'Will & Grace' Broke Ground for Gay Reprentatn—Can It Do It Aga? | GQ

Contents:

• WILL AND GRACE STAR CONFIRMS HE’S GAY
• ‘WILL & GRACE’ FANS ARE STILL UNSURE IF ERIC MCCORMACK IS GAY REAL LIFE
• 'I WOULDN'T GET THIS ROLE TODAY': WILL & GRACE'S STRAIGHT 'GAY' STAR
• WILL & GRACE BROKE GROUND FOR GAY REPRENTATN—CAN IT DO IT AGA?
• DON'T REVIVE "WILL & GRACE": WE DON'T NEED S LIMED PORTRAYAL OF GAY LIFE ANYMORE

WILL AND GRACE STAR CONFIRMS HE’S GAY

The star of the popular, Emmy-wng gay s adds, "I feel like I've ntributed monumentally to the succs of the gay movement Ameri, and if anyone wants to argue that, I’m open to . Everyone remembers the basics: bt iends Will, a gay man, and Grace, a straight woman, live and love Manhattan wh their quirkier iends Jack and Karen.

More recently, Hay has revealed that he's "ashamed and embarrassed" he stayed the closet for so long when he might have ma a difference young gay people's liv by g out sooner.

Fellow executive producer David Kohan and producer-director Jam Burrows agreed, notg that the show had troduced and normalized gay people for a swath of the public.

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

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.

Out of the four ma Will & Grace st members, the tular pair were the rerved on: openly gay lawyer Will Tman (Eric McCormack) and his (straight-intifyg) terr signer bt iend Grace Adler (Debra Msg).

One of the first work seri to regularly feature homosexual characters, Will & Grace was a top-rated h for most of s 1998-2006 n on NBC, wng an Emmy Award for Outstandg Comedy Seri and more trophi for all four members of the ma st. When Will & Grace premiered 1998, was downright revolutnary that a major broadst work would air a primetime show which two of s four ma characters (Will Tman and Jack McFarland) were openly gay men.

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

After he saw the Will & Grace pilot 1998, Deamer says he felt "chagred, embarrassed, and vastated" when he realized that the character based on him was picted as "flamboyantly gay, nstantly over the top, promiscuo, and irrponsible. In fact, when the show was first pched, the ia was that would revolve around three sets of upl, one of whom was a gay man and a straight woman who lived together.

A lot of actors were the nng for the tle charactersAmong them, apparently, were John Barrowman, who claimed he was turned down for the role for not beg gay enough. Several big nam appeared on the show before they land their biggt TV rolNeil Patrick Harris and Sean Hay Will & GraceNBC via Getty ImagYears before How I Met Your Mother me along, Neil Patrick Harris appeared as an “ex-gay” Will & Grace, while a pre-Grey’s Anatomy Patrick Dempsie played a love tert of Will’s an early season.

While other gut stars were already A-list gay insMadonna and Megan Mullally Will & GraceNBC via Getty ImagJa Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Sir Elton John and, of urse, Cher (twice! By brgg two charismatic gay men to dienc, “Will & Grace” was a force for polil change and a prime example of the power of televisn to shape people’s opns and open their mds to new ias.

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

“‘Will & Grace’ has done so much to help people feel like they know somebody LGBT, ” said Wilson Cz, an activist and actor who had his own groundbreakg role as a gay character on “My So-Called Life, ” told TheWrap. The untry went om a time when the producers of a TV show worried about offendg viewers wh the very ia of a gay man to marriage equaly the span of 20 years.

“Star Trek” has existed for more than 50 years, but took until 2017 and the latt eratn, CBS All Accs’ “Star Trek: Disvery, ” for the anchise to troduce s first gay characters, played by Cz and Anthony Rapp. Ellen DeGener lost her s and almost had her reer killed when she me out as a lbian around the same time Will and Grace premiered, and yet here was a show that reveled gayns.

The Cher doll was ma as a rult of the wrers of Will and Grace, NBC, Mattel, and Ketchum Entertament Marketg all gettg together to work some sort of product placement that would play on parts of the Jack character that were already tablished and the show’s huge gay followg.

DON'T REVIVE "WILL & GRACE": WE DON'T NEED S LIMED PORTRAYAL OF GAY LIFE ANYMORE

” But the actual reviews for Will and Grace when first premiered, crics ma ments not too dissiar to that when they dismissed the show as “a gay Sefeld. David Kohan and Max Mutchnick origally veloped jt another s about a bunch of straight upl – the same show you’ve seen a ln tim before wh the same character trop and the same tired gags – wh a gay man and his female iend as supportg characters. However, spe the fact that the Amerin public had jt been an uproar over the g-out episo of Ellen leadg ABC to ncel , NBC cid that the gay character was more tertg and ma him the lead.

The ensemble edy seri featured two gay characters—lawyer Will Tman (Eric McCormack) and aspirg actor Jack McFarland (Sean Hay)—and their bt iends, terr signer Grace Adler (Debra Msg) and eccentric sociale Karen Walker (Megan Mullally), whose fun-filled antics were enjoyed by lns of viewers for eight seasons on NBC.

Kohan was a mutual iend who watched their relatnship change and mature over the only relatnship NBC executive Warren Ltlefield was terted , however, was the one wh the gay man livg wh the straight woman. When Mutchnick and Kohan wrote the pilot, they jt foced on the Will and Grace two creators named the show Will & Grace based on a ncept the Jewish philosophy book I and Thou by Mart Buber, which he says that one needs the "will" to go after the prence of the Eternal and the "grace" to receive wag to hear about the fate of their show after submtg their pilot script, the two men sent Warren Ltlefield fax listg the box office numbers of The Birdge and My Bt Friend’s Weddg, two h movi featurg gay Hay was at the Sundance Film Ftival Park Cy, Utah when a work stg executive faxed him the pilot script for Will & Grace after seeg him Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss.