Oct 22, 2008 Filed Under: Interview,The Starter Wife Comments (0)

Debra Messing’s new series “The Starter Wife” recently premiered on the USA Network. In this interview, she talks about the show, her role as an executive producer and why she feels so connected to this character.

Q: When you were filming the miniseries did you have any thought or maybe even any inclination that this might eventually go to series?

Debra Messing: Absolutely none. No, absolutely none.

It was adapted from a novel and it was finite and we finished the novel. I think that what happened was that when the miniseries got ten Emmy nominations it just sort of shocked everybody, including myself. USA called and said I think we’ve touched a nerve. I think that there’s something here that is modern and relevant and has not been explored in TV or film before. At least that’s what all the people who stop me on the street, the people who say, “That’s me. I’m a starter wife,” or “I’m a starter husband,” that’s what I’ve been hearing the most is like that’s me and you’ve never seen anything on TV that really shows my life and my struggles.

I think that all bets were off after those ten Emmy’s and we sat down and said, “Okay, can this be a long running series?” Once we realized that all the things that worked from the miniseries would be maintained, and that we just wanted to build on that and expand the world of The Starter Wife and add new characters and have fun with the storylines, we realized that it could have a long life as a series. I’m so grateful to USA that they did that.

Q: “The Starter Wife” uses a lot of fantasy scenes from movies. Do you have a favorite?

Debra Messing: It’s so hard to pick a favorite because they just kept getting better and better. Right off the top of my head, I’d have to say the Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct,” which is in the last episode of the series, and playing Carol Channing singing, instead of “Hello, Molly” singing “Hello, Dolly.” Singing and dancing and doing a big song and dance number, that was a highlight for me.

Q: Which one have you not done yet that you would like to do?

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Oct 21, 2008 Filed Under: Interview Comments (0)

Actress Debra Messing has been compared to another redhead with comic timing, Lucille Ball. But her signature red hair was forced on her, the star of USA’s “The Starter Wife” confesses.

“I was doing the movie, “A Walk in the Clouds,” and they wanted my hair auburn, but they didn’t want to send me to a fancy salon,” she says.

“I was in a Motel 6 up in Napa Valley and somebody was pouring bleach on my head for 13 hours. And it never was even, and it ended up I was a Titian red — it was awful,” she chuckles.

“Then I got this Clairol commercial with the understanding that I would have to get a normal color hair. But I had to keep my hair some color red in case I had to go back and reshoot ‘A Walk in the Clouds.’ Then all of a sudden everything I auditioned for, I got.” Four weeks earlier as a brunette, Messing couldn’t get arrested.

A casting director, who’d seen her many times, may have saved her career when she called Messing’s agent and reported that Messing was sabotaging herself in auditions.

“‘She is wearing so much makeup that it’s like kabuki, and she looks 10 years older than she really is,’ the casting director said.

“I was putting stage makeup on, that’s all I knew,” shrugs Messing, who starred for eight years on “Will and Grace.”

Messing was first drawn to acting as a shy child. “I felt safer being somebody else than myself.

“I was sort of not in the ‘in’ social circles as a little girl and didn’t feel very good in my skin. The one place I felt like I could lie was onstage.”

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Oct 20, 2008 Filed Under: Interview,The Starter Wife,Will & Grace Comments (1)

Debra Messing has never been through a divorce, unlike her character Molly in the new TV series “The Starter Wife.”

But the Emmy-winning actress says she was able to identify with the pain of such a breakup by reflecting on the demise of her hit TV comedy series “Will & Grace” in which she co-starred for its full eight seasons.

“It snuck up on me,” Messing said of the parallel.

“When I read the script, I felt a deep connection to it and I didn’t really understand where it came from,” said Messing, whose new show stems from a miniseries and debuts Wednesday in Canada on Showcase.

“But then we were in Australia and we were about halfway through shooting the miniseries and then it just hit me just how much the journey that Molly the character was going through (was like) my personal journey,” she said in a phone interview from New York City where her husband, Daniel Zelman, is a writer and creator of the acclaimed TV drama “Damages.”

“The Starter Wife” sees Molly trying to come to terms with her more humble lifestyle after she’s dumped by her husband, a rich Hollywood film mogul, for a younger woman.

The script picks up where the six-part miniseries – which was nominated for 10 Emmy Awards – ended last year, and finds Molly swearing off men and getting serious about a writing career.

Messing says she was struck by how much her own life post-”Will & Grace” matched Molly’s life post-marriage.

“Molly’s whole identity was being the wife of this power broker, and my identity for almost a decade was Grace and I didn’t know what my new identity was going to be,” said Messing, who won the 2003 Emmy for playing Grace Adler alongside Canadian Eric McCormack, who played her gay roommate, Will.

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Oct 19, 2008 Filed Under: Interview Comments (0)

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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Oct 17, 2008 Filed Under: Interview,The Starter Wife Comments (0)

What about your role continues to challenge you?

D. Messing: Oh, everything about Molly challenges me and that’s why I love playing her so much. Everything that’s going on in her life is new and uncharted territory for her. Her life is starting over at 40, everything from the dynamic between her new ex-husband, having to negotiate that new relationship with shared custody, to dating for the first time in over ten years, which is awkward and funny and scary, to having to discover an occupation that will support she and her daughter, and negotiating living in the same community that has ostracized her. Everywhere she goes, she is an outsider or she is trying to get her footing. It’s incredibly challenging.

With Josie and Sara doing the writing, the same writers who did the miniseries, it’s just—every day is a ride, everything from high comedy to very poignant still simple, accessible emotional moments.

How much do you see yourself playing this role?

D. Messing: Oh, gosh, as long as they’ll let me. We just finished our first season, like two weeks ago and I was sobbing the last day, and that’s unusual for me and I think it was a clear sign that it’s a special show. It’s a special group of people and it’s really touched my heart and has inspired me creatively and has turned out to be a much more fulfilling experience than I ever imagined it could be.

I also think you don’t have to have seen the miniseries in order to start watching the series because everything is new. Starting over at 40, it can go anywhere. And especially in the world of Hollywood in which we do social satire and we have a lot of fun poking fun at the values and priorities that are askew there, I think that there will be fodder for comedy in that world forever.

Molly is a complicated character, which is why I love playing her. Nothing is clean and simple. Her relationship with her ex-husband is messy. She still is kind of taking care of him, even though he’s hurt her. Nothing is easy, so I think that especially with the team of writers and the group of actors we have I think that we could go until Molly is in the old home in Beverly Hills.

When you were filming the miniseries did you have any thought or maybe even any inclination that this might eventually go to series or was it after?

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Oct 11, 2008 Filed Under: Interview,Media Comments (0)

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Oct 11, 2008 Filed Under: Interview,Media Comments (0)

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Oct 11, 2008 Filed Under: Interview,Media Comments (0)

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Oct 06, 2008 Filed Under: Interview Comments (0)

A few weeks ago, Daemon’s TV and other press outlets were invited on the set of USA’s original series, THE STARTER WIFE, which premieres on October 10 at 9pm.

We got to speak with the cast about what is coming up this season. While Molly, Joan, and Rodney are back, Cricket and Sam are gone. As for Kenny, well he’s still here, but there has been a change of actor (in the miniseries Peter Jacobson portrayed Kenny, but he is now portrayed by David Basche).

This season also introduces a new love interest for Molly, Zach, portrayed by Hart Bochner. And this is the perfect time to introduce our first interview.

DEBRA MESSING (Molly) and HART BOCHNER (Zach) sat down with us to discuss their characters’ relationship, their favorite fantasy sequence, and much more. So sit down, relax, and enjoy the interview!

Can you talk a little bit about the first time that your character and Molly interacted and what the encounter was like?

Hart Bochner: Well, the first time we interact is at my writer’s workshop. I play a successful screenwriter and part of my issue is that I’m going through this period of being creatively blocked. And I think one of the ways out of it is to talk about the process and so I put together a group of published writers who come to my house once a week. So the first meeting, I requested that everybody read a portion of their published work. And Debra’s character Molly, is a published writer who has actually written a children’s pop-up book about sharks. And so I didn’t know that going in, but it’s not nearly as legitimate as some of the other writers. But she quickly finds her voice under, I guess my encouragement and tutelage and her work is quite surprising. She’s able to dig deep and into the depths of what she’s been going through and, you know, by virtue of the fact that we’re both recently divorced and we have these seven year old daughters that coincidentally go to school together, we find sort of this kinship. We’re both a bit wounded and shell shocked from these divorces and, you know, the thing about the character that Debra’s playing, which is also something that Debra brings to it is, both Debra and the character are quite adorable.
So for myself and for my character, it’s quite easy to develop this attraction to her. And while I’ve been having these dalliances with, you know, sort of younger babes, there’s something about this girl which hooks me. You know, she’s of substance and she’s interesting and she’s complex and she’s a bit neurotic, and all that makes for this very kind of adorable package. So we at first are trying to keep everything professional. But I can’t sort of stay away from her. You’d have to ask her what she thinks of me and my character, I can give you one side of it anyway.

Are there steamy love scenes? Do tell.

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Oct 06, 2008 Filed Under: Interview Comments (0)

Emmy award-winning actress Debra Messing is on the big screen in the remake of George Cukor’s classic “The Women.” Messing, 40, became an instant success as Grace on the television sitcom “Will and Grace” (1998-2006). She studied at Brandeis University and got her master’s in theater at New York University, where she met her husband Daniel Zelman in 1990. They have a son, Roman. Her new series on the USA network, “The Starter Wife,” premieres Friday. She plays Molly, the ditched wife of a Hollywood director. The show originally was a miniseries in which she played the same character.

Q: What was your free time like after “Will and Grace” ended? Was there any?

A: I didn’t really have much because I had already committed to doing “The Starter Wife” miniseries. I did go to Cape Cod for a couple of weeks and just relaxed. It was perfect.

Q: I read once your dream was to take an African safari. Did you do it?

A: (laughing) It has not happened. Much to my chagrin. Yeah, that was on the list.

Q: Do you know many real starter wives?

A: Yes, yes, I do. There are so many people who have gone through divorce, and the women who I know have given anecdotes — many of them very funny– that, you know, make it into the script. It is definitely not Hollywood specific. I think the starter wife syndrome is a modern and relevant concept. Now we are at a time when people are having two and three careers and two and three marriages. I think it has touched a nerve.

Q: What was your dating life like before you met your husband?

A: Very sparse. You know I was sort of a nervous Nelly. I met my husband when I was 21. Actual dating I tried once, and it just made me anxious. We were together nine years before we got married, so it wasn’t a rush to the altar. I just think of it as being lucky enough to have found the one early enough to be spared the single dating scene.

Q: You always knew you wanted to act. Did you always have the confidence you could make it happen?

A: I did, strangely. I think that my parents made me believe that I could do anything as long as I worked really hard, as long as I studied really hard, and I was dedicated and patient. In my mind, growing up, there was nothing that was off limits to me, and that was probably the biggest gift my parents gave me. I believed that at some point someone would say, “She has something to contribute.”

Q: When you play Molly in “The Starter Wife” does Grace ever try to bubble up?

A: You know I don’t think so. I was concerned about it because I had just stopped doing the show. Now I just feel that Molly is so different from Grace and so different from me, but both Grace and Molly are somehow a part of me.

Q: Once you’ve mastered a character and played one as long as you did Grace, does she become ingrained in you?

A: Yes. I think the ones that are really meaningful stay with you. I played Harper in “Angels in America: Perestroika,” the second half of Tony Kushner’s play when I was in my last year at NYU. His final edit was based on the work we did. Playing Harper in 1993, you know, she is still with me.

Q: Facial expressions are so much a part of your acting repertoire does that mean you will never do Botox or surgery?

A: Well, I haven’t done it yet, and you know that is the reason. I don’t think of myself as depending on facial expression more than any other actors, but I do know that I learned to be very expressive from my mother. I think I have an aesthetic for a certain kind of comedy that is full-body comedy. So, because of that aesthetic, so far I have been just way too scared to consider freezing or changing a part of my face so that I looked tighter or younger or what have you.

Q: “The Women” is all about female friendships — the good and the bad. Do you have a lot of female friends?

A: I don’t have a gaggle of female friends. I have a handful of friends. I have girlfriend who I met the first day of college, and she is still my best friend. I met a guy the first day that I did summer stock at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and he’s my male best friend. I’m really more of a one-on-one person in general.

Q: With so many women on the set of “The Women” were there any diva issues?

A: Oh, God no, not one. It’s funny, I had no idea what to expect when I came to an all-female cast. I believe there never would have been an all-female cast had there not been a precedent in the original. I doubt we will ever see it again, honestly. It turned out we had three days together prior to starting work at Diane English’s house. We basically spent three days around her kitchen table talking about our lives, and what it’s like being modern women. She brought us together under the auspices that we were going to do some script work, some rehearsal. Ultimately what we really did was bond. We couldn’t have been more different from one another, yet we became really intimate really quickly. I think we ended up opening up to each other in a way that I don’t believe ever could have happened if there were men around.

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