The gang is back together! Megan Mullally jumped at the chance to reprise her role as Karen Walker — even just for a little while. The actress, 57, opened up about reuniting with the cast of Will & Grace during a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.
As previously reported, Mullally and her former costars — Debra Messing, Eric McCormack and Sean Hayes — recently filmed a special election-themed mini-episode. The group hasn’t been back on set together since the beloved NBC comedy ended after eight seasons in 2006.
“The idea came from [co-creator] Max Mutchnick, who had this idea of Karen having a wall installed in her house to make [her maid] Rosario practice climbing so that when [Donald] Trump builds the wall, she can get back over it to get to work again,” Mullally said, referring to the GOP presidential candidate’s immigration plan. “It’s so funny because, during the last year or so when I’ve been asked in interviews, ‘What do you think Karen would be doing now?’ I’ve always said I think she’d be married to Donald Trump.”
It didn’t take much convincing for the cast to sign on. “Max sent out the email to the four of us. It was great because everybody immediately said that they would do it — I mean everybody: not just the cast but [director] Jim Burrows and all of our department heads, our costume designer, our set designer, everybody, even our line producer and our supervisor — they were all on board,” Mullally explained. “So it came together right away.”
Will & Grace debuted in 2001 and centered on roommates and BFFs Will Truman (McCormack) and Grace Adler (Messing). Hayes’ Jack McFarland was Will’s gay friend (who had killer J.Lo dance moves!) while Mullally’s Karen was Grace’s interior designer assistant. She was known for her quick jabs and high-pitched voice.
For Mullally, stepping back into Karen’s shoes was an “unbelievable” experience. “The whole thing felt like we’d just gone on hiatus for a week and we’d just come back. It was just like no time had passed. It was so effortless and fun. We just snapped right back into it, and we were just laughing and having a blast,” she told EW.
“We went into the studio where we were going to shoot it, and there was the real set with every throw pillow and tchotchke just as it had been. We walked around and were flipping out,” she added. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s kind of a contradictory process of being flipped out and excited but also feeling totally normal. It was as if we had just been there.”
