“No, my entire life is planned. It’s called time management.”
― Sean Hayes
“The smartest thing that an actor can do is embrace the thing that made them famous as opposed to run away from it or deny that it happened. That does a disservice to most actors. To me, it looks like you’re ungrateful.”
― Sean Hayes
“Isn’t it about getting out of your comfort zone and getting off the couch and challenging yourself and forcing yourself to do things you wouldn’t other do? Otherwise, what are you living for?”
― Sean Hayes
“When I came out of my mom’s womb, I had ‘sitcom’ stamped on my forehead.”
― Sean Hayes
“The thing about producing is that the pressure is off of being in front of the camera, and being critiqued and judged in that way, but there are other pressures producing.”
― Sean Hayes
“I had so many friends over the years – so many, out of the woodwork, telling me, ‘When are you coming back to TV?’”
― Sean Hayes
“You don’t have a face to work with, so your voice has to do all the work until you see the animation. So, a lot of it I had to pull back because it was too big.”
― Sean Hayes
“Through that, I got to know Jerry’s work, and I am definitely his number-one fan right now, which is interesting because it usually works the other way around: you usually create a project based on your hero.”
― Sean Hayes
“Nobody makes me laugh.”
― Sean Hayes
“And I’d like to believe that’s true, you know, kind of showing gay people in this kind of light and – where it’s not about that, it’s just about the characters for the first time, like those shows were.”
― Sean Hayes
“I got one letter at the very beginning, like, in the first season, saying – from a woman who was very religious, very Christian, saying how wrong she thought the show was, but she thinks it’s the funniest show on television.”
― Sean Hayes
“I actually like working with the other three actors on the show.”
― Sean Hayes
“But when I did think about it and looked at the whole package – the producers behind the show, the writers, the cast I would be working with – I would have been a fool to turn it down just because the role for me was another gay role.”
― Sean Hayes
“No one could have ever dreamed about how well the show would do.”
― Sean Hayes
“They might have a long way to go before truly accepting gay people into their lives, but they have accepted the show into their living rooms each and every week.”
― Sean Hayes
“The writers have slowly taken the show, with subjects other gay shows have dived right into, slowly. It was over a year before Will even started to date.”
― Sean Hayes
“Being an actor, the less people know about my personal life, the more open-minded they can be about each role I play.”
― Sean Hayes
“I like to be busy and I like to have places to go in the morning, when I get up.”
― Sean Hayes
“I’m a huge sci-fi/fantasy/horror guy. I love anything in the sci-fi or fantasy genre.”
― Sean Hayes
“And I’m OK being judged as an actor.”
― Sean Hayes
“And so, I think when I got to college, you discover who you are and find yourself more than you did before.”
― Sean Hayes
“At the beginning of ‘Will and Grace’, I played Jack as the funny next-door-neighbor type, as we’ve seen in the past. And I thought that was my role.”
― Sean Hayes
“I have the most nervous stomach in the world.”
― Sean Hayes
“But I’m guessing every actor is insecure.”
― Sean Hayes
“So get accomplished what you want to get accomplished in your life. And in the intervals, do what you can to help other people.”
― Sean Hayes
“I think because my life is so insane and it’s constantly going at 120 miles per hour, my favorite thing to do is sit at home in front of the TV and check out.”
― Sean Hayes
“I got ‘Will & Grace,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, this is different. I don’t know how to handle this. I’m not bright enough; I’m not quick enough, I don’t have the DNA to be a spokesperson for any kind of group of people.’”
― Sean Hayes
“Each individual human being has a lot of stuff that nobody knows about. Nobody knows what anybody else is going through at any point in their lives.”
― Sean Hayes
“I did, like, 30 or 40 commercials before ‘Will & Grace’ where I was the straight husband. I had two spots on the Super Bowl in 1998 where I was the straight dude.”
― Sean Hayes
“You build a fan base over time, and they will accept you as long as it’s good. Nothing matters as long as something’s good. If it’s bad, nobody will see it.”
― Sean Hayes
“When I play a gay character, I want to be as believable as possible. And when I’m playing a straight character, I also want to be as believable as possible. So the less that people know about my personal life, the more believable I can be as a character.”
― Sean Hayes
“Nobody owes anything to anybody. You are your authentic self to whom and when you choose to be, and if you don’t know somebody, then why would you explain to them how you live your life?”
― Sean Hayes
“I feel like I’ve contributed monumentally to the success of the gay movement in America, and if anyone wants to argue that, I’m open to it. You’re welcome, ‘Advocate.’”
― Sean Hayes
“I was anxious to get back to my life before ‘Will & Grace.’ You do need that time to find who you are again. Who am I without this? With fame, you can’t help but lose yourself. You want to be the one who says, ‘I’ll always remain the same,’ but it is humanly impossible to disallow fame to change you.”
― Sean Hayes
“I have talent crushes on Fred Armisen and Kyle Mooney.”
― Sean Hayes
“The only thing that’s required of an actor for an audition is to memorize your sides with confident choices, and then the rest is not up to you. You’re either right for a part or you’re not.”
― Sean Hayes
“I enjoy construction and the process of building things, so maybe I’d be a developer of some kind – residential and commercial. Because I produce a lot of television now, I enjoy building things from the ground up, whether it’s a physical structure or a show, and seeing them and realizing them.”
― Sean Hayes
“I was the music director at a dinner theater called the ‘Pheasant Run Theater’ in the suburbs of Chicago, and that was my side gig while I acted.”
― Sean Hayes
“We’ve always been interested in the commentary on politics and society and how comedy always sort of cuts that with a nice laugh, and the perspective it brings.”
― Sean Hayes
“Everybody kind of looks to comedians and comedy for relief and a fresh breath about what is going on in the world.”
― Sean Hayes
“I come from a completely dysfunctional alcoholic family, so we kind of parented ourselves a little bit.”
― Sean Hayes
“Knowing you’re gay, as a kid in the ’80s, is a very scary thing.”
― Sean Hayes
“I felt like I couldn’t fully be myself and accepted in my family, so I would lock myself in my room on a Saturday night and watch ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and that was, like, the best thing that ever happened to me.”
― Sean Hayes
“I felt so much pressure to come out on other people’s terms, you know? I should have come out.”
― Sean Hayes
“I didn’t want the responsibility, I didn’t know how to handle the responsibility of speaking for the gay community. I always felt like I owed them a huge apology for coming out too late.”
― Sean Hayes
“I am who I am. I was never ‘in,’ as they say. Never.”
― Sean Hayes
“I want to make people laugh first, and that’s it.”
― Sean Hayes
“My job was to play my character in the best way that I could, and hopefully people will enjoy that.”
― Sean Hayes
“It’s always comedy first on ‘Will and Grace.’ There was never any other agenda.”
― Sean Hayes
“You power through it word by word, line by line.”
― Sean Hayes
“When you don’t have an interruption, there’s a flow, so it’s easier to memorize. Monologues are easier to memorize than dialogue.”
― Sean Hayes
“I was buttoned up as a kid. I did what I was told and never broke the rules.”
― Sean Hayes
“I like common sense, to try and be the voice of reason at work.”
― Sean Hayes
“I love showing people that I wasn’t that guy, the guy in ‘Will & Grace.’”
― Sean Hayes
“I’m so boring and grounded, and I like quiet, and I like structure, and I like goals. I couldn’t be more opposite from Jack McFarland.”
― Sean Hayes
“I think the worst thing you could ever do is label comedy. I’m a fan of the broadness of Lucille Ball, the subtlety of Peter Sellers and the oddballness of Fred Armisen and the wittiness of Marty Short. I’m a fan of all of it, and I want to do all of it.”
― Sean Hayes
“We learn our lessons only when we are ready.”
― Sean Hayes
“I listened to George Carlin when I was a kid and knew every word of his routines.”
― Sean Hayes
“This isn’t a dig on journalists, but people like to write about the ‘death of blank.’ The death of something.”
― Sean Hayes
“I don’t think comedy necessarily comes from a dark place. But I do think what a lot of us have in common is that, growing up, being funny was a coping mechanism.”
― Sean Hayes
“I had all the Bill Cosby albums. ‘To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With’ – I knew every word.”
― Sean Hayes
“I live my life like an 85-year-old man.”
― Sean Hayes
“I’m just quiet. It’s fantastic.”
― Sean Hayes
“I spend time with a special someone in my life. That’s all I need; I don’t need events. I don’t do a lot.”
― Sean Hayes
“Some people in the gay community were very upset with me for not coming out on their terms.”
― Sean Hayes
“I’m consumed with what I didn’t do. I know I should’ve come out sooner, and I’m sorry for that.”
― Sean Hayes
“When you see me play Jack, I want you to believe that that’s a gay character.”
― Sean Hayes
“I tried do stand-up, and I was horrible. And I’ll never do it again.”
― Sean Hayes
“I consider myself an actor who is funny.”
― Sean Hayes
“I’m a hamster person.”
― Sean Hayes
“I grew up; I had a couple of dogs.”
― Sean Hayes
“We had a cat in college named Chloe, and it was the most evil, awful cat in the world… When we left, we used to close the door, and its paw would come underneath and try to paw us.”
― Sean Hayes
“NBC programs great shows; it just doesn’t have the eyeballs CBS does.”
― Sean Hayes
“Everybody has a different definition of God. When people say, ‘Do you believe?’ I think they mean the Christian God. There are a lot of gods, so I think they cancel each other out.”
― Sean Hayes
“Religion is constantly being talked about, debated, pondered, worried about.”
― Sean Hayes
“There weren’t any funny people in sports or the Spanish club. All the really creative, witty, funny people that made your belly hurt were in the theater program.”
― Sean Hayes
“I never felt like I could be myself at home.”
― Sean Hayes
“I was a piano major with Craig Robinson from ‘The Office.’ Me and Craig were very close in college at Illinois State University… It’s so bizarre to see us out here now doing things.”
― Sean Hayes
“I’m definitely an actor first, but it’s fun to kind of, you know, push your boundaries and see if you can do things that have scared you a little bit your whole life.”
― Sean Hayes
“I knew ‘Promises,’ and I knew ‘Never Fall In Love Again,’ only from the radio, from being a kid; and of course, that ‘House is Not a Home’ and ‘Say A Little Prayer.’”
― Sean Hayes
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