Turning 40 - It’s All About the Journey

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Debra Messing’s latest character in The Starter Wife tackles heartache with humour, although she is quick to say that her latest character have little in common. As Molly Kagan, the Emmy award-winning actor is a 40-something Hollywood mogul’s wife whose only goal in life is to look good and make her husband happy — until he dumps her.

But it’s not the differences in life experiences that the happily married Messing wishes to distance herself from; it’s her character’s age.

“Molly is a really funny, smart artistic woman who is a loyal friend and an honest person. Oh, by the way, she’s older,” Messing, 39, says.

“Molly is older than Debra, let’s make that very clear. And thinner. And prettier. And taller.”

In real life, Messing has been married to screenwriter Daniel Zelman since 2000. The couple have a child, Roman, who was born four years ago when Messing was playing Grace Adler in the hit comedy Will & Grace.

Will & Grace made Messing and the rest of the cast — Eric McCormack, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes — household names during its eight-year run. But stardom didn’t guarantee roles post-Will & Grace for any of its four stars.

Before landing the starring role in The Starter Wife, Messing lamented that finding work had been difficult after being in a mega-hit sitcom.

The red-haired actor, who has often been described as the new Lucille Ball because of her impeccable comic timing, told reporters that for every 100 scripts there are only two roles; one earmarked for Cameron Diaz, the other for Julia Roberts.

That was, of course, until she read the script for The Starter Wife.

“I read this six-part epic and kept wanting to read more and more,” she says.

“It didn’t lose me and it excited me. It made me laugh, it moved me and it surprised me.

“I have never played a part like this before, not even remotely.

“You see her going through such big life challenges such as divorce — especially being 40 and in LA.”

Turning 40 herself this year, Messing says she understands how difficult it must be for a woman to have to re-evaluate their role in life in youth-obsessed Hollywood.

She says the prospect of playing a character whose life is in total upheaval was also part of what attracted her to it in the first place.

Best known for playing disorganised and neurotic characters such as Stacey in Ned and Stacey and more recently interior designer Grace in Will & Grace, Messing says playing Molly offers an exciting new acting challenge.

“I think Starter Wife is really about rebirth,” she says.

“To find herself 40 and starting over, it’s a challenge because everyone wants to date the 25-year-old model and I think Molly approaches it with a great sense of humour and without fear.

“When you meet her, Molly is a very organised and efficient supportive wife. Then there is the tidal wave of the divorce and she is shaken up, as one would be, in having to figure out what this means and how she got to where she is and what she wants to be and what sort of person does she want to become.

“All of these questions are provocative and rattling. She struggles and has a great sense of humour throughout.”

The Starter Wife was intended to be a six-part mini-series filmed on the Gold Coast, but has proven so popular that a second 10-part series has been given the green light for 2008, a prospect that excites Messing.

“It’s heaven working with all of the talent that’s on this project,” she says. “It’s always about the team of people that you get to work with. From the top with the writers to Jon Avnet, the director, to Judy Davis, Joe Mantegna and Miranda Otto, the quality of artists on this project is consistent and stellar.”