Leslie Jordan reveals iconic Will & Grace role was written for Joan Collins
Leslie Jordan, Dame Joan Collins (L) and Megan Mullaly (R)
Leslie Jordan has revealed Will & Grace writers wanted Joan Collins to play his character Beverly Leslie.
Jordan spilled the tea while being interviewed by former co-star, Megan Mullally, who played Karen, to discuss his new book How Y’all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well-Lived.
“I got a call to read for this part for Will & Grace,” he said, speaking at the National Book Festival in Washington DC.
“What I didn’t know was that the character of Beverly Leslie was originally written for Joan Collins.”
Laughing, he continued: “She was gonna steal Rosario the maid away from Karen Walker and confront each other over a billiard table. They wanted this like Dynasty catfight where they rip each other’s wigs off.”
“And Miss Collins, apparently, did not want her wig jerked off, and so they decided to recast it.”
And we’re so glad they did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfZieJdYzR8&ab_channel=LibraryofCongress
There was no wig-jerking between Mullally and Jordan’s characters, but they had a fierce rivalry with blistering remarks and catty retorts becoming a staple of their conversations.
Behind the scenes, though, the pair are good friends. They even bought their much loved characters back to life in a skit filmed for Instagram.
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The post delighted fans, with Housewives star Lisa Rinna commenting: “My favourite duo ever”. Pop icon Demi Lovato added: “Omg I love you both so much.”
Leslie Jordan previously granted all of our gay wishes by saying that he’d star in a Will & Grace musical “in a minute”.
