Oct 02, 2008 Filed Under: Interview,The Starter Wife Comments (0)
After The Starter Wife mini-series received ten Emmy nominations, it didn’t come as a surprise to hear that it was being turned into a full-blown TV series. Airing on October 10 on USA Network, The Starter Wife is rebooting the life of newly divorced single mom Molly Kagen with actress Debra Messing back in the lead role for the series. Although actor Peter Jacobson couldn’t return to the role of Molly’s Hollywood exec ex-husband Kenny Kagen, Lipstick Jungle’s David Alan Basche will be taking over the role for the series in a way that Messing describes as how the two Darrens were switched on Bewithced.
With The Starter Wife about to hit the airwaves, our own Troy Rogers dialed in to a conference call to chat with Debra Messing and David Alan Basche about the starting the series and switching Kenny.
THE DEADBOLT: What’s it like to wear the hat of executive producer and the star?
DEBRA MESSING: Oh, it’s fantastic because I get to whip people like David into shape and tell them to go get me coffee. Kidding – okay.
DAVID ALAN BASCHE: … low-fat, two sugars, low-fat milk.
MESSING: That’s right. No, he knows. He’s got it down. No, it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of responsibility. But, you know, I love every aspect of the show. I’ve been very involved. It was important for me to be very involved in all of the creative elements. And so David being brought onto the show, I always just wanted to make sure that we maintained the sophistication and intelligence and the comedy that we were able to establish in the mini-series.
And often when things turn to TV series there are so many different people with different agendas that things can morph. And so that was why having the executive producer title was important to me because even if I was the star and I had a concern, that concern would only go so far. But having the title of executive producer actually makes them have to actually listen to me complain. And I’m thrilled because I think that everyone has gotten what they wanted. You know, I just wanted to be surrounded with the best actors period.
THE DEADBOLT: How do you explain in the series that Kenny is a different person?
MESSING: We don’t. We’re just sort of doing it like Bewitched. Like Darren, because we just think that the character of Kennedy – of Kenny is so specific and so outrageous and so fun. And by far the hardest character to cast out of everybody to find someone who was capable of doing the comedy and just with the broadness and to be also just a really brilliant actor to do naturalism. It was hard to find somebody who could juggle both. And so we were really just focusing more on that. We figured, okay, if we’re lucky enough to find somebody then the audience will get over it in one episode.
THE DEADBOLT: David, do you think Kenny and Mike Harness would get along?
BASCHE: I’d love to be at that lunch. That would be a great power lunch. You know, it’s interesting. I’m so excited to be playing Kenny partially because as much fun as I’m having on Lipstick Jungle as Mike Harness it’s somewhat limited. And Kenny is completely unlimited. And I think not just the size of the [pool] but I think also just the personalities. You know, Mike is a little more of your very typical guy in the office who is the misogynistic and power hungry and greedy and borderline abusive, you know?
But I find Kenny to be much more interesting than that because he’s all those things. He can certainly be misogynistic. And he’s insensitive and at times interminable. But if I’m lucky at the end of the day he’s also somehow strangely likeable.
THE DEADBOLT: Debra, do you still keep in contact with the cast of Will & Grace?
MESSING: Yes I do. I do. I love them all. And, you know, I don’t see them in person, obviously, as often as I used to which was on a daily basis. But I just saw Sean. It was – my birthday was recent and I went to dinner with him. And saw Eric recently, he came to a birthday party and – a different birthday party – and Megan and I have been in constant contact since she was in New York and now – doing Young Frankenstein. And now she’s back. And, you know, it’s really wonderful to, after eight years with a group of people it’s just – it’s great to know that we will be in each other’s lives forever. There’s just no question.
THE DEADBOLT: What’s the funniest thing that’s happened on set this season?
BASCHE: Oh, I can tell you exactly what it was. It happened last night. We heard Debra mention that we were doing a spoof – a little fantasy sequence from Basic Instinct. So you have to picture Debra looking like the spitting image of Sharon Stone. White silk – a white silk dress and the blonde hair and the cigarette and the lighter and just staring us all down in this dark interrogation room sitting in that chair for that famous scene where Sharon Stone crosses and uncrosses her legs.
And Debra took it upon herself to play a little practical joke on all of us. And at one point when she crossed and uncrossed her legs, it appeared to me – not that I was looking very closely – but it appeared to me that she was wearing panties that had on them lettering that spelled out “Say Please” at which point really none of us could [laughs]… I think that was hands down the funniest thing I’ve experienced in a long time. It was just a really good practical joke.
Other Conference Call Highlights:
Debra Messing on whether turning the mini-series into a full blown series was the plan all along:
“No, it was never even discussed because it was an adaptation of a novel. The mini-series encompassed the whole novel. And so it was always going to be a finite sort of event. And then I imagine when people started to really respond to the show and then we got ten Emmy nominations, USA sort of said, “Oh, I think maybe we have something here.” And so out of the blue the call did come and said, “Would you be – would you consider turning this now into a series?” And so obviously that was a shock. And all the conversations began. And now we’re here. Now we’re finishing up our last episode right now.”
Messing on the mother/daughter dynamic between Molly and Jaden and whether her real son knows what she does for a living:
“Well, about Molly’s – Molly and Kenny’s daughter, Jaden, you definitely do see a lot of Jaden over the course of the series. And you – because it’s a whole new relationship now between Kenny and Molly. They’re new – newly divorced. And they have to deal with custody issues. And they have to see each other on a regular basis and as their personal lives are changing and their professional lives are changing. So, you know, Jaden is an integral part of the show. And being a mother is an integral [part] of who Molly is.
“As for me, my son comes to the set almost daily because it’s too painful for me to be away from him. And he loves it. He plays ball with David. And he knows everybody’s name on the set. He knows exactly where the Kraft service table is. And he knows that Mama tells stories. And so everyday he’ll say, “Okay, what story are you telling today mama?” Unfortunately I think he thinks that everybody is an actor on television or is connected to television in one way or the other because my husband writes for television. And so we talk about that. And then we have a very close friend who is also on another television show who is like an uncle to my son. And so he – everybody is on TV.”
Source: TheDeadbolt.com
