DEBRA Messing admitted that she was "way too skinny" after her weight plummeted from a size 8 to size 2 while filming Will & Grace in the 90s.
The 51-year-old actress spoke about the pressure she felt to maintain a low weight when she visited Jameela Jamil’s “I Weigh” podcast.
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When Debra started filming the NBC show in 1998, she noticed that "couldn’t fit into clothes" and would leave fittings "hating my body and hating myself."
She said: "I thought, ‘My life would be so much easier, and it would be easier on everybody trying to do their job, if I just lost weight.'"
The actress made an active effort to lose weight, explaining: "I started doing yoga every single day and I did one of those meal delivery services. I started to get smaller and then I was a 6 and they were like, ‘You’re losing weight, you look amazing!'"
Jameela and Debra agreed that the show aired at a point in time when women were expected to be "wildly" thin.
Debra admitted that seeing how thin other stars were in the 90s made her insecure.
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She said: "I was lucky enough to be invited on the red carpet to the Emmys and the Golden Globes, and that was the same time that Ally McBeal was at its height and Calista [Flockhart] was the ‘It’ girl and Portia de Rossi also was so so slim, and she’s spoken openly about her anorexia, so it’s all within sort of the same theme.
"I would try to fit into these gowns and of course they weren’t sample sizes, and it was like, ‘OK, we have to let out the seams, etc.'"
The Smash star added that she lost too much weight and said: "But, you know, going in for those fittings, I fit into everything. And all of a sudden, I literally could fit into anything that was high fashion.
"So all of a sudden, everything seemed to open up for me, because I was a 2."
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Debra eventually became sick due to her drastic weight loss.
She said: "My body just could not hold out. My adrenals crashed, I was exhausted and it just became clear to me that I couldn’t be healthy and a size 2 at the same time."
Debra is rumored to be feuding with Will & Grace co-star Megan Mullaly, who missed a Zoom chat with the cast on Sirius XM amid rumors of a nasty feud with Debra.
The 61-year-old appeared to talk about her rumored ongoing feud with Debra in a podcast with husband Nick Offerman back in January.
Megan, who starred on Will and Grace from 1998-2006 and its revival from 2017-2020, said: "I've been bullied - I'm 60 and I'm being bullied right now, so you know it's a very insidious and dangerous thing and I never want to lose that happy and innocent part of myself but it's almost like you have to kill that."
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The actress seemingly touched on her feud with Debra, stating: "The thing that I've had happen - this is tough - because I'm not good at standing up to people and having boundaries. So as I've gotten older, I've thought that if anyone tried to do that now, I would try to defend myself.
"But the thing is that I've had a recent situation and I can't be specific about but I had it happen and I did try to stand up for myself in certain ways and that made it a thousand times worse.
"Because the person, the bully, it just lit a fire under that person where they just tripled their efforts and it can get very dangerous.
"That's why I don't know what to say about it unless you have great advocates who can come in and help you, and really take charge of the situation - this was a work situation for me - it's tough because the very nature of the bully is that once they're challenged, they really go to town.
"Like you thought it was bad before, wait."
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