Debra Messing teases Will & Grace and the show’s cultural impact in new HFPA interview
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) released an episode of their podcast, “The HFPA in Conversation” featuring Debra Messing. Messing sat down to tease what fans can expect from the highly anticipated next season of Will & Grace, the impact of the show both on herself and on the world, and how it feels turning fifty in Hollywood.
Messing talked about what fans can expect from the upcoming new season of Will & Grace. “You can expect big changes for all four characters… Grace is getting a love interest, which I’m looking very forward to… Karen is getting divorced, Will is changing jobs, and Jack is getting married… big sweeping changes so that means there’s going to be all kinds of new things to play with and joke about, and also just extraordinary guest stars. Alec Baldwin is coming back… Chelsea Handler is coming and I think she’s the perfect kind of actor to come and play in our playground.” She teased.
There’s no denying the show has had a huge impact on our culture and Messing says, “It became apparent that the show was politically and socially relevant in a way that surprised all of us and it was a source of enormous pride for me. We tried to use our platform on that show to pass gay marriage when it was on, but it didn’t work… so years later when Vice President Biden said that he supported gay marriage and he felt that Will & Grace did more for the cause than anything else in society… other than the birth of my child that was the proudest moment of my life.”
Aside from the hit NBC show, Messing also talked about Searching. Her newest film, which also stars John Cho, is a thriller about a missing teen told completely through technology devices we use every day to communicate. “I don’t want to give anything away… but I’m not known for roles such as this… I only shot for a week. The entire film was done in thirteen days which is really astonishing. I didn’t realize a feature film could be made in thirteen days.”
Listen to the full conversation below
