In USA’s brand new smash hit The Starter Wife, based on the ten-time Emmy nominated miniseries, Debra Messing proves there’s life after wife (and Grace Adler). And in a recent hour long interview, the versatile and intelligent actress who’s also taken on the role of producer discussed the natural source for dramedy fodder in the show’s setting by noting that, “in the world of Hollywood,” Wife’s “social satire” allows for an endless well of opportunities to poke “fun at the values and priorities that are askew there.”

“Everybody has a story… [and] we get stories from every angle and essentially the more extreme, the funnier,” Messing shared, in admitting that the authenticity of the Los Angeles lifestyle does creep in, revealing that she knows others who “have been to five-year-old birthday parties with a tiger in the backyard.” And by starring as Molly Kagan, the ex-wife of a high profile producer who’s now “starting over at 40,” Messing shared that it’s this unique point-of-view that enables the show’s ability to “go anywhere,” especially considering that Molly is currently testing the waters in “new and uncharted territory,” while “having to discover an occupation that will support [her] and her daughter, and negotiating living in the same community that has ostracized her.” Additionally, Messing relishes in playing an outsider who is always “trying to get her footing.”

As the opening two-hour season premiere found Molly’s private diary filled with “comic social commentary” of those she encounters on a daily basis stolen and posted online by a ruthless blogger, she’s striving to make amends with the other Hollywood moms she sees at pick-up and drop-off at her daughter’s school. In doing so, Messing reveals that from this “experience attention is brought to Molly and some unusual professional opportunities arise,” which will test Molly in terms of what’s important to her and ethics and sort of [throw her] into the middle of the whole Hollywood game.”

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