Emmy award-winning actress Debra Messing is on the big screen in the remake of George Cukor's classic "The Women." Messing, 40, became an instant success as Grace on the television sitcom "Will and Grace" (1998-2006). She studied at Brandeis University and got her master's in theater at New York University, where she met her husband Daniel Zelman in 1990. They have a son, Roman. Her new series on the USA network, "The Starter Wife," premieres Friday. She plays Molly, the ditched wife of a Hollywood director. The show originally was a miniseries in which she played the same character.

Q: What was your free time like after "Will and Grace" ended? Was there any?

A: I didn't really have much because I had already committed to doing "The Starter Wife" miniseries. I did go to Cape Cod for a couple of weeks and just relaxed. It was perfect.

Q: I read once your dream was to take an African safari. Did you do it?

A: (laughing) It has not happened. Much to my chagrin. Yeah, that was on the list.

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PG audio

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Q: Do you know many real starter wives?

A: Yes, yes, I do. There are so many people who have gone through divorce, and the women who I know have given anecdotes -- many of them very funny-- that, you know, make it into the script. It is definitely not Hollywood specific. I think the starter wife syndrome is a modern and relevant concept. Now we are at a time when people are having two and three careers and two and three marriages. I think it has touched a nerve.

Q: What was your dating life like before you met your husband?

A: Very sparse. You know I was sort of a nervous Nelly. I met my husband when I was 21. Actual dating I tried once, and it just made me anxious. We were together nine years before we got married, so it wasn't a rush to the altar. I just think of it as being lucky enough to have found the one early enough to be spared the single dating scene.

Q: You always knew you wanted to act. Did you always have the confidence you could make it happen?

A: I did, strangely. I think that my parents made me believe that I could do anything as long as I worked really hard, as long as I studied really hard, and I was dedicated and patient. In my mind, growing up, there was nothing that was off limits to me, and that was probably the biggest gift my parents gave me. I believed that at some point someone would say, "She has something to contribute."

Q: When you play Molly in "The Starter Wife" does Grace ever try to bubble up?

A: You know I don't think so. I was concerned about it because I had just stopped doing the show. Now I just feel that Molly is so different from Grace and so different from me, but both Grace and Molly are somehow a part of me.

Q: Once you've mastered a character and played one as long as you did Grace, does she become ingrained in you?

A: Yes. I think the ones that are really meaningful stay with you. I played Harper in "Angels in America: Perestroika," the second half of Tony Kushner's play when I was in my last year at NYU. His final edit was based on the work we did. Playing Harper in 1993, you know, she is still with me.

Q: Facial expressions are so much a part of your acting repertoire does that mean you will never do Botox or surgery?

A: Well, I haven't done it yet, and you know that is the reason. I don't think of myself as depending on facial expression more than any other actors, but I do know that I learned to be very expressive from my mother. I think I have an aesthetic for a certain kind of comedy that is full-body comedy. So, because of that aesthetic, so far I have been just way too scared to consider freezing or changing a part of my face so that I looked tighter or younger or what have you.

Q: "The Women" is all about female friendships -- the good and the bad. Do you have a lot of female friends?

A: I don't have a gaggle of female friends. I have a handful of friends. I have girlfriend who I met the first day of college, and she is still my best friend. I met a guy the first day that I did summer stock at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and he's my male best friend. I'm really more of a one-on-one person in general.

Q: With so many women on the set of "The Women" were there any diva issues?

A: Oh, God no, not one. It's funny, I had no idea what to expect when I came to an all-female cast. I believe there never would have been an all-female cast had there not been a precedent in the original. I doubt we will ever see it again, honestly. It turned out we had three days together prior to starting work at Diane English's house. We basically spent three days around her kitchen table talking about our lives, and what it's like being modern women. She brought us together under the auspices that we were going to do some script work, some rehearsal. Ultimately what we really did was bond. We couldn't have been more different from one another, yet we became really intimate really quickly. I think we ended up opening up to each other in a way that I don't believe ever could have happened if there were men around.