Sean Hayes

I consider myself an actor who is funny.

I think the worst thing you could ever do is label comedy. I'm a fan of the broadness of Lucille Ball, the subtlety of Peter Sellers and the oddballness of Fred Armisen and the wittiness of Marty Short. I'm a fan of all of it, and I want to do all of it.

It's always comedy first on 'Will and Grace.' There was never any other agenda.

Everybody kind of looks to comedians and comedy for relief and a fresh breath about what is going on in the world.

We've always been interested in the commentary on politics and society and how comedy always sort of cuts that with a nice laugh, and the perspective it brings.

No one could have ever dreamed about how well the show would do.

I was the music director at a dinner theater called the 'Pheasant Run Theater' in the suburbs of Chicago, and that was my side gig while I acted.

The only thing that's required of an actor for an audition is to memorize your sides with confident choices, and then the rest is not up to you. You're either right for a part or you're not.

Some people in the gay community were very upset with me for not coming out on their terms.

And I'd like to believe that's true, you know, kind of showing gay people in this kind of light and - where it's not about that, it's just about the characters for the first time, like those shows were.

I come from a completely dysfunctional alcoholic family, so we kind of parented ourselves a little bit.

I got one letter at the very beginning, like, in the first season, saying - from a woman who was very religious, very Christian, saying how wrong she thought the show was, but she thinks it's the funniest show on television.