Sean Hayes plays a cisgender woman in new film "Lazy Susan"

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April 6, 2020 | Arts / Entertainment

Sean Hayes plays a cisgender woman in new film "Lazy Susan"

Will and Grace star Sean Hayes is preparing for life after the comedy series comes to an end -- for a second time -- later this TV season.

His first big solo endeavour: he plays a cisgender woman in Lazy Susan, a bumbling, stumbling Wisconsinite who leeches off of her brother and mother.

"I thought, 'What an incredible challenge to play a woman.' Like how scary and weird would that be if I played a woman?," Hayes said. "I wanted to do it because it's why we're actors, to embody people that we aren't, and sometimes feel uncomfortable doing that. I like that kind of uncomfortableness of a challenge."

Susan has existed in Hayes' mind since the early '90s. He even used her for an audition on Fox's sketch show In Living Color.

“I went in with a bunch of character ideas and voices and wigs and things like that," he explained. "One of the characters was Susan, who was just a girl who couldn’t get her life together. She always had excuses and she was never really happy. She dreams about having it all, but she does nothing to get it.

“Decades later, a friend of mine suggested that I resurrect the character because we had so much fun with her. She came up with the name ‘Lazy Susan,’ and I thought ‘what a genius title.’”

The cast is pretty impressive. Allison Janney plays Susan’s work nemesis Velvet, and Margo Martindale is Susan’s mother. Matthew Broderick even has a part as Susan’s landlord.

“I'm so proud of that film and excited about it,” Hayes said. “It's an odd time for it to come out, since everybody's feeling a little bit like a lazy Susan."

Lazy Susan is now available on VOD and some streaming channels.