Debra Messing’s Emmy-winning portrayal of Grace helped put the Best Gal archetype on the map of gay entertainment. It was also an opportunity for the Rhode Island-reared actress to inhabit the role of a lifetime. Bay Windows talked to Debra Messing about her reflections on Will & Grace, her New England roots growing up in Rhode Island and attending Brandeis University, and what she thinks Grace would be up to three years later.

Debra, when you think back on Will & Grace and the period that it marked in your career, what’s the initial emotion that you feel?

Oh, gosh. Well now it’s been three years, and having time to let it sink in that it’s over, and actually having a little distance to look back for the first time, it [the emotion] is just awe. You know? Awe and gratitude that I was lucky enough to fall into a creative situation that was so vital and inspiring and ultimately socially important. It’s a very unusual thing for an actor to be able to play one role for eight years! It’s not usually why actors sign on to be actors. We usually want to keep changing. It was a privilege to be able to explore this one character for all those years and to be part of this little family over that period of time. The amount of trust that is earned and created is something that I doubt I will ever feel again. Also, I look back and I feel such joy. As hard as we worked – and we did every day, the business of comedy is really hard work – but the upside is that you laugh every single day at work and that is rare. Actually, my son just went over to Max’s house yesterday to play with his twins… and I just saw Sean and Megan over the weekend, and Eric and I are constantly emailing. We are still incredibly close and it’s become obvious that this is a “’til death do us part” love connection.

I’ve heard it said that gay representation on television and in popular culture can be divided into two periods: before Will & Grace and after Will & Grace. Do you think of the show in those grand terms?

You know, I’ve heard that before, and it’s a stunning thing that it is perceived that way. I know that was never the intention going into this job. You know, everyone’s first priority was to entertain, to make people laugh. To make a show that everybody wanted to see. I think it surprised all of us that it was able to simultaneously be entertaining to a mass audience as well as being very honest and open and really nonchalant about the sexual orientation of the characters, which was a first. I do see the “before and after Will & Grace,” in that regard. Nothing makes me more proud than the effect it had on the gay and lesbian community, and also the more close-minded straight community, as a result of Max and Dave’s writing. They created characters that people could fall in love with and laugh at and care about. They were able to educate the world and challenge the status quo. They were recognized, and rightly so, by GLAAD and we attended so many awards ceremonies over the course of those eight years where Max and Dave were acknowledged for doing just that. It was those evenings when we were all together that I felt like, “Wow, this is a night that I’m going to talk to my son about when he grows up and can understand.” Yes, the SAG Award for best ensemble [Arts Editor note: 2000 Screen Actors Guild Award winner, Outstanding Cast - Comedy Series] was amazing, but to hear people talk about it, or read letters from young people who had just come out as a result of watching the show with their parents… and how, according to them, it felt like it was a bridge… those are the things that made you sort of gasp, and hold your breath.

What was your college experience like at Brandeis? Tell me about your school days in Boston.

I grew up in Rhode Island next to a farm, so Boston was a huge bustling city to me. … So every time I went into Boston when I was a student, I felt like it was a city essentially created for college students. You could feel that there were a hundred colleges within 15 miles of Boston’s center. There was something exciting about that, something innocent about it. I think of Boston as a very clean city. It’s very manageable. My brother went to Harvard Law School, and so I spent a lot of time in Cambridge, going around Boston and feeling like it was my city. Brandeis, at least when I was there, it was a very small school. Everyone would go into Boston for a social life. There was no social life in Waltham [laughs].

Yeah, well – some things never change!

I would imagine! [Laughs] … My husband went to Harvard undergrad. The Boston community is in my blood.

It must have been fun to get back here to shoot for The Women.

It really was. It was fantastic. I didn’t expect that it would be shot in Boston! It was a beautiful time of year, and I really felt like I was returning home.

As far as you growing up in Rhode Island – Until recently, I had no idea that you were a Rhode Island Junior Miss!

I was! [Laughs] I was, indeed. And that helped me go to Brandeis. It was a scholastic program: only seniors in high school could participate. The winner got $25,000 toward the college of your choice. It was a grueling interview process about politics and world events and then the talent competition. … I won, and then I thought, “Cool, I got some money for college.” I went to the Nationals in Mobile, Alabama. It was a fascinating experience.

Well, as a former title-holder, and given that Rhode Island seems to be the New England state most struggling to advance marriage equality… any thoughts? It seems like a certain other Miss has spoken out…?

Honestly, my heart broke when I heard her speak. And you know, I will preface this by saying that everyone has the right to their own opinion. But when it comes to civil rights, I feel like it’s just time for us to take that leap. It’s an incredibly complicated issue because there are religious [connotations] wrapped up in the idea of what marriage is and what marriage means. But putting the title of marriage aside, I just think everybody has to step up and say, let’s put that word aside and at the very least, let’s get to make this a level playing field. Everyone should be allowed to love whoever they want to love, and get the same respect and the same protections, the same tax exemptions. Everyone should be equal, and then we can decide on a title for it.

Last question: what are you working on right now… and three years later, what do you think Grace would be up to?

I’m currently in pre-production for a new comedy for NBC, a single-camera comedy. The pilot is just being written, so it’s in the very beginning stages. As for Grace, I think she would have worked for the Obama campaign. And perhaps right now, she’d be decorating their house.

Really? Max thought she’d be divorced right now.

[Laughs] Well! I’m going to have to call him up and ask about that.