(October 15, 2008) - PCM's Kristyn Clarke spoke with actress Debra Messing, Debra plays the role of Molly Kagan on USA's Emmy Award winning hit, The Starter Wife.

Check out our Q & A with Debra below and be sure to watch him on The Starter Wife on The USA Network:


K. Clark: Hello, Debra, it's an honor to speak with you today, so thanks for taking the time. So all the other actors on the show always have the most wonderful things to say about you, so how does everyone maintain such a good chemistry on set?

D. Messing: Oh goodness, well, it's nice to hear that people have nice things to say about me. I love our cast and I was in every audition, every final thing. In addition to, our first priority was finding the best actors for that particular role, but at the same time we were very much aware that we were going to be spending 14, 16 hours a day with these cast members. And it was important to feel like, that we were getting together a good group of people, good human beings who are respectful and have a good work ethic and are passionate about what they're doing and have a great sense of humor.

We were able to do that and then you put us all together and there just happened to be great chemistry, which you can't predict. We were just lucky enough that it happened. So we get along incredibly well and we laugh a lot. The hours are hard and there are challenges with working that hard, and it's wonderful to know that everywhere you look, there are people who have your back and who are there to give you the emotional support that you need or to get you to say, okay, you're falling asleep on your feet. Okay, do I have to do a little jig to make you laugh, or whatever needs to be done. So yes, it's a really great group of people.

K. Clark: Great, I'm sure it's great when everything can fit together like that. My follow-up would be, do you have a favorite on-set moment so far?

D. Messing: Oh goodness, I have a memorable moment. I don't know that it was a favorite. It was doing the Basic Instinct fantasy where I was Sharon Stone with the famous uncrossing of the legs interrogation scene. This was the last episode and we were doing it, I was doing it in front of all the male cast members and I could just tell that everyone, including all the crew, were kind of tense because they didn't know what was going to happen. Obviously I wasn't going to go the full mile and not wear underwear while I was doing the scene. But I did know that given the nature of the scene, that everyone was going to have to be staring at my crotch for ten hours and that people were going to be shy and embarrassed because everyone is like family now.

So I decided to do a practical joke to try and break the tension and to make everyone relax. So I had white panties made up with these big block pink letters that said "Say please," hoping that when I uncrossed my legs and the cast and crew saw, that they would break up laughing, that it would ruin the take, everyone would just acknowledge how sort of weird and funny this whole thing is and then we would be able to go on and for me to say, "Okay, I'm wearing a bathing suit bottom. We can all enjoy this."

But the thing was it happened and literally nobody laughed. It was probably one of the most embarrassing moments I've ever had in my life. It didn't work and afterwards I had to stand up and I'm like, "Did you not read? Did you not see it?" All of a sudden everyone started to exhale and laugh. They didn't know if was supposed to be a joke. They were just so shocked and stunned. And then once that I assured them that it was a joke, then everyone laughed and had good fun with it and the rest of the night was comfortable.