Actress Debra Messing recalled filming an emotional scene on the hit NBC sitcom “Will & Grace,” which she said caused the audience to fall “silent.”
The NBC comedy, which first aired in 1998, was known for getting big laughs most of the time. But Messing described one of the episodes in which the characters got serious, per People.
“I think the big fight that Will and Grace got into during the first run. I think that was surprisingly painful to shoot and I think that it really surprised the audience,” the 54-year-old actress said when asked about the most difficult scene to film during the premiere event for the new “Just Jack & Will” podcast.
Messing was referring to a time during season 8 when her character Grace got into a huge fight with her best friend Will (Eric McCormack).
“And they were dead quiet, which we had never experienced in all the years and so we knew that something important was happening,” Messing said of the live studio audience’s reaction to that scene. “So, that’s a very clear memory for me.”
“I felt grateful that the writers gave us the opportunity to do something that had that much gravitas to it, you know?” she said of the experience. “It’s a sitcom and normally you don’t see that. And so I was just … I was grateful.”
Messing was promoting the podcast, which consists of actor Sean Hayes and McCormack rewatching the sitcom and commenting on it along with special guests along the way. “Will & Grace” earned 18 Primetime Emmy Awards and 83 nominations. It focused on Will, a gay lawyer, and Grace, a Jewish interior designer, living together as roommates in New York City.
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The sitcom was initially criticized for relying too heavily on stereotypes when depicting those two demographics, but it later became a cultural phenomenon and is credited with normalizing openly gay characters as leads on primetime TV.
The “Just Jack & Will” podcast will debut on June 15 on Amazon Music and will be available on other podcast services on June 22, just in time for the 25th anniversary of the show.