Will and Grace Star Confirms He's Gay - Us Weekly

WILL & GRACE BROKE GROUND FOR GAY REPRENTATN—CAN IT DO IT AGA?

If the show were beg st now, Eric McCormack spects he wouldn't land the role of gay lawyer Will Tman - and that would be jt fe wh him." name="scriptn * is will of will and grace gay *

In 2012, former Vice Print Joe Bin ced the NBC s Will and Grace as a reason for Ameri's "evolvg" attu on homosexualy 2012: "I thk Will and Grace probably did more to te the Amerin public than almost anybody has ever done so far. Broadst televisn the early 2000s was a powerful form of reprentatn wh work UPN and s Ain-Amerin geared programmg, diverse soaps like telenovela adaptatn Ugly Betty, and y, ss like Will and show, starrg a gay man and his straight female roommate, at least partially managed to te straight people on the ia that there's more than one type of gay person—albe rich, whe, affluent on. There was Jack, the flamboyant one most people assumed gay men to be; then there was Eric McCormack's Will Tman, the mundane, everyman that tght straight people their next-door neighbor uld be gay.

Will's portrayal has gone on to be the blueprt for most gay men on televisn sce then, whereas Jack is somehow seen as negative, and regrsive.

'I WOULDN'T GET THIS ROLE TODAY': WILL & GRACE'S STRAIGHT 'GAY' STAR

Was he a gay mstrel show? I've e to realize that Karen Walker was the te gay in of Will & Grace. As portrayed by Megan Mullally, Karen was the boozy, outspoken bch of the NBC s, often ed as a gay male surrogate the way that the women of Sex and the Cy uld often be.

Much has been ballyhooed about whether Jack's feme, theatre-lovg, melodramatic portrayal did a disservice to gay men as the one mastream reprentatn on televisn. It's as much looked down upon the gay muny to be "femme" as is the straight muny. The stereotyp are nstantly nonted by seri like RuPl's Drag Race and films like Moonlight, but there are still gay men who prefer to date a "mascule" man, one who do not project to the world like a Bat signal that he's a homosexual.

In that rpect, Jack is a fantastic portrayal of a gay man. If Karen were a gay man, would have been a tly revolutnary portrayal and one of the first steps towards fantastilly three-dimensnal characters like T on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Lafayette on Te Blood. A much bolr portrayal of Jack would've shown how a brash, no-nonsense feme gay man uld enjoy sex and relatnships jt as anyone else.

‘WILL & GRACE’ FANS ARE STILL UNSURE IF ERIC MCCORMACK IS GAY REAL LIFE

But an attempt to make gays palatable to mastream dienc, the homo part of Jack's personaly beme ripe for jok but the sexual part remaed behd closed doors. A much bolr portrayal of Jack would've shown how a brash, no-nonsense feme gay man uld enjoy sex and relatnships jt as anyone exists a long le of female characters wrten by gay men who keep you tung wh their outrageo behavr and snappy one-lers. Ryan Murphy has practilly ma a reer out of the women (Jsi Lange, Nene Leak, Jane Lynch, and Ellen Bark have all portrayed one or many), whereas his gay men tend to be sad, tortured begs like the perpetually sacchare Kurt and Blae on Glee or Fd's pictn of gay actor Victor Buono.

Hay, who told gay fans last year he "owed them a huge apology for g out too late, " is now an openly gay man who has an ia of what 's like to fully embrace your sexualy 2017. If Will & Grace were beg st for the first time today, Eric McCormack nces, "I probably wouldn't get anywhere near this role"'s bee McCormack is straight, and this era of diversy and thenticy stg would be a bold, perhaps even foolish, cisn to st anyone but a gay actor a seri that puts the character's sexualy ont and he'd be out of a job this hypothetil scenar, the first "gay" man many middle Amerins weled to their hom is OK wh that.

"I thk wasn't a terrible thg 1998 that a straight guy played the role, but I'm glad that tim are changg, and I'm glad that nowadays a Will Tman would probably be st wh someone who is gay, " he says.