Teri Hatcher Reveals She Had a Not-So-Innocent Crush on James Denton on Desperate Housewives

It turns out Teri Hatcher and James Denton's chemistry on Desperate Housewives wasn't just for TV.

The two actors recently reunited onscreen for Hallmark's upcoming movie A Kiss Before Christmas, airing Sunday.

Ahead of the holiday movie, they made an appearance on PEOPLE (The TV Show!), where correspondent Sandra Vergara asked if they ever had "an innocent crush on each other" while filming Desperate Housewives.

"Mine wasn't innocent," Hatcher quipped, while Denton added, "The answer is yes, absolutely."

Denton, 58, played Mike Delfino on the popular ABC series, which ran for eight seasons from 2004 through 2012. Hatcher, 56, starred as Susan Meyer, who eventually became Susan Delfino when she and Denton's character wed during season 3.

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In A Kiss Before Christmas, Denton plays real estate development executive Ethan Holt, who has two teen children and a wife, Joyce (Hatcher). On Christmas Eve, Ethan is disappointed to learn he's losing out on a promotion and wishes that his life had taken a different course — a wish that becomes reality thanks to some Christmas magic.

He wakes up the next morning and is shocked to find that he isn't married to Joyce, he doesn't have two teenage kids and he's CEO of his company. He then must figure out how to reclaim his original life and the family he loves with the help of Joyce, but he only has until Christmas Day to do it.

Denton told PEOPLE (The TV Show!) that while filming the movie, he had to resist falling back into the character of Mike Delfino, especially given that Hallmark film was more G-rated than Desperate Housewives.

"We're in this bedroom scene, which is not sexy, it's a couple of married people having a conversation," he said. "But I kind of went back to that slow Delfino, kind of, you drive the conversation, I just nod and kiss you."

Daniel Crump

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"Is that what you thought you did on Housewives?" Hatcher said with a laugh, while Denton added, "That's what I did for eight years."

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Even though their characters will be quite different, Hatcher noted that her onscreen husband won't be meeting the same tragic end that he did on Desperate Housewives.

"It's going to be the ending to Mike and Susan that fans didn't get," she said.

"The beauty of Hallmark," Denton concluded.

A Kiss Before Christmas airs Sunday (8 p.m. ET) on Hallmark.