Will & Grace almost had a fifth cast member: Cress Williams

Will & Grace's fab four was almost a fab five.

In the premiere episode of their Just Jack & Will podcast, Will & Grace stars Eric McCormack and Sean Hayes reminisced about shooting the pilot for their long-running NBC hit back in 1998. Originally, recalls McCormack, their co-stars were Debra Messing, Megan Mullally, and... Cress Williams.

"There were five characters as regulars," says McCormack. "And the fifth was my partner at my small law firm." Describing the character as a "straight guy" who was "probably written as Jewish" initially, McCormack goes on to explain that Will's friendship with Williams' character was meant to be "just as important" as his friendship with Messing's Grace and Hayes' Jack.

Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank; Jim Spellman/WireImage Will & Grace; Cress Williams

A few days into shooting the pilot, however, McCormack says director James Burrows expressed concern to Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick that five people was too many for the ensemble. "I felt so terrible," says McCormack. "It was nothing he did or didn't do... It just didn't fit what the show is supposed to be."

Williams went on to appear on NBC's hospital hit ER for several seasons, and more recently starred as the titular superhero in the CW's Black Lightning.

McCormack, meanwhile, understands what it's like to be cut from a pilot: The year before he landed Will & Grace, the actor had a role in NBC's Jenny McCarthy sitcom vehicle, Jenny. "We shot the pilot, and I was in Toronto doing a movie, and I got a call saying they cut the character, that I was off the show," McCormack told The A.V. Club in 2016. "While I knew it was not going to be God's gift to television, it was going to be a good year, and I was expecting to make that money, and I was getting married in the summer, and so it was a big deal. And it was the following pilot season that I got Will & Grace and shot that."

Listen to the full episode below.

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