The Guardian

New York

In real life, Eric McCormack looks just like he does on the telly. He is handsome. His hair is thick and coiffed. His pecs are pert. He has good cheekbones and nice eyes. Today, he is wearing a very white linen shirt. It goes with his teeth. In 2000, he was named as one of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People. I can’t imagine he has got uglier in four years.

For example, McCormack isn’t gay. He isn’t a lawyer either.

“I used to tell this story about when I got the part, how I phoned my mother and told her I had the lead in Will and Grace. She said ‘Who’s Will?’ and I said ‘He’s a lawyer. And he’s gay.’ And my mum said ‘Oh Eric. Not a lawyer...’” he pauses. “Of course, it’s not a true story, but true stories are never as interesting.”

It makes a point succinctly, neatly short-circuiting the oddness with which McCormack (married with a child) has been confronted since he began playing Will (a single gay man) in the marvellous sitcom. While the world can accept that Anthony Hopkins isn’t actually a brain-eating serial killer, a miasma of rumours still shroud a heterosexual actor playing a gay.

“I had played many gay characters before, but they were finite — guest characters in TV shows or characters in plays,” McCormack says. “My only reservation about Will was whether the gay community would accept him. That was very important. I wasn’t worried about typecasting — I thought I’d figure that out down the road. I figured that, with the quality of the show, Will was going to be my epitaph. It was more about ‘Is this the one character I want beside my name for the rest of eternity?’ and I decided that it was. No matter what else I do, I’ll be the guy from ‘Will and Grace’.”

Born in Toronto, he spent five years at Canada’s Stratford Festival, a classic play bonanza, in all the usual Shakespeares and Chekhovs. “It was all I wanted, to be a classical actor for the rest of my life,” he says, “but during the last couple of years I was there, I started to realise that it wasn’t for me.”

Moving to Vancouver then Los Angeles, McCormack turned up as “scheming lawyers and husbands that kill” in made-for-TV movies with such enticing titles as ‘Miracle on Interstate 880’ and ‘Relentless: Mind of a Killer’. Then he played a baddie, Francis Mosby, in the series, ‘Lonesome Dove’, on which he met his wife, Janet.

“A Southern confederate colonel, I was dark, a killer. I had a beard,” he says, smiling. “It was a fantastic role, the total opposite of me, but when I had done 42 episodes, I was ready for something else. I was ready for sitcom.”

McCormack actually auditioned “two or three times” for the part of Ross in ‘Friends’. When Will came along, though, he was convinced he was right for the role. “At the end of the audition, Max (Mutchnik, co-creator and executive producer of ‘Will and Grace’) said: ‘That was perfect. Just to let you know, you never have to be more gay than that.’” McCormack knew what Mutchnik meant. “Will isn’t a screaming queen — that’s Jack. They needed someone to play the part for America.”

Grace, Jack and Karen were then cast around McCormack. Debra Messing was the last of dozens of Graces with whom he read, and the chemistry was, he says, instant. When he met Sean Hayes, who plays Jack, “I knew he was going to be brilliant. But Megan (Mullally) took an episode or two to find Karen, to find that voice.”

Where did she find that voice? “Ooh... In the stratosphere,” he muses. “And people love it,” he says, not really sounding like one of those people.

Season five of ‘Will and Grace’ has just finished in America, and McCormack says he can imagine doing eight series in total. “There may be some desire in some of the cast to leave,” he says, cryptically, “but they (the network NBC) are really going to need us. ‘Friends’ will be gone, ‘Frasier’ will be gone, and unless something comes along in the next two years that’s really kick-ass, we’re going to be the show that the network needs. So they will offer money and it will be a matter of negotiation. We’ll all do it or not for, I guess, eight seasons. After that, it’s anyone’s game. I do think that everything has a shelf-life.”

Already, success has handed McCormack otherwise slippery opportunities. Disney have bought the pitch for a romantic comedy which he will write, direct and star in, he has bought a great big house in LA, and he is genuinely proud that “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.”

But despite the fame, fortune and good works, McCormack is very calm, as cool as the iced water he asked for to accompany his lunch.

“I have accomplished a lot, but it didn’t happen overnight for me. I was 35 when I got the show, and had been working professionally for 15 years. It would be a lot weirder if I were in my early 20s and stumbled into it. But I was ready for it and I knew I could do it. I’ve just turned 40, I have a son and I feel more settled and driven than ever. I think my 40s will be my most prolific time. It’s a very rare life you get to lead as a sitcom guy. If you’re doing an hour-long show, you’re working movie hours, doing a 12-15-hour day. We work three or four hours a day, and get every third or fourth week off to give the writers time to write. It’s the cushiest job in Hollywood.”