Ricky Martin is one of ET’s featured <a href="https://www.etonline.com/emmy-first-timers-2018-exclusive-ricky-martin-issa-rae-jimmi-simpson-yvonne-strahovski-and-more" target="_blank">first-time Emmy nominees</a>.

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At 46 years old, <a href="https://www.etonline.com/people/ricky-martin" target="_blank">Ricky Martin</a> is a first-time Emmy nominee for his stirring performance as Antonio D’Amico in Ryan Murphy’s anthology series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. The longtime singer has been acting on and off since his mid-‘80s Menudo days, including two notable stints on Broadway. On TV, however, he’s come a long way from his beefcake role on General Hospital in 1994 and shaking his bon-bon on Murphy’s FOX series Glee 18 years later.

“When they told me I was nominated and the list of incredible actors that are in the same category, what can I say, man?” Martin asks ET, referring to his fellow nominees for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, including his ACS co-stars Edgar Ramirez, who plays Gianni Versace, and Finn Wittrock. “I feel like a little kid.”

As Versace’s lover, Martin was tasked with carrying much of the drama’s emotional weight in the show’s present timeline. In the first episode alone, for which the actor is nominated, D’Amico discovers Versace has been shot and faces scrutiny from detectives and a withering dismissal by Penelope Cruz’s Donatella. “I had no easy scenes throughout the whole series!” Martin attests. “They were all deep, they were all emotional and dark. I went through fear and uncertainty; I fell in love with Gianni in every scene.”

Martin’s preparation for the role included speaking to D’Amico himself about “what he was going through mentally, physically, spiritually” in the aftermath of the killing. “Antonio was extremely generous in sharing with me what triggered every emotion,” Martin recalls. The FX series also shot on location in Miami, where the cast had the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in Versace’s famously opulent mansion. “I lived as Antonio for a couple of months,” Martin says. “I slept in the room where they used to sleep and I had breakfast where they used to have breakfast, so I used it all.”

Martin also channeled a certain level of outrage at the negligence and bigotry that the series suggests allowed these murders to occur at all. “I used to live in Miami and I remember being afraid of going out for a bike ride because I knew there was a killer roaming the streets,” Martin recalls. “What kicks in is more anger -- it’s not how he died, it’s how we allowed it to happen,” he says. “The level of ignorance, the fact that [Andrew Cunanan] wasn’t on the list of FBI’s most wanted, and the fact that the FBI just said, ‘Yeah, it’s a gay man killing more gay men, let’s turn the other way.’”

Exposing such injustice, Martin says, was another reason he was eager to join the series. “We need to be loud and we need to talk, because history tends to repeat itself,” he says. “The fact that marriage was not an option back then, and [D’Amico] was treated like another criminal in that investigation is extremely sad.”

<div class="ctd-shortcode" data-ctd-caption="Ricky Martin and Edgar Ramirez in a scene from &amp;#039;The Assassination of Gianni Versace.&amp;#039;" data-ctd-entity-type="media" data-ctd-entity-uuid="3d6657a2-a893-400d-b2a9-66ce008c2db5" data-ctd-shortcode-id="image" data-ctd-view-mode="content_full">&nbsp;</div>

Of course, telling the story of a world-famous icon coming to terms with his sexual identity hit close to home for Martin, too. “We all have different histories, we all have highs and lows in our lives, but emotions tend to be the same,” he says. “When we shot the scene where Gianni comes out and he introduces [Antonio] as his partner, I remember what it was like for me when I was in the closet and I was hiding my lovers.”

Looking back on his time in the closet, Martin, who is now married to artist Jwan Yosef and is a father of two, is circumspect. “Everybody was asking me about my sexuality at a time that I was not ready and I was confused,” he recalls. “It’s a process that’s easier for some than others; I consider myself really lucky because I was able to accept and share with the world in my 30s.” Martin, who came out publicly in 2010 on his official website, says he’s gained new appreciation for how stories like Versace’s can impact those who are still struggling with their sexual identity.

“As of now, I already consider myself a winner,” Martin says. “Because I go to the Middle East, I go to Asia, I go to little towns in Latin America, and people ask me about this story, and I open that door and I talk about the importance of equality.”

Does he wish he’d been honest with himself and his fans sooner? “You can open that door and dwell, like, ‘Damn, I wish I would have come out in the ‘90s,’” he says. But Martin isn’t one to get stuck on the past. “What can I do now to make a difference? That’s what really matters.”

For now, he’s reading scripts and hopes to find another project with social impact. “I am a storyteller, even in music; when I go on stage, I tell stories,” he says. “At the end of the day, all I want is for people to connect and to open up their minds.”

&nbsp;

The <a href="https://www.nbc.com/emmy-awards?nbc=1">70th Primetime Emmy Awards</a>, co-hosted by Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost and Michael Che, will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, Sept. 17, starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on NBC. Check out the full list of nominees and ET’s ongoing <a href="https://www.etonline.com/awards/emmys">Emmy coverage here</a>.

&nbsp;

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Naveen Kumar

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Features

Ricky Martin on His ‘American Crime Story’ Emmy Nomination and Never Looking Back (Exclusive)

Lauren Ridloff, nominated for playing Sarah Norman in Children of a Lesser God, is one of <a href="https://www.etonline.com/tonys-2018-the-standout-performances-on-broadway-102917" target="_blank">ET’s Standout Performances on Broadway</a>. 
&nbsp;

“I did not think of myself as an actress,” Tony nominee Lauren Ridloff tells ET.

The Chicago native had been teaching Manhattan public school for nearly 10 years when an unexpected turn of events landed her opposite Joshua Jackson in the current Broadway revival of <a href="http://www.childrenofalessergodbroadway.com/" target="_blank">Children of a Lesser God</a>, Mark Medoff’s 1979 play about the relationship between a deaf student and her hearing teacher. Ridloff, who was born deaf, had been tutoring director Kenny Leon in American Sign Language when he asked her to step into the lead role of Sarah for an early reading of the play.

“After the reading ended, he took me to the side and asked me, ‘If this goes all the way, are you willing to go all the way?’ I was surprised,” Ridloff recalls -- and not just because she hadn’t acted professionally before. “I never thought of Sarah as a woman of color,” she adds.

Though race isn’t explicitly referenced in the script, Kecia Lewis, who plays Sarah’s mother in the revival, is also a woman of color. The additional layer of diversity casts an interesting light on the play’s central themes of overcoming obstacles to listening and understanding. “Communication isn’t just about speaking or signing,” Ridloff says of Children’s lasting resonance. “It doesn’t matter what language is being used -- man to woman, generation to generation. Listening is the biggest part of communication.”

The production began last summer at Berkshire Theatre Group in Massachusetts, where Ridloff’s vividly emotional performance drew critical adoration, which grew to reverent acclaim when the play transferred to New York City’s Studio 54 this spring, culminating in her <a href="https://www.etonline.com/2018-tony-award-nominations-the-complete-list-101347" target="_blank">Tony nomination</a> for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play.

“We perform a duet when we’re in the world of Sarah and James,” Ridloff says of working with Jackson, who, after making his Broadway debut, returns to the fourth season of <a href="https://www.etonline.com/the-affair-sizzling-season-4-trailer-teases-new-romances-and-a-missing-person-101521" target="_blank">Showtime’s The Affair</a> next month. The actor, whose character is a speech teacher at a school for the deaf, learned ASL for the production and signs and speaks the majority of his performance. “Together we navigated separate, new and overwhelming experiences. For him it was a foray into the deaf world and learning my language; for me it was a foray into the world of acting and learning the language of theater,” Ridloff says, adding: “Joshua makes the best partner.”

While she is a dazzling, and by all accounts natural performer, it took Ridloff some time to warm up to her character, who is often stubborn to the point of being intractable. “When I first cracked open that script, I thought, Oh, my God -- what a vitriolic, angry woman Sarah is. I couldn’t stand how she treated others.”

Like her character, Ridloff was born to hearing parents, and like Sarah, she made a conscious decision when she was young to communicate solely through sign language. The turning point came after two weeks away at a camp with other deaf children and adults. “I realized how liberated I felt when I signed only, without voice. So I came home and came out to my family about my decision to be different. My family values identity and being true to yourself, so they took it very, very well.”

Sarah’s determination to stay true to that same decision can seem self-defeating by some interpretations, as it does to James, who spends most of the play hopelessly trying to convince her to use her voice. “Kenny saw her decision as an act of rebellion,” Ridloff says. “But I saw it as an act of self-preservation.”

Ridloff, who lives in Williamsburg with her husband, an ASL consultant on A Quiet Place, and two sons, all of whom are also deaf, says her affection for her character grew as she came to understand her on a deeper level. “I fell in love with Sarah Norman Leeds over the period of rehearsals,” she says. “I saw how she was trodden upon and taken advantage of so many times. I began to understand that she was fiercely fighting for a life she knew she could have.”

Might a different kind of life await Ridloff following a stage debut that’s garnered her a Tony nomination and buzz beyond Broadway? Though she dipped her toes in Hollywood with a brief appearance in Todd Haynes’ 2017 Wonderstruck, starring Julianne Moore and deaf actress Millicent Simmonds, Ridloff isn’t looking ahead just yet.

“Right now, I’m laser focused on giving my best in the next show, and the show after that,” she says of Children’s Broadway run, which will close on May 27, two weeks ahead of the Tony Awards on June 10. Whatever her next move, Ridloff is part of a <a href="https://www.etonline.com/how-nyle-dimarco-shoshannah-stern-and-others-are-pushing-deaf-storytelling-past-the-tipping-point" target="_blank">rising wave of deaf representation</a> across film, TV and the stage -- one she hopes will continue to grow.

“As more deaf storytellers come out of the woodwork, as more deaf children see themselves in mainstream media, I just hope that more people listen.”

The <a href="https://www.tonyawards.com/index.html" target="_blank">2018 Tony Awards</a> hosted by Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles will be handed out live at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 10, starting at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

&nbsp;

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Tony Awards 2018: The Silent Rise of ‘Children of a Lesser God’ Actress Lauren Ridloff (Exclusive)

“It’s time for us to take our place in the media, because in the everyday world, we’ve always been here -- and it’s time for the ‘genetic makeup’ of television, so to speak, to start to reflect that,” deaf writer and actor Josh Feldman tells ET, referring to a large community of people historically underrepresented in Hollywood who’ve been calling more urgently for a change.

Feldman and Shoshannah Stern -- the co-creators and co-stars of <a href="https://www.sundancenow.com/this-close/series/3902433" target="_blank">This Close</a> -- are part of a rising wave of visibility for the deaf community, with more nuanced (and standout) portrayals appearing in projects both popular and prestigious. Recently <a href="https://www.etonline.com/groundbreaking-series-this-close-to-return-for-season-2-exclusive-100547" target="_blank">renewed for a second season</a>, the Sundance Now series is the first to be created by and star deaf actors. The success of the show follows Freeform’s Switched at Birth, the <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/television/gail-pennington/tca-switched-at-birth-goes-deeper-into-deaf-culture/article_d91c3105-de2a-5167-a313-f88074d19afa.html">first mainstream series</a> to feature multiple deaf and hard-of-hearing series regulars, which recently ended after five seasons.

Currently in theaters is John Krasinski’s near-future horror film A Quiet Place starring rising 15-year-old deaf actress Millicent Simmonds, who first broke out with Todd Haynes’ 2017 film Wonderstruck. The film, which features dialogue predominantly in American Sign Language, is on track to become <a href="http://variety.com/2018/film/box-office/weekend-box-office-i-feel-pretty-super-troopers-2-a-quiet-place-1202778898/">one of the year’s big box office success</a> stories and could be an awards season contender, like The Silent Child, which won the 2018 Oscar for Live Action Short Film. The win for the scripted film about a deaf child learning to communicate represented a significant boost for onscreen use of sign language -- the film features British Sign Language -- and deaf representation in the past year.

The Silent Child; Baby Driver, co-starring deaf comedian and scene-stealer CJ Jones; and The Shape of Water, which features period-specific ASL as a way for the film’s mute character to communicate, marked the first time that films featuring ASL or a deaf character were nominated for an Oscar since 2006’s Babel. (The Shape of Water, which stars all-hearing actors, won multiple awards, including Best Picture.)

The Silent Child writer and star Rachel Shenton, who has been active in the deaf community since her father lost his hearing after undergoing chemotherapy, signed her Oscar acceptance speech, making good on a promise to the film’s young star Maisie Sly, who plays the character taught BSL by a social worker. “Our movie is about a deaf child being born into a world of silence. It’s not exaggerated or sensationalized for the movie. This is happening,” Shenton said, before concluding: “Deafness is a silent disability. You can’t see it, and it’s not life-threatening, so I want to say the biggest of thank-yous to the Academy for allowing us to put this in front of a mainstream audience.”

On Broadway, a revival of Mark Medoff’s 1979 drama <a href="http://childrenofalessergodbroadway.com/" target="_blank">Children of a Lesser God</a> opened this spring to rave reviews for Joshua Jackson (who learned ASL to sign and speak the majority of his performance) and Lauren Ridloff, a deaf newcomer who recently transitioned from tutor to actor with a bit part in Wonderstruck. The production follows Deaf West Theatre’s 2015 Broadway revival of the musical Spring Awakening, with hearing and non-hearing actors sharing the lead roles. Earning a Tony Award nomination for her debut performance, Ridloff sees the show as an opportunity to “speak for the community of people and actors who have been living on the fringe.” Meanwhile, her husband was an ASL consultant on A Quiet Place. “It feels like this is a great time for the creative talents of the community,” she adds.

<div class="ctd-shortcode" data-ctd-caption="Lauren Ridloff and Joshua Jackson in &amp;quot;Children of a Lesser God&amp;quot; on Broadway." data-ctd-entity-type="media" data-ctd-entity-uuid="80121ee8-afbf-4728-bfd1-b600f9c1059b" data-ctd-shortcode-id="image" data-ctd-view-mode="content_full">&nbsp;</div>

Another major voice for the deaf community is actor and model Nyle DiMarco. After winning America’s Next Top Model in 2015, he went on to become a champion on Dancing With the Stars and has since teamed up with the ASL App, which is trying to make sign language accessible to all people. In addition to appearing on This Close, he’s now a producer on Children of a Lesser God. “With deaf artists working behind the scenes, not only do you see authenticity on stage, but it also builds the credibility of deaf artists within the entertainment industry,” says DiMarco.

Medoff’s play, about the romance between a hearing teacher and his deaf student, has pride of place in the history of deaf representation -- however imperfect, it’s one of the only well-known stories about deaf experience. Marlee Matlin, Hollywood’s most recognizable deaf artist, won a Best Actress Oscar for the 1986 film adaptation. Stern starred in a 30th anniversary production at L.A.’s Deaf West Theatre in 2009. “It’s always such a thrill for me to see my native language being showcased, and I always feel a real sense of pride when I see work from deaf actors, especially when deaf people are a part of the creative process,” Stern says of seeing the new Broadway revival.

But Stern also hopes audiences ask themselves an important question: “How would the play be different if we could see Sarah [the deaf student] as she sees herself, rather than through the perspective of a hearing man?” It’s one that gets at the heart of how Stern and many deaf artists feel about seeing deaf characters represented in works made by and for hearing people. “It’s incredibly easy for people to become comfortable with accepting that as the status quo,” Stern says of such portrayals, which have dominated in the absence of deaf creators behind the scenes. “To the point where I often have to push back in real life and say, ‘You know what, no, that isn’t actually my reality. It’s my reality as described by someone else who hasn’t actually experienced it for themselves.’ It’s disorienting, and often lonely, to have to fight for ownership over that -- to defend your personal experience as what it is, as opposed to what someone on the outside looking in thinks it is.” In fact, her experience on Jericho, when showrunner Carol Barbee allowed her to rewrite a scene she was having trouble with, was a catalyst for creating This Close.

<div class="ctd-shortcode" data-ctd-caption="Shoshannah Stern and Josh Feldman in a scene from &amp;quot;This Close.&amp;quot;" data-ctd-entity-type="media" data-ctd-entity-uuid="d5be503d-323f-44c2-b549-90ffdbf51f93" data-ctd-shortcode-id="image" data-ctd-view-mode="content_full">&nbsp;</div>

While it’s heartening to see more complex narratives involving deaf characters, there’s a hope that they’re opening doors for more stories created by deaf artists themselves. As DiMarco says of his work on Children, by fostering the credibility of deaf artists -- as producers, writers and creators of their own narratives -- “we'll be able to produce our own shows and bring you a completely new perspective never seen before.”

“It seems to me that in the media, minorities have almost always been introduced to the mainstream through a member of the majority,” Stern says, nodding to the rising visibility of deaf characters in mainstream projects. “That first step is groundbreaking. But if you don’t build anything on that broken ground, then it’s just ground that’s been torn up. We have to collectively push to keep that momentum going forward. There are so many fresh and new ideas out there, they just need a space to exist in.” Matlin, who joined Quantico’s third season as a former FBI agent who lost her hearing in a bomb blast, sees more room for such stories on TV than in film. “There are many, many deaf actors, writers, directors and producers -- and lots of stories to tell,” the actress <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/movies/wonderstruck-deaf-actors-millicent-simmonds.html">told The New York Times</a> last fall of the growing streaming television landscape, where This Close lives and where shows like Hulu’s Difficult People and, notably, Netflix’s Master of None have experimented with deaf storytelling.

On the latter, Broadway actress Treshelle Edmond plays a deaf bodega clerk named Maya in the episode “New York, I Love You.” When the episode shifts to her narrative, the scene goes quiet, focusing the viewer's attention on the use of ASL and Maya’s interactions with friends and customers, ending on a hilarious conversation about wanting more sexual satisfaction from her boyfriend. “Sexual situations are rarely discussed when it comes to deaf and hard-of-hearing people on screen, so I hope this showed people that we all share things in common,” Edmond <a href="https://www.essence.com/entertainment/treshelle-edmond-talks-importance-her-role-master-none">told Essence</a> about appearing in the episode, with creator Aziz Ansari <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2017/06/aziz-ansari-recaps-master-of-none-new-york-i-love-you.html">revealing to Vulture</a> that the moment was something he’d not seen before. “It was fun to do it about that instead of how sad it is or whatever, you know?”

Ultimately, that narrative or the ones on This Close aren’t going to be enough to represent an entire community, Stern says. “We need as many narratives as we can get, and one of our bigger challenges is to keep pushing for that. We need representation everywhere, not just onstage or in front of the camera, but behind the camera, behind the scenes, as creative partners in the process. We need people consulting, people writing, people directing, hell, people holding the damn boom, because why not?”

<div class="ctd-shortcode" data-ctd-caption="Emily Blunt and Millicent Simmonds in a scene from &amp;quot;A Quiet Place.&amp;quot;" data-ctd-entity-type="media" data-ctd-entity-uuid="5266946a-85a0-494e-8881-d280c173a7b0" data-ctd-shortcode-id="image" data-ctd-view-mode="content_full">&nbsp;</div>

One place to start? Stern, Feldman and DiMarco urge aspiring deaf artists to first believe in themselves and the stories they have to tell. DiMarco’s best advice really applies to everyone: “Embrace your own identity first before you try to do anything,” says DiMarco, who <a href="http://www.etonline.com/news/173468_antm_contestant_comes_out_as_sexually_fluid_on_twitter">came out as sexually fluid</a> on Twitter in 2015. “I know from experience that when you struggle with who you are, you will have a hard time navigating in the industry and harder time being true to yourself and bringing authenticity to your work.” Feldman, who, like his character on This Close, is gay, adds, “At a young age, I remember wondering just exactly what kind of gay, deaf adult I could grow up to be if I couldn’t find myself on television or in the movies.… As I always tell anyone, there’s no one better than yourself to tell your own story. When someone tries to tell you how they think you should tell your own story, stay the course and remember at the end of the day, it’s your story, not theirs.”

That’s the ethos that led Feldman and Stern to This Close. “Find a way to tell the story you want to tell, not the story you think people want you to tell,” Stern says. “We originally pitched This Close as Kate being deaf and Michael being hearing because we were so conditioned to seeing a deaf character paired with a hearing character that it didn’t even occur to us that we should try to make both characters deaf until we decided to just do it ourselves. Ironically, that’s what ended up selling the show, because that’s exactly what people ended up really responding to,” Stern says. “The moral of the story is listen to yourself, because nobody else will.”

As for the prevalence of deaf characters and the use of ASL in major Hollywood films, there’s evidence that such portrayals are evolving, too. “Usually they’re victims, or their deafness creates some sort of jeopardy,” Matlin told the Times in October of deaf characters on film. But in A Quiet Place, Simmond’s character’s deafness works to the advantage of her family -- whose knowledge of ASL helps them evade the movie’s monsters -- and allows her the upper hand in the end. (“She’s my hero,” DiMarco says.) For her part, Simmonds praised the movie for “using the language of [the deaf] community and culture in a creative way,” adding, “I hope this film inspires other writers to include more actors who are deaf and to use sign language in different ways.”

“There’s one moment in Downsizing, which I just saw, that really encompassed my hopes for the future,” Stern says, describing a scene when Matt Damon and Hong Chau walk past a couple communicating in ASL. “They were having this incredibly brief but hilariously nuanced argument. The woman actually tells him to eat shit. I think I watched that moment maybe six times.

“I loved it, because in that moment, it shows deaf people as simply existing in the world,” Stern continues. “I would love to see deaf actors in roles that aren’t about them being deaf -- as villains, as love interests, as comic relief... There are already deaf professionals who do any and all kinds of work in the world, you just have to hold up a mirror to that.”

 
--Additional reporting by David Batista, Denny Directo and Rande Iaboni

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“I’m much more interested in being an artist than an actor,” Sheila Vand tells ET.

For the 33-year-old Iranian-American actress, putting art first has meant a move from Los Angeles to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and a slew of unique roles in ensemble-driven indie films. Her latest, <a href="https://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/we-the-animals-2018" target="_blank">We the Animals</a>, a restless and imaginative coming-of-age story, premiered at the <a href="https://www.etonline.com/2018-tribeca-film-festival-puts-focus-on-women-in-times-up-era-100428" target="_blank">2018 Tribeca International Film Festival</a> this week after winning an Innovator Award at Sundance. (The film will open in theaters in August.)

Based on Justin Torres’ celebrated novel of the same name, the movie stars Vand and Raúl Castillo (HBO’s Looking) as working-class parents to three boys whose unbridled energy propels the story. “I was excited that the book and the movie don’t shy away from the complexities of how we love each other, and how we love ourselves,” Vand says of the family’s volatile dynamics. The cast and crew lived together over a six-week shoot in upstate New York. “We were all fully immersing ourselves into this experience -- in some way becoming these animals.

“I think the deeper we put ourselves into that, the wilder we all felt,” she continues.

Now one to watch, Vand first got her break when she landed a small role as an Iranian housekeeper in Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning Argo. The role resonated with audiences so much that a scene resolving her character’s fate was added to the final cut of the film.

“Because of whatever it was that I did, the vulnerability I brought to the character, people cared about that one Iranian in the movie,” Vand recalls. “I was able to show this giant studio, ‘Yeah, of course people are going to care about the Middle Eastern role.’ That was a big thing.”

More critical acclaim came with her first starring role in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, a vampire-Western genre mashup shot entirely in Farsi, which she learned growing up in Palo Alto, California, to Iranian parents. “When you act in a different language it’s like an extra layer of character,” she says. “It’s nice to have that extra separation between reality and when the fiction begins.”

Soon, Vand found herself in more mainstream projects, with roles in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, State of Affairs and 24: Legacy before moving to New York, to feel immersed in culture that inspires her and to pursue more meaningful work.

That began with Aardvark, which premiered at TIFF last year and opened in limited release earlier this month. The film stars Zachary Quinto as a schizophrenic man whose therapist (Jenny Slate) winds up in bed with his movie star brother (Jon Hamm). Vand completes the unlikely pairings as a romantic interest to Quinto’s character. “I really felt like that was the beginning of finding parts and stories that I thought were a little more fulfilling than some of the other jobs I’d been getting,” says Vand, who will return to TV with TNT’s anticipated TV adaptation of Snowpiercer.

“I want to stretch my imagination, I want to see what’s beyond this world that I already live in,” Vand says. On the series, she plays what she calls “a treasure chest of a character” opposite an ensemble cast that includes Jennifer Connelly, Daveed Diggs, <a href="https://www.etonline.com/emmy-first-timers-alison-wright-americans-85746" target="_blank">Alison Wright</a> and <a href="https://www.etonline.com/watch-tony-winner-lena-halls-new-video-wicked-little-town-hedwig-ep-exclusive-94002" target="_blank">Lena Hall</a>. “The writing is not like any TV writing I’ve ever been involved with before. The storylines are so complex. It’s a lot more character-driven, I think, than the movie,” she says, adding that it will offer fans a deeper dive into the world created by the graphic novel and Bong Joon Ho’s 2014 film.

The liberty to make bold, more selective choices at this point in her career seems to be paying off. “I have finally started to gain the courage to say no to things that don’t inspire me, and from the moment I started doing that, better work began to come my way,” Vand says. “I’m learning to trust in my own abilities and to believe that I have a right to be here,” a feeling she recalls having while shooting another upcoming film, Vulture Club with Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco and Matt Bomer. “It’s another one of these strong ensembles that I just felt so honored to be a part of and to play with actors whose work I’ve admired for so long. Those are the moments where you’re like, Wow, it’s really happening, I’m really out here on the playing field.”

Vand is ready to create her own opportunities, too: “I feel full of stories… I think there’s a real thirst for more stories told by women and people of color, and I want to be part of that tidal wave of change.”

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“When I was called for an audition, I was like, ‘Oh, my God -- this is the play, isn’t it, really?’” Nathan Stewart-Jarrett recalls to ET.

For the London-born actor, making his American stage debut -- on Broadway, no less -- has meant joining the legacy of what some consider the greatest play of the 20th century. The 32-year-old Misfits star is currently appearing in <a href="https://angelsbroadway.com/" target="_blank">Angels in America</a> as Belize, the role that won Jeffrey Wright a Tony Award for the 1992 original production and that he reprised in HBO’s 2003 miniseries.

In the critically acclaimed revival of Tony Kushner’s two-part epic now playing on Broadway, Stewart-Jarrett appears opposite some familiar Hollywood faces, most notably Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane. “They’re both amazing actors and really wonderful, generous people,” Stewart-Jarrett says over the phone from the East Village apartment where he’s staying during the production’s limited run at Neil Simon Theatre in New York City.

Garfield, who plays Prior, and Stewart-Jarrett trained just two years apart at the same London drama school, so “being in a play and playing his best friend is really kind of nice and special,” Stewart-Jarrett says of co-starring with a fellow alum. The Hacksaw Ridge actor stars as a gay man who discovers that he’s dying of AIDS and is abandoned by his lover. Prior’s best friend Belize, a former drag queen-turned-nurse, stays steadfastly by his side. Belize also finds himself caring for Lane’s ailing, despicable Roy Cohn (based on the real-life lawyer and Trump mentor).

“Sharing a stage with [Lane], when it’s just us two” -- which happens often over the show’s near-eight-hour runtime -- “it’s really remarkable,” Stewart-Jarrett says, adding that his excitement to work with the venerable star was colored by one role in particular -- for which Lane doesn’t even show his face.

“I called my sister prior to starting rehearsals, like, ‘Oh, my God -- I’m working with Nathan Lane!’” the actor recalls. “I haven’t really said this before, but I’ll say it now: We were so obsessed with The Lion King when we were kids, and that was why I called her, specifically.” (Lane voiced Timon in Disney’s 1994 animated favorite.)

<div class="ctd-shortcode" data-ctd-caption="Andrew Garfield and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett in a scene from &amp;quot;Angels in America&amp;quot; on Broadway." data-ctd-entity-type="media" data-ctd-entity-uuid="a9d309c9-ad4e-46b8-8097-3cbf18c1bac8" data-ctd-shortcode-id="image" data-ctd-view-mode="content_full">&nbsp;</div>

As for<a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/steventhrasher/angels-in-america?"> criticism</a> of Kusher’s treatment of the show’s only black characters -- traditionally, both are played by the actor who plays Belize -- Stewart-Jarrett acknowledges taking it into consideration in approaching his performance. “I do understand why [the criticism is] there, and it’s a useful assessment sometimes; when you have only one black character or character of color in a piece, you do have to analyze why, and I understand that,” he says, adding that with Angels, he believes Belize has an active inner life beyond his relationships to the white characters.

“There was an idea, previously, that you as a black character -- and therefore as a black actor -- need to represent everyone entirely because you’re the only one in this play. I don’t agree with that; I think you need to play the truth of the play, and the character’s truth,” Stewart-Jarrett says. “I can’t walk around filled with responsibility to the black community and my ancestors and so on and so forth. I think that would be a mistake.”

The actor’s U.K. television work has found him among more diverse casts. After starring in the cult supernatural series Misfits from 2009 to 2012 and the sci-fi drama Utopia the following year, Stewart-Jarrett’s first appearance on U.S. television as gossip maven Barrett Hopper on <a href="http://www.etonline.com/tv/famous-love" target="_blank">Famous in Love</a> was decidedly more lighthearted, though he did meet a dark end by the end of the first season. (The series returned to Freeform this month building off the cliffhanger of Barrett’s murder.) “It was just a lot of fun, being arch and mischievous,” the actor says of his character, who insinuated himself into several feuds. “And then I got popped off in the dark, it was great! A real unceremonious death,” he jokes.

Aside from pursuing more indie films -- the actor stars in Mope, a comedy about male performers in the adult film industry, out later this year -- and gunning to be part of Black Panther 2, Stewart-Jarrett isn’t one for dream roles. “I’ve never been typecast and I want to continue that. There are a couple things I’d like to do -- I did just mention Black Panther 2 and I’m not joking about that! -- but there’s no real dream role. The best jobs I’ve had have come from me not planning anything,” he says.

“Doing this play is probably one of them,” he considers. “I feel so happy and lucky being in it; I understand that I might wake up and, no matter how tired I feel, this is the best job in the world.”

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Billy Crudup loves disappearing into characters.

So it wouldn’t be off-base to assume he jumped at the chance to play 19 of them in <a href="http://harryclarkeplay.com/" target="_blank">Harry Clarke</a>, the new one-man Off-Broadway play about a man with multiple personalities that’s recently earned the actor rave reviews. “When I first heard it was a solo show, my initial reaction was, ‘You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me, I’ve never done anything like that,’” Crudup tells ET over the phone from his home in New York City.

Harry Clarke is the alter ego of Philip Brugglestein, “a curiously captivating, but essentially timid” man, in the playwright’s words, who “feels more himself speaking with an English accent” -- even though he’s from South Bend, Indiana. Harry, on the other hand, with his resounding deep voice and knack for personal fictions, is outgoing and magnetic in a way the shy, queer Philip can only dream of. When Harry more or less takes the reins full-time after Philip arrives in New York, he ingratiates himself with a Manhattan family to shocking results. (Think Talented Mr. Ripley, only less macabre.)

“For me, [Philip’s] pantomime and fictional creation is about a desire to connect with people,” says Crudup, who slips between characters with a sly ease, distinguishing one from the next with subtle gestures and intonations. Audible, which is producing the show’s extended run at the Minetta Lane Theatre through May 13, has also packaged Harry Clarke as an audio play, marking the Amazon subsidiary’s first venture into theater. The release allows many more people to connect with Philip, Harry and the whole cast of characters that Crudup brings to life.

“I was also deeply flattered that they’d have enough confidence in me,” Crudup says, referring to playwright David Cale, director Leigh Silverman, and the Vineyard Theatre, where Harry Clarke initially premiered last fall before transferring to Minetta Lane. “I’ve always been interested in trying to support new material in the theater … and this was unlike anything that had come my way before,” adds the actor, who’s been a regular on New York stages his entire career, winning a Tony Award in 2007 for The Coast of Utopia.

Aside from tackling all the characters in Harry Clarke, which the actor says was “undeniably something that I was going to learn and grow from,” the past few years have marked a renaissance for the 49-year-old, with memorable appearances in prestige films -- Spotlight, Jackie, 20th Century Women -- and a cameo in Justice League, in which he plays the Flash’s incarcerated father, Henry Allen. (Of the DC Universe’s upcoming Flash installment, Flashpoint, Crudup admits, “I know probably less than you, [but] it’s the thing my son is most excited about.”)

<div class="ctd-shortcode" data-ctd-caption="Billy Crudup in the Vineyard Theatre production of &amp;quot;Harry Clarke.&amp;quot;" data-ctd-entity-type="media" data-ctd-entity-uuid="b44d2af4-7345-4814-a002-ff38a7c04a0a" data-ctd-shortcode-id="image" data-ctd-view-mode="content_full">&nbsp;</div>

Crudup has also wrapped production on Richard Linklater’s upcoming Where’d You Go, Bernadette, a dramedy about a missing woman and her daughter’s quest to find out what happened to her, with co-stars Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig and Judy Greer. Collaborating with Linklater, whom the actor calls “a compelling creative force,” felt inevitable, not only because their Hollywood circles have so much overlap, but also for their shared passion for diving deep into complex material. “Richard invites [so much] discussion; you get to gain some appreciation of how he’s planning on shooting it, which allows you to then collaborate and dial yourself in to how he’s going to be telling the story,” Crudup says of the production process, which he called an “affirming” and “wicked” experience.

Perhaps the only kink in Crudup’s recent renaissance was his foray into TV, which ended abruptly with Netflix’s swift cancellation of Gypsy shortly after its premiere last summer. Starring Crudup as Naomi Watts’ onscreen husband, the show followed a psychologist who secretly infiltrates the lives of her patients and marked the actor’s first series commitment. “I was for sure disappointed that it didn’t have a longer life. But to be fair, nothing ever fucking works,” he says, referring to the disparity between the number of projects produced in Hollywood and how many are actually released or seen by audiences. “There are certainly features of Gypsy that I’m incredibly proud of, and the working experience was really terrific. I hope we all get another shot at something else sometime.”

The series also <a href="http://www.etonline.com/news/221749_naomi_watts_dating_gypsy_costar_billy_crudup" target="_blank">sparked romance rumors</a> about Crudup and Watts, who have since been <a href="http://www.etonline.com/naomi-watts-holds-hands-with-billy-crudup-at-baftas-after-party-in-london-see-the-pic-96661" target="_blank">spotted hand-in-hand</a>, with Watts even attending the opening night of Harry Clarke on March 18, marking a rare focus on Crudup’s personal life since he made headlines over a decade ago when he left a then-pregnant Mary-Louise Parker for Claire Danes.

As he’s made clear in the time since, Crudup would rather fans connect with his characters than the real Billy. “I try to make it a point of not commenting publicly one way or the other about my personal life,” he says on the subject of Watts. “I don’t particularly see the advantage of people knowing too much about me if I’m constantly trying to trick them into thinking I’m someone else.”

Still, with the recent shift in celebrity culture toward granting fans total access on social media and in the press, “you do lament lost opportunity because you don’t exploit the chance to live an expositional life,” Crudup admits. “But the truth is I’m still getting incredible opportunities. I’m getting older, so the opportunities change.”

And if the opportunity provides itself, Crudup could be back on TV sooner rather than later. “Actors typically go where the writing is, and so much of the writing is in television at the moment,” he says, noting that he looks forward to seeing what Damon Lindelof and HBO do with their series adaptation of the graphic novel Watchmen, having starred as Dr. Manhattan in Zack Snyder’s 2009 film version.

“How many times do you get to play a character like that?” the actor asks, another nod to how fortunate he feels he’s been in his career. “So many actors rarely get any good parts, you know? Most actors just crave one good part, and I’ve been offered a wealth of them.

“To be given a chance to grow in a way you hadn’t anticipated is a remarkable gift to receive,” Crudup continues, referring to his current run in Harry Clarke. “You can’t look a gift horse in the mouth when it comes to that.”

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It’s been 15 years since Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s groundbreaking premiere, and on Feb. 7, a new Fab Five is bringing the feel-good makeover series -- now simply called <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80160037" target="_blank">Queer Eye</a> -- to Netflix. While the TV landscape has certainly changed since 2003, the show’s bent toward bridging cultural divides could hardly be more timely, especially as the series revival finds the gang outside New York in the red state capitol of Atlanta, Georgia.

Created by David Collins, the Emmy-winning original ushered in the first big wave of reality makeover franchises, arriving the same year as ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and TLC’s What Not to Wear. It also exposed millions of viewers to something they’d never seen before.

“It was the first time for me to see somebody to look up to who was actually a real person,” says Bobby Berk, the new Fab Five’s interior designer, whom viewers may recognize from his namesake home line. “We’d never seen anything that was so relatable for us. I had never watched TV before thinking, That person represents me,” echoes <a href="http://www.etonline.com/queer-eye-fashion-expert-tan-france-talks-emotional-journey-wardrobe-must-haves-exclusive-95920" target="_blank">Tan France, the British-born fashion expert</a> of the group who has created two womenswear labels, in ET’s conversations with the creator and the new hosts -- Karamo Brown (culture), Jonathan Van Ness (grooming), Antoni Porowski (food and wine), France and Berk -- at New York City’s JW Marriott Essex House overlooking Central Park.

While the original series was a milestone of gay visibility, both for those seeking role models and viewers who may not have encountered queer people in their everyday lives, the new episodes find the guys bringing much more of themselves to the table. “The biggest difference is people are ready to have a dialogue,” Collins says. “Fifteen years ago, the Fab Five were kind of these superheroes, they swooped in for one day... America wasn’t ready, quite frankly, to hear one of them say, ‘Oh, my husband’ or ‘Oh, my boyfriend’ or, heaven forbid, ‘My kids.’”

Having that dialogue in the South -- which Collins thinks makes the show more accessible to the lives of “everyday people” -- can be one of the show’s great challenges. It can also be its most rewarding. In one particularly poignant episode, the group makes over a white policeman with a “Make America Great Again” hat in his closet and “Trump/Pence” lawn signs in his garage. “For me, the minute I met him I was triggered,” says Karamo Brown, an African-American alum of The Real World: Philadelphia. “I felt like, ‘I can’t talk to you and help you be your best self until we address the elephant in the room.’” Their resulting heart-to-heart is arguably like nothing else we’ve seen on TV.

“Things have backslid a little bit” in recent years, says Brown, whose role is focused on building confidence in the show’s makeover subjects. He notes that the Fab Five’s overall approach is to say, “‘Let’s pause for a second and try to figure out what’s more alike about us than what’s different so that we can grow together.’”

Van Ness, the group’s frequent comic relief, whom viewers may know from the <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/gayofthrones" target="_blank">Funny or Die series </a><a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/gayofthrones" target="_blank">Gay of Thrones</a>, notes that the show’s uplifting nature makes it easier to address differences in an open and honest way. “We’ve become so polarized; a lot of times when you get on Facebook or read the news, your first instinct is to just turn it off, so we don’t even have a conversation… Because [Queer Eye] does it in this fun-loving way, it’s kind of like [The Great] British Bake-Off in the sense that it just makes you feel good.”

Ultimately, Queer Eye remains committed to its individual “heroes,” as the series calls them, spending a week getting to know each one. “Focusing on the political is a missed opportunity,” says Porowski, who previously worked for his Fab Five predecessor, Ted Allen. “At the end of the day, we’re here to figure out how to make them better versions of themselves.”

As for those who may accuse the series of playing into stereotypes, a critique Collins recalls facing on the original series, the men see themselves as professionals first and foremost. “I think a lot of people are like, ‘We don’t need five gays coming in to tell straight guys how to live their lives anymore.’ We don’t approach it that way,” says Berk.

“Our guys are experts in their fields,” Collins says. “Just because Jonathan is a gay man and happens to be a hairdresser, is that a cliché or a stereotype? It might be. But guess what? He’s a really damn good hairdresser and that’s his profession.” In fact, Collins sees the new series combating such limited perceptions of gay men. “The show is breaking down barriers through the stereotypes; we get to see [the Fab Five] as more than just the little gay boxes that everyone wants to put them in.”

While Netflix has not yet announced the future of the series beyond this season, Collins sees its reach expanding. “I’d love to come into the Midwest and continue to explore [the rest of the country]. It is Queer Eye now, so women, men, maybe transgender people, gay men -- it’s not just straight guys.”

And with its home on Netflix, the new Queer Eye will spread to a global audience. “This gives us an opportunity to help educate the world about who we are, that we are very much multiracial and multifaceted,” says France. “We represent every community, we are every man.”

&nbsp;

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‘Queer Eye’ Is Back, and This Time It’s Personal (Exclusive)

Before Ryan Murphy’s Pose makes TV history this summer on FX -- with the <a href="http://www.etonline.com/ryan-murphys-new-fx-series-pose-will-feature-largest-cast-transgender-actors-tv-history-89886" target="_blank">most transgender actors ever</a> to appear in series regular roles -- two of its stars are making their feature film debuts. Indya Moore and Mj Rodriguez both deliver breakthrough performances in <a href="http://www.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/saturday-church/" target="_blank">Saturday Church</a>, a queer coming-of-age film opening in limited theaters and on Video On Demand January 12.

While Pose will take viewers back to 1980s New York, tracing the origins of the underground ball scene memorably depicted in the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, Saturday Church offers a more contemporary look at the experiences of the city’s transgender youth. Inspired by an outreach program for homeless LGBTQ kids in Manhattan’s West Village, the movie follows 14-year-old Ulysses (Luka Kain) as he explores his gender identity and finds acceptance among a new group of queer friends on the street after being rejected at home.

Moore and Rodriguez play two of the young women in Ulysses’ new support system, and introduce him to the ‘Saturday church’ program, where they’re provided food and social services, and, just as importantly, a space to be together and express themselves, including practicing their moves for the next ball.

Saturday Church was Moore’s very first audition, which she heard about from her house father in the ball scene, Jose Xtravaganza. Moore prepped with a friend and, remembering that Henry Cavill <a href="http://www.slashfilm.com/henry-cavill-auditioned-superman-wearing-christopher-reeves-costume/">auditioned for Superman in character</a>, decided on a similar approach -- one that included a purple wig. “I faked putting lipstick on the casting director. I felt super confident; I thought, Nicki Minaj is going to knock on my door any moment now,” Moore recalls to ET, calling from Los Angeles, where she and Rodriguez recently joined the Pose cast onstage for the first time at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.

While Moore started in modeling, booking small jobs through Instagram and Facebook, Rodriguez got into the performing arts growing up in New Jersey, before being introduced to the ball scene at 14 and eventually landing the role of Angel in an off-Broadway revival of Rent. “That was the moment when everything came into full fruition, and I felt like, Finally I get to show people who I am,” Rodriguez says over the phone in New York.

“It was the sort of thing where they walked in the room and you were like, ‘OK.’ You can just see it,” says Saturday Church director Damon Cardasis of the casting process. The film also presented a unique opportunity to feature actors who come from the world it depicts. “My house father saw something in me, she saw potential and taught me how to vogue. The experience on set was so reminiscent of that,” says Rodriguez, whose character, Ebony, takes Ulysses under her wing.

<div class="ctd-shortcode" data-ctd-caption="The cast of &amp;#039;Saturday Church.&amp;#039;" data-ctd-entity-type="media" data-ctd-entity-uuid="b2aabd05-c1ef-4d06-9a26-72114092dacb" data-ctd-shortcode-id="image" data-ctd-view-mode="content_full">&nbsp;</div>

“There are a lot of elements in the film that I experienced myself,” Moore adds. “It’s a journey that I was still on, even while filming Saturday Church; I was actually in foster care at the time,” she continues, saying the movie inspired her to truly believe she can achieve her dreams.

“It’s really exciting to be one of the people this story is actually about,” Moore says of Pose, which is currently filming in New York and recently received a full series order from FX. Co-created by Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals, the show is also produced by <a href="http://www.etonline.com/tv/204243_janet_mock_on_the_importance_of_representation_the_trans_list" target="_blank">Janet Mock</a> and <a href="http://www.etonline.com/features/219509_standout_emmys_performance_our_lady_j_transparent" target="_blank">Transparent writer Our Lady J</a> and is set to feature more than 50 LGBTQ characters. “It’s like a history lesson,” Rodriguez adds. “To see what we had to go through in 1987 and how we persevered, which is one of the reasons why a lot of us are here today and able to do shows like this.”

Of working with Moore, first on Saturday Church and now Pose, Rodriguez says she “couldn’t be happier that one of my sisters has come along and we’re embarking on a journey together; we’re family.”

Even as they break ground themselves, Moore and Rodriguez both feel incredibly grateful to their predecessors, including trans women like the characters they play in Pose. “We’re standing on the shoulders of so many people who have already broken down so many barriers,” Moore says. “It’s amazing that we have five leading trans women of color to portray these stories that should have been portrayed a long time ago,” Rodriguez adds.

<div class="ctd-shortcode" data-ctd-caption="Indya Moore as Angel in &amp;#039;Pose.&amp;#039;" data-ctd-entity-type="media" data-ctd-entity-uuid="b3452d15-c6e2-45e5-8173-736acfa386f1" data-ctd-shortcode-id="image" data-ctd-view-mode="content_full">&nbsp;</div>

While few details have been revealed about the show’s cast, including co-stars <a href="http://www.etonline.com/evan-peters-playing-his-most-insane-ahs-character-yet-working-emma-roberts-directing-exclusive" target="_blank">Evan Peters</a>, <a href="http://www.etonline.com/features/222792_james_van_der_beek_on_channeling_diplo_and_checking_into_room_104" target="_blank">James Van Der Beek</a> and Kate Mara, Moore and Rodriguez happily tease their upcoming roles on Pose. “Blanca is a rambunctious, strong, wonderfully powerful character who is trying to find her way and help others find theirs,” Rodriguez says. Moore, who plays Angel, says her character is “definitely unapologetic; she’s brave, she knows where she’s going, has a strong sense of self, and is staying true to the future she sees herself in.”

The same can be said of Moore and Rodriguez, who see a bold path ahead for transgender performers in Hollywood. “Us being trans women should be as a matter of fact versus a headline,” says Rodriguez, who has graduated from bit parts on The Carrie Diaries, Luke Cage and Nurse Jackie. “When it comes to my career, I’m an actress before I’m trans. I think people should see the talent first.”

Moore, who says “cis[gender] actors playing trans roles feels like black face,” adds that, while she’s happy to see trans characters played by trans actors, we’re not yet seeing trans characters “in ways that aren’t focused on their transness, or putting them under a microscope.”

Both stars say they’d love to play superheroes some day -- and from their portraits of perseverance in Saturday Church and soon Pose, that’s not a huge leap. “I would love to see or be an action hero, and have kids look up to us and feel empowered,” Rodriguez says. “I just want to be a light of hope for anyone who might be in the dark.” Moore agrees, pointing to the change she hopes projects like Saturday Church and Pose can help usher in.

“It’s really going to open up the eyes of so many people,” Moore says. “They are really going to see us for who we are, as gender variant people who are just people.”

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Mj Rodriguez and Indya Moore Break Barriers With FX’s ‘Pose’ and ‘Saturday Church’ (Exclusive)

“Sometimes I’ll see somebody and they just instantly burst into tears.” 
Megan Mullally is talking about especially animated fans who recognize her as Karen Walker from <a href="http://www.etonline.com/tv/will-grace" target="_blank">Will &amp; Grace</a>, which returned to NBC in a roundly celebrated revival this fall. “I always just give them a big hug and I’m like, ‘I’m so boring! You don’t understand,” she adds.
But admirers old and new of Grace’s brassy assistant will agree that there’s nothing boring about Mullally’s scene-stealing character, whom audiences first met during the series’ original eight-season run from 1998 to 2006. When the sitcom’s famous foursome first <a href="http://www.etonline.com/tv/199022_it_the_will_grace_reunion_we_ve_been_waiting_for_the_stars_debate_the_2016_election">reunited last September</a> for a video to encourage viewers to vote in the 2016 presidential election, the biggest bombshell came with Karen’s choice of candidate. 
“She’s a Trump supporter on paper,” Mullally tells ET over the phone from her home in Los Angeles. The political tone of the PSA, which served as a precursor to this fall’s new episodes, remains, particularly when it comes to Karen. “It’s a little meta, but all of her jokes are the most pointedly anti-Trump, without her knowing that [they are].” But in Karen’s defense, the actress says she’s a horrible person. “That’s what makes her a great character.” 
Despite the show’s more aggressive political undertones, much about the new Will &amp; Grace feels the same as the first time around -- for pretty much everyone involved. “It feels like we never left. I’d say we have about 70 percent of all the same people from 11 and a half years ago on the floor,” Mullally says, referring to everyone from camera operators and designers to craft services and, of course, longtime series director James Burrows. 
“When we sat down for the table read,” she says of preparing for the 2016 reunion video, “We were like, ‘Holy sh*t.’ We were all looking around at each other like, ‘Um, you guys, this is Will &amp; Grace.’ It feels like we never left; it also seems that a miracle has occurred.”
And Karen was on deck, ready to deliver her razor-sharp punch lines. “I felt like she’d just been in there standing by, waiting for the curtain to go back up or something. It was all just right there,” says the actress, whose theater background means she’s perfectly at home in front of a live audience. Mullally has four Broadway productions under her belt; most recently, she starred in It’s Only a Play in 2014, opposite Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. 
As viewers can likely tell from home, studio audiences of the new Will &amp; Grace episodes have been explosive. “The first taping was like a Beatles concert. It was a little scary, like, is the building going to explode?” Mullally recalls. “I started out doing theater for many years, so for me, I love it. When there’s a big laugh and you have to fill [the time] and you find funny things, it’s theater.” 
But for all the laughs, the show has delivered one of its most touching moments so far when dealing with Rosario’s absence from the revival. Shelley Morrison, who played Karen’s longtime maid and best friend and appeared briefly in the election PSA, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/will-grace-shelley-morrisons-rosario-not-returning-revival-1026648">has retired from acting</a> and declined to return to the series. In the episode titled “Rosario’s Quinceanera,” Karen is forced to say goodbye to Rosario, who unexpectedly dies in the hospital. 
For Mullally, who recently turned 59, it was a chance to show a side of Karen -- and of herself as an actress -- that no one has ever seen before. “I started acting when I was 12; nobody’s ever handed me material like that in my whole career,” she says, “thrilled” for Karen to have a moment like that. “It was so poignant, I think, for everybody. And we really do miss Shelley and the character of Rosario; [I felt] that they really did right by her, and that was important to me also.” 
While it’s been a decade since Will &amp; Grace’s finale, Mullally hasn’t been far from the screen, with memorable appearances on the second season of Party Down and as Tammy Two opposite her husband, Nick Offerman, on Parks and Recreation, as well as voicing Gayle on Bob’s Burgers. Mullally has also become a reliable supporting player with roles in G.B.F. and Why Him? This year, she can be seen in <a href="http://www.etonline.com/movies/disaster-artist" target="_blank">The Disaster Artist</a>, starring James Franco, and the buzzy black comedy Lemon. But none of that has topped her reprisal of Karen.
“I’m just very grateful,” Mullally says of returning to the role for which she’s most beloved. “Every minute we’re on the set, we feel it. We feel like, ‘OK, savor this because this sh*t came back, and that’s not supposed to happen!’ It makes it that much sweeter. To have it airing on the same network, same time slot. It’s a beautiful thing.”
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