Debra Messing revealed during “The Magic of Will & Grace” panel at The Paley Center for Media that she was instructed to “have big boobs” during her first costume fitting for the NBC sitcom (via People magazine). The Emmy winner pushed back on the suggestion, only to be told that it was coming straight from the top network executive.
“The very first fitting, they had the chicken cutlets to make me bigger,” Messing said. “I just wasn’t a fan of like the whole idea of it. I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t need that.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, it’s the president of the network [saying this].’ And I said, ‘If he wants it, then he needs to come here and tell me to my face.’”
Messing played interior designer Grace Adler for eight seasons of “Will & Grace,” which originally aired on NBC from 1998 to 2006. A revival series, which reunited Messing with her original co-stars Eric McCormack, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes, ran on NBC for three seasons from 2017 to 2020. Messing isn’t so quick to return to the sitcom franchise.
“The only way that I could see another iteration is if it was like Golden Girls in Boca Raton,” she previously told People. “So I think we’re going to have to wait another 30 years. So we can talk again in 30 years and see where we’re at. Until then, just watch reruns.”
Messing once told Variety that joining “Will & Grace” hinged upon the show fairly representing its gay characters and the scripts giving her physical comedy.
“My first concern at the time was that they’d portray the gay characters in a way that was different, but then the second thing was that I didn’t just want to be the pretty girl who sets up the funny guys,” Messing said. “[I told them], ‘The way I can service this, and what I can bring to the mix, is physical comedy.’”
Episodes of “Will & Grace” are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.