Cress Williams Was Originally the Fifth Regular on ‘Will and Grace’

We all know Will and Grace as Eric McCormack and Debra Messing, a duo rarely seen without their best pals, Sean Hayes‘ Jack McFarland and Megan Mullaly‘s Karen Walker. However, it turns out that the inseparable group of four was once set to be a group of five.

McCormack and Hayes revealed a juicy tidbit on the premiere episode of their Just Jack and Will podcast, telling listeners that Cress Williams was originally cast as a series regular on Will and Grace.

“So there were five characters as regulars,” McCormack said, “and the fifth was my partner at my small law firm.”

McCormack said that “he figured that he would be — our friendship would be just as important or play as much of a time on the screen as —” before Hayes interjected, “Like playing opposite of Jack for you.”

McCormack said Cress’ never-seen role was “Jewish” and “a straight guy,” but he was cut early on in the pilot process because the cast was too crowded with five leads.

“It was just one of those things where two days in… [director James Burrows] just went to the boys and said, ‘It’s too many,'” McCormack reflected. “‘These four are the show.'”

Hayes reflected on the brutal nature of shooting Hollywood television pilots, saying, “it’s so ass-backwards,” for sitcoms especially, adding, “They’ll shoot a pilot, then you have to wait and see if it gets picked up, then they pick it up and you start an episode two, but it’s a year later and you don’t look anything like episode one.”

McCormack added, “The pilot process can be just so nerve-racking because you have the job, but you may lose it at any moment.”

The actor said he “felt so terrible,” for Williams, explaining, “It was nothing he did or didn’t do.”

While Williams never made it on Will and Grace, he went on to star in plenty of other hit TV series, including Leaving L.A., Living Single, Nash Bridges, Veronica Mars and ER, among others.

All 11 seasons of Will and Grace can be streamed on Hulu.