'Will & Grace' star Eric McCormack says he almost turned down playing Will until the show's creator called him and told him he was making 'the biggest mistake of your life'

• "Will & Grace" star Eric McCormack said on his new podcast that he almost turned down the role of Will.
• McCormack said he had doubts about the show and pulled out of the running after his second audition.

"Will & Grace" star Eric McCormack said that he almost turned down the lead role of Will Truman in the hit sitcom.

On the first episode of his new recap podcast with costar Sean Hayes, "Just Jack & Will," the pair recalled the audition process for the show, which launched on NBC in 1998.

McCormack said that at the time he was worried about his "expiry date" as an actor because he hadn't landed a major TV role yet, and the big leading stars of the time were younger than him.

After two auditions, McCormack, 60, said he was told "unofficially" that he got the role but he would have to wait until after Christmas for confirmation.

However, he started to have doubts.

"Something happened over Christmas for me. People have said to me, 'Did you suddenly doubt that you should play a gay man?'" the "Travelers" star said. "That had nothing to do with it. In fact, that was the thing about the show that was going to make it rise above the rest."

"I suddenly just got afraid of commitment, of that idea that this was my Sam Malone," he said, referring to Ted Danson's character in "Cheers." "This could be the thing on my tombstone."

McCormack said that he pulled "out of the running" and told the show's producers that he was going to audition for other roles.

But then "Will & Grace" cocreator Max Mutchnick called him at home.

McCormack recalled: "He said, 'I'm just calling to tell you that you just made the biggest mistake of your life.' And I was like, 'Wow, you don't know me. I just finished a drama and I'm just not sure if this is the thing.' And he said, 'That's all I want to say.' And it haunted me over the holidays."

"I just remember waking up one morning right after New Year's in Vancouver, and I turned to my wife and I said, 'I think I made a terrible mistake.' And she said, 'Yep,'" he added.

Luckily for McCormack, when he called back to say he wanted the role, no one else had taken the part yet.

"Will & Grace" went on to have a lot of success critically and commercially, and won a total of 18 Emmys across 11 seasons.

McCormack himself won an Emmy and SAG award for his role in 2001. In 2018, he was even honored with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.