Many might know Cress Williams as Terrence “Scooter” Williams on Fox’s Living Single— but did you know that he was almost the fifth member of NBC’s Will & Grace?
On a recent episode of their Just Jack & Will podcast, Will & Grace stars Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack revealed that Williams had been cast as the fifth member of their show back in 1998.
According to Eric McCormick, Williams has been cast to play his “straight” co-worker/friend who was “opposite” of Sean Hayes’ Jack.
“There were five characters as regulars, and the fifth was my partner in my small law firm,” McCormick shared, per TVLine. “I think [he was] written probably as Jewish, and yet in the end it was Cress Williams.”
But after filming the pilot episode, ‘Will & Grace’ director James Burrows decided that five was too many.
“It was just one of those things where, two days in — and I wasn’t aware of this, I’m not thinking with this kind of critical eye or ear — Jimmy just went to the boys, and said, ‘It’s just too many. It’s one finger too many. These four are the show,’” McCormick explained.
He added, “I felt so terrible. It was nothing he did or didn’t do. It was just kind of like my character on the Jenny McCarthy show the year before. It just didn’t fit what the show was supposed to be.”
Despite not moving forward with the Will & Grace cast, Williams went on to appear and star in several well-known projects, including The CW’s Hart of Dixie and Black Lightning. He also played Inspector Atwon Babcock on the CBS series Nash Bridges.
