Chatting up Sean Hayes about his new NBC series

Last year at an event at the Orpheum Theatre, a friend of mine gave me an elbow and said, “Sean Hayes just walked by!”

I didn’t see him at that moment, only later when he was on stage. My friend after his lobby spotting: “He’s SO sexy in person!”

Okay, maybe we don’t think of how attractive Sean Hayes is because he’s usually being so funny on-screen. But I did get face-to-face with him briefly last weekend at the TV Critics Association press tour and yeah, he is kinda dreamy.

Anyway, since Will & Grace went off the air in 2006 after eight seasons, Sean didn’t seem to be in any kind of rush to land another series.

Instead, he did such films as The Bucket List, Soul Men and The Three Stooges and conquered Broadway in the musical Promises, Promises for which he earned a Tony Award nomination.

But he will finally return to series television this fall as the lead in NBC’s Sean Saves the World playing a gay man juggling raising a teenaged daughter with his demanding job and dealing with an outspoken mother.

I wanted to know why he waited so long to do another series.

‘It’s all about timing,’ he said. ‘Who knows if it’s the right time or not. Time will tell if it’s a hit or if it fails or whatever. You never know.’

The cast also includes television and Broadway veteran Linda Lavin as his mother and Megan Hilty – with whom Sean appeared in on NBC’s Smash last season – as his close friend.

Appearing in a traditional sitcom with multiple cameras and a studio audience – the way Will & Grace was shot – was something he always wanted to go back to one day.

‘I was waiting for myself to be okay with going back to TV and this is my favorite medium – multi-cam,’ he says. ‘It makes me laugh still and I still watch Cheers and Friends and Will & Grace and Frasier and I Love Lucy and all of those. I think it’s missing on television. I think multi-cam is the new single cam.’

Sean does plan to do some of the physical comedy that his previous sitcom character of Jack McFarland was known for.

‘I was always a fan of cartoons growing up because they captured people’s attention quicker than anything,’ he says. ‘Even now, animated movies are huge because it’s more exciting to watch. Physical comedy to me is more exciting to look at. It’s a blast. It’s always like a math problem and I love to figure it out.’

While his Will & Grace and Sean Saves the World characters are both gay, a lot has changed in the TV landscape and in the culture since his first series was on the air.

When US Vice President Joe Biden publicly spoke out in favor of gay marriage last year, he credited Will & Grace for helping with that change.

‘I was very young when I got the job – I took the job because I was an actor who needed a job,’ Sean says. ‘I had no idea the byproduct of that would be opening people’s minds and maybe educating them without them knowing about the normalcy of gay people just like Black people, Jewish people.’

‘I’m proud of the fact that Will & Grace allowed for other shows like Modern Family and this show and other gay characters to be allowed to be portrayed on television.’