Debra Messing: ‘Will & Grace’ Return Will Represent Latter Parts of LGBTQ, Too
:Will & Grace, credited with ushering the stories of gay men and women into late-90s and early-aughts pop-culture conversations, will aim to serve the latter letters of LGBTQ, too, with its 2017 comeback, show star Debra Messing said.
Messing, who will be honored at the May 6 GLAAD Media Awards, told The Huffington Post that the beloved comedy will aim to seriously address the plight of those who still feel ignored or persecuted when it returns.
NBC announced in January that it will revive Will & Grace, which aired its series finale in 2006, for a 12-episode run.
"It’s a whole new world now where being gay and lesbian is not something that people are hiding like they did when we started almost 20 years ago,” Messing said. “I think that there’s an opportunity to now celebrate all the other initials of LGBTQ. It will be great to come out of this next round and feel like we’re normalizing an even larger segment of underrepresented people on primetime television.”
Messing added she takes pride in the show's legacy, but added there's still plenty of work to do when it comes to inclusive storylines. She and her co-stars are very much up to the challenge, though.
“I feel proud that we were able to finally represent the gay and lesbian community in mainstream media and change minds and hearts,” she said. “Of course, we couldn’t do everything all at once, but I think we pushed the ball very, very far down the field. Now, the goal post is in a different place and I think that there’s obviously more to go.”
And was that politically charged sketch released in September 2016 a sign of things to come? You can bet on it.
“It’s a scary and confusing time in our country and we just felt like we wanted to make other people laugh right now,” Messing added. “And also continue to do what Will & Grace always did, which was to push the envelope, take chances and be a little bit outrageous.”
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