Before she resumed her role of Grace Adler in the rebooted “Will & Grace,” Debra Messing played a homicide detective in the NBC police procedural dramedy “The Mysteries of Laura.” In her latest film “Searching,” she returns to crime solving, playing a missing-persons detective investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl. There’s a very modern twist: since the girl’s father (John Cho) is trying to trace her digital footprint for clues, the story unfolds on computer and other digital screens.
“It literally was unlike any film script I had ever read before,” Messing says. “The whole thing that makes this movie so original and exciting and forward-thinking is this really thrilling to approach to storytelling in a completely new way.”
“Searching” will be in theaters Aug. 24, and “Will & Grace,” which returns to NBC on Oct. 4, is in production. The show is taped before a studio audience, and, when Messing turned 50 on Aug. 15, “They got the entire audience to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, which was really amazing,” she told “Extra,”
David Schwimmer has been cast in the recurring role of Grace’s love interest. But Messing has an idea for casting another key role in Grace’s life. She told “Entertainment Tonight”: “I want Barbra Streisand to play Grace’s aunt.”