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Five Questions With Debra Messing
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This starter wife wouldn't be bad
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?
Debra Messing: Oh, goodness, there’s a whole laundry list of ones I’d like to do. One of them is "Gone with the Wind," just because where we shoot in Los Angeles is where "Gone with the Wind" was shot and I think sort of an homage to our location would be fun. I also would love to do a silent movie with subtitles. I think that would be really fun.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about Molly's budding writing career?
Debra Messing: Well, what I will say is that her writings in her journal have been sort of a social commentary, a comic social commentary of her own and that gets stolen and from that experience attention is brought to Molly and some unusual professional opportunities arise. It will certainly test Molly in terms of what’s important to her and ethics and sort of being thrown into the middle of the whole Hollywood game.She’s going to have to be dealing with her ex-husband in the professional world for the first time. So there are some fun, new dynamics that are explored.
(Pausing) Well, let’s just put it this way, her life is not going to become a fairly tale within ten episodes. Even if she gets a job it’s not going to be the answer to everything or she’s not going to be catapulted to stardom.
Q: Which makes sense. I’m guessing that you wouldn’t want a character that would have it all figured out in one season.
Debra Messing: No, no, that’s what I respond to about Molly is that she doesn’t have it figured out and that she is written in a way that she’s a fighter and she’s a survivor, but she’s constantly butting up against obstacles, and to me that’s real life. I love the juxtaposition of the fantasy world of Hollywood and the Utopia that is presumed in that world and the very real and accessible daily struggles in every aspect of the protagonist’s life, of Molly.
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