 'The Bad Seed.'

"The writers actually got the idea from the [movie] and the idea is: Is evil inherited, or does it come from your surroundings?"

Before filming on the episode began, the producers even made Rachel watch the 1956 movie about a heartless little girl who becomes a killer.

"I think that evil is inherited," the petite actress has decided. "Well, at least that's the way they wrote it. My mom Nora, who was killed, she was evil."

Fans of the "Housewives" parlor game of plot twists and turns know that Tom discovers at the end of the second season that he fathered a daughter - in a cruise-ship fling - years before he married Lynette.

The little girl's mother, played by Kiersten Ward, showed up on Wisteria Lane, daughter in tow, causing chaos in Tom's marriage. But the mother was killed in one of the show's most famous moments, a hold-up in the local supermarket, and Kayla comes to live with her father.

Kayla didn't make her first appearance on the show until season three and had settled in as just-one-of-the-kids until the show's plot took a sharp turn last week.

Rachel isn't giving up any secrets about where her story goes from here.

"I do [know] - but I can't tell you," she says. "I definitely step up the evil. Oh, my gosh, I really do!"

Rachel, who has been acting professionally for only two years now, sounds deceptively older than her chronological age when talking about her character.

"It's so much fun. I love being a little evil person," she says. "You can do so much more with Kayla than being the nice guy."

She has appeared on Disney's "That's So Raven," playing a character she described as a "diva," Nickelodeon's "iCarly" and "Hannah Montana," where she played a "super fan."

"I love Miley and her dad," Fox says of the pop phenom, though claiming some ignorance about the recent Vanity Fair photo scandal. "I don't know much about the Vanity Fair thing, but I do know everyone has their moments."

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TAKIN' A SHOT

'DH' TRIES TO GO FIVE YEARS INTO FUTURE

By ADAM BUCKMAN

May 16, 2008 --

TWO questions are overriding all others as "Desperate Housewives" goes into its two-hour season finale this weekend.

The questions are not even likely to be answered on Sunday (9-11 p.m. on ABC) since they concern the future of this show, which happens to be TV's highest-rated scripted series (yes, with an average 18.3 million viewers per episode this season, "Desperate Housewives" is bigger than "CSI" and "House" - you can look it up).

One of the questions concerns a major character, Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), who was seen at the conclusion of last Sunday's episode climbing into her convertible and leaving Fairview after the ladies of Wisteria Lane formed an alliance to shun her after Edie threatened to blackmail Bree Hodge (Marcia Cross).

Her departure fueled speculation that Sheridan was leaving the show.

Neither Marc Cherry, the usually loquacious creator/executive producer of the show, nor ABC's press reps would characterize Sheridan's status, implying that to do so might spoil an upcoming plot twist.

ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson was less cautious at a news conference held earlier this week to brief reporters on ABC's new fall shows. He took a question about "Housewives" and let slip that Sheridan and Dana Delany, who has been starring this past season as Kathryn Mayfair, would both be back next season.

Cherry has played coy when asked about Sheridan. "She won't be back for a few years," he cheekily told the Associated Press.

That answer is probably a reference to the other question concerning "Housewives": Will Cherry go ahead with a plan under consideration to move the action on "Desperate Housewives" ahead five years into the future next fall?

No one is saying if the plan is definite yet, but Cherry's answer about Edie probably indicates the flash-forward scenario is a go, with Edie indeed returning in "a few years" next season.

Under this scenario, the show's fifth season would open next September with a peek into the lives of the housewives five years from now. The stories of how they got there would then be told in flashbacks throughout the season.

Meanwhile, Sunday's season finale will play in two parts representing two episodes of the 17 ABC managed to get produced this season, despite being interrupted for 3½ months by the writers strike.

In the first hour, Lynette (Felicity Huffman) will be accused of child abuse after slapping her bad-seed adopted daughter, Kayla (Rachel Fox), across the face in a clothing store. And in the second, several characters will receive mysterious death threats.

Will the threats matter five years in the future? The answer to that question won't be known until the fall.