Debra Messing's new show, The Mysteries of Laura, couldn't come at a better time—for television, and actually, for me. I was on a very full flight last week when I watched the premiere episode on my phone (yay for carriers who let you stream via wifi!), and I really needed to laugh that hard to deal with the guy whose very broad shoulders were basically sharing my seat.
A few minutes in, I was cracking up enough to annoy my now-seatmate and was hooked. It's no surprise why Debra was so amped about this show and this part (something she told us in an interview earlier that day): "The thing that intrigued me the most was the balance between the drama and the comedy," she said.
"All of the sudden, here's this show where I get to be a homicide detective and work on very complicated, smart murder mysteries; but then also I was laughing out loud reading it, which just surprised me so much because that never happens. An hour-long dramedy doesn't really exist on network television, and I thought, you know what, it's time."
The show revolves around Laura, a New York City homicide detective who's also mom to twin boys who are kicked out of their preschool in the pilot episode. She's going through a divorce with her soon-to-be-ex-husband Jake (played by Josh Lucas), another NYC detective. So while that badass female cop is a character we've seen before, the added working mom element is new.
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"I obviously relate to it, and honestly, I think every woman I know relates to it," says Debra. "Now with the economy, every mother I know is a working mother. What I loved about Laura is that she's very passionate about her job, and she's great at it. She's the smartest person in the room, and she's confident and knows that she is valuable. And then she is a mother and she wants to be present and wants everything that every mom wants for her child—to be happy and safe and fed. And of course, like in real life, with Laura, obstacles keep showing up by the hour."
So what are Debra's tips for juggling everything as a working mom? "What I do to save some time is I will take a shower and wash my hair after my son goes to sleep so that I don't have to do it in the morning and have to worry about getting him to school or having plans to go to the park and play," says Debra. And as for most of her script reading and line learning? That also happens after 11 p.m., she says.
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That insanely packed schedule can be hard enough to navigate when you're healthy, let alone during allergy season, which Debra says has been a lifelong struggle for her. "It's really gotten in the way of my enjoyment of my job and my ability to do my job well, because my throat would close up and my eyes would tear and I'd get red and we'd have to stop shooting and try to get some sort of medicine in me. It was embarrassing."
The actress recently teamed up with Zyrtec after it seemed to be the only thing that worked for her. "I found something I could just take one in the morning and I'd be covered for 24 hours, and I knew that I could do my work and be the mom I want to be and not have to worry about having an allergy attack."
Check out her new series The Mysteries of Laura on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.
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