Live From Studio 1A: Debra Messing Q&A
Posted: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 8:50 AM by Zoe.Marcus
Filed Under:
Live from Studio 1A, Celebs
Actress Debra Messing stopped by the studio this morning to discuss her latest project "The Starter Wife," a television adaptation of the popular book. (WATCH VIDEO) After her segment, she stuck around to answer a few questions about "Will & Grace" and her new project:
Q: How much are you keeping in touch with your "Will & Grace" castmates at this point?
Debra: Well, I've been out of the country for many months, so e-mail has been our main source of communicating. Everyone is traveling all over the place, so that's the way we're able to keep up with each other.
Q: Any "Will & Grace" reunion talks in the work at this point?
Debra: No one has approached us yet. I don't know (laughs). I think they'll probably wait at least until the year mark before considering that!
Q: What was it like to shoot "The Starter Wife" in Australia? Was it strange because the story is set in California?
Debra: It was great. I fell in love with the country. All the cliches are true. The people are robust and fun, and good-spirited, hard-working. The crew was incredible to work with, and you know we were there for 4 months, so we were really submerged and we got used to having kangaroos hopping across the set. It was also sort of surreal because the entire story takes place in Malibu, California or Beverly Hills, California, so to be making Australia our hometown essentially, was a constant source of comedy for us.
Q: "The Starter Wife" is not a full-fledged comedy, but how is the comedy in that program different from the comedy of "Will & Grace?"
Debra: Well, the tone of the piece really sort of carves out what kind of comic tone it has. A sitcom is 22 minutes in front of a live audience, and the genre is such that there are set-ups and punchlines. The joke is everything and it's your job to make people laugh. And you don't have that much time to do it in. In "The Starter Wife," we shot it like a film, we shot it out of order, it was 4 months, 6 hours worth of film, so there was the luxury of time to tell the story. So I think the comedy comes out of character more and there is more of a balance between the drama and the comedy.
