Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
'Perception' was a different show than 'Will & Grace'. 'Will & Grace' was obviously a different show than anything I'd done before.
On Netflix and other streaming services, they're taking risks that are based on 'Come with us! Come with us!' and the audience does.
I love everybody at TNT, and they were totally behind 'Trust Me.' I totally loved that show. I feel like it should have had more life.
I needed to start pulling at this other sort of funnier, lighter side. So I auditioned for everything. I auditioned for 'Friends,' even.
There wasn't an episode of 'Will & Grace' that didn't begin with my voice saying, 'Will & Grace' is taped before a live studio audience.
As I got older, I realized that my life experience, what I really had, was always going to be more valuable than what I pretended to have.
I did The Commish and an episode of Neon Rider, and then I got the series called Street Justice, which I ended up doing about 18 episodes of.
I did 'The Commish' and an episode of 'Neon Rider,' and then I got the series called 'Street Justice,' which I ended up doing about 18 episodes of.
This 'historical record' will exist, flawed as it is, in hundreds of years. What will that tell the future? How accurate are we reporting our lives?
With these scripts and these writers, so much of it is done for me. Because we don't just throw words around: we make sure the audience understands.
You make a lot of mistakes. I haven't seen that movie [The Lost World] in 20 years. But if I saw it, I'm sure I could pick out a whole lot of mistakes.
Shelter dogs should be adopted into loving homes, not used in cruel experiments. That's why I support the Cruelty Free International global dog campaign.
I'm not sure sometimes if it was because Will was gay or it was a sitcom. But that combination does make it hard to become the new lead on the 'Sopranos.'
As a television actor, there's a power you're given to use your image to do something valuable. As a parent, these messages are particularly important to me.
I hope that dog lovers around the world will support the Cruelty Free International global campaign to end the use of dogs in outdated and cruel experiments.
I was working with David Warner and John Rhys-Davies, who is from the Indiana Jones movies.He's a very strong, strong presence, and so I had to assert myself.
The thing you realize pretty quickly, though, is that being in front of an audience whose job it is to laugh is a big pressure if the writing is not hilarious.
I did a film a couple years ago called 'Who Is Clark Rockefeller?' It was a role that I was really proud of that I wish more people could go back and rediscover.
I started to realise that it wasn't for me. Perhaps I didn't have to give my Hamlet before I died, that the world might be an OK place without my Hamlet, in fact.
I had run into Kari Lizer at an airport, I think, and she said, "Would you come on the show [ The New Adventures Of Old Christine]?" And I said, "God. Absolutely."
[Townies] was a great springboard, obviously, because Jenna [Elfman] went from that to Dharma & Greg, and a few years later, Lauren [Graham] went to Gilmore Girls.
I did five episodes of Townies as Jenna Elfman's boyfriend. I was a guest star, but it was the first time I really got to play laughs in front of a sitcom audience.
I'd never been to Africa. This really was my first film [The Lost World]. I'd done 10 years of stage. I'd done a little bit of television. But this was my first film.
Back when I was in theater school, trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life, 'Sweeney Todd' was a huge touchstone for me, my favorite musical for sure.
I've had to take roles that on purpose were not Will-like so that someone like 'The Hollywood Reporter' would write, 'McCormack shows great range; no Will Truman here.'
The Andromeda strain is a killer disease that they've got to prevent from spreading to being 100 percent contagious. It's another one where we're racing to save humanity.
I always get a little uppity when I hear the phrase 'TV actor.' It's like saying you're a magazine reporter. I was in the theater for ten years before I ever had a TV audition.
Back then, all the networks were still making a movie a week, virtually. So I did five of them that year. So it was just a nonstop... '92 was a great, nonstop ride in Vancouver.
They're such different things [Townies and Lonesome Dove]. I certainly love them both. Certainly Lonesome Dove would be way hard now, because, I mean, back then I wasn't married.
Because I had three years on 'Perception,' I think I succeeded in showing I can do other things, and I can create a different audience, even from people who loved 'Will & Grace.'
Will isn't a screaming queen - that's Jack's part. They needed someone to play the part for America. It's just not the same as Britain. To have a gay character as a lead is risky.
That was the only trepidation I had about 'Will & Grace.' It had nothing to do with the sexuality of the character. It was more, 'This could be the next 7 to 10 years of my life.'
I feel like 'Travelers' is something I can legitimately say, 'You're going to love this.' I think then people will accept me as a different thing. And if they don't, it's fun trying.
I got Michael Caine's book, Acting In Film, and I read it on the plane, desperately trying to glean information from him about how to adapt my craft, which was actually very helpful.
I understudied Colm Feore quite a bit in '85 and '86 - 'Persephone' and 'The Boys from Syracuse,' too - and that was great, great training for me. He was and he is an amazing theatre actor.
The three main leads [in Townies] were Lauren [ Graham] and Jenna [Elfman] and Molly [Ringwald], and then Ron Livingston was on it as well. There was a lot of people to write funny stuff for.
Mental illness is the last frontier. The gay thing is part of everyday life now on a show like 'Modern Family,' but mental illness is still full of stigma. Maybe it is time for that to change.
I'm doing a very funny show in which we talk about issues. I speak at Aids charities and things. It's great to do something fun with our days and yet we're told we're doing something important.
Particularly in television, we can stereotype ourselves. You realize that we all have a lot of voices in our head. We have angry voices, we have voices of doubt, and we have moments of strength.
The States doesn't think much about Canada, but we're attached. We're like Siamese twins. We can't do things - you can't roll over in the American bed without waking up the Canadians. It matters.
I remember I had scenes with Melinda McGraw in "Ides Of March" that I didn't have in "Video Vigilante," but I can't quite picture that other character. But it was Vancouver, and that year was crazy
I would come home with my friend Bill, and we would sit and watch 'Get Smart.' And I was Agent 44, and he was Agent 85. And it was a fantastic - and all we wanted to do was sleep with Barbara Feldon.
I did my first musical in 4th grade as Huck Finn. By 11th grade, I was starring in 'Godspell' and 'Pippin' and pretending to be Che in 'Evita' in my bedroom. Singing has always been a huge part of me.
So this ["Grant MacLaren"] was a chance to sort of go back and do a more leading man. But instead of just solving crimes like a CSI show, this leading man is, like the other travelers, not who he appears.
I like playing a character every day. I like having something to go back to. I always enjoyed that with 'Will & Grace.' I like the camaraderie. I like having a crew that I know and I can work with every day.
I love playing anyone that does stuff that I don't do. The fun of playing an assassin is that I've never killed anybody. The fun of playing a brilliant musician is that I don't actually play any instruments.
Every actor has periods of their life that are a little less busy than others, and that was just a time when I needed that. And to be back on a sitcom stage, with Julia [ Louis-Dreyfus], was really, really fun.
Often, particularly with voices, you're hearing horrible things, demon voices, and voices telling them that they're not worth it or that they're going to kill somebody. In those moments, they're overcoming things.
We see people talking to themselves all the time. We always have. Particularly if they're homeless people or at all questionable, there's a sense of, 'That guy's crazy!' I see that now with a much more empathetic eye.
I think most actors go into the business thinking, 'I can play everything. Why can't I play a black woman? Just give me a chance.' Then you grow up and realize it's probably better that they cast an actual black woman.