Will and Grace star Debra Messing was once told she needed ‘bigger boobs’ to get on TV
Debra Messing, 54, was told she needed ‘bigger boobs’ during Will & Grace but refused to fill her bra, adding that she had to go from a size 8 to a size 2 to fit into costumes
Debra Messing was told she needed bigger boobs to get on TV.
The 54-year-old actress was getting ready to shoot her now signature role as Grace Adler on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace opposite Eric McCormack in 1998 when she got the rude news.
The star claimed that the president of the studio wanted her to have a larger chest.
But she refused to comply.
According to Peopleshe shared Monday during the Magic Of Will And Grace panel at the Paley Center for Media, “On the very first adaptation, they had the chicken cutlets to make me taller.”
No mercy for this star: Debra Messing was once told she needed “bigger boobs” to be on TV’s Will & Grace, she said during a Monday NYC panel, according to People; seen in 2000
Her chest was on display: Here she is seen in a naked tank top in a scene with Eric McCormack
“I just wasn’t a fan of the whole idea of it. I was like, “You know what? I don’t need that,” she said.
And they say, “Well, it’s the president of the network [saying this]And I said, “If he wants it, he should come over here and tell me to my face.”
The former Smash star added that when she started working on Will & Grace, she was a size eight and ended up “hating her body” after certain costumes didn’t fit her and became “much too skinny” after being stripped for the sake of the weight had dropped. of her work.
She added, “When I started Will & Grace, I was a size 80, and what happened was every time I went in for a fitting, I didn’t fit into clothes.
“Eighty percent of it I couldn’t fit in, and I would just hate my body and hate myself.”
“I loved my costume designer, she always said, ‘Don’t worry,’ and she would talk to her assistant and say, ‘Okay, can you call for a bigger size?’ And that was something that was always on repeat.
So of course I thought, “My life would be so much easier, and it would be easier for everyone trying to do their job, if I just lost weight.”
“So I started doing yoga every day and doing one of those meal delivery services. I started getting smaller and then I was a six, and they said, “You’re losing weight, you look great!”‘
Radiant rehead: Seen at Cannes in 2002, Debra spoke candidly about her body image issues that were exacerbated by studio execs
Size shouldn’t matter: Debra, seen in September 1999, talked about how doors opened for her when she lost weight
Yes, they did: Her chest size was a running gag on the show; seen with Megan Mullally
Still a stunner: Messing at The Impact Of Will & Grace: 25 Years Later at Paley Museum on Monday in New York City
‘I’ve become way too thin. But you know, if I go for those passes, I’ll fit in anything,” she explained.
‘And suddenly I literally fit into everything that was haute couture. So suddenly everything seemed to open up for me, because I was a two.
“I kept that up for a while, and then I got sick. My body just couldn’t handle it.’
“My adrenal glands were crashing, I was exhausted, and it just became clear to me that I couldn’t be healthy and a size two at the same time.”