Will & Grace's powerful #MeToo episode was influenced by the Bill Cosby case

The Hollywood Reporter

Last night's episode was graphic, heavy and intense, delving into the #MeToo issues through Debra Messing's Grace Adler. "This episode was an outgrowth of what was going on with the Bill Cosby case," co-creator Max Mutchnick tells The Hollywood Reporter. "The conversation started when we began hearing some of the testimony from the women that had been assaulted by Cosby. We were very taken by the raw coverage of these stories and what made them so potent was the fact that we were hearing the specifics about what had happened to these women." Mutchnick adds: "There was a lot of discussion in the room about how far we would go. But we were always on board with getting specific. We knew that we were not going to tell the story in broad strokes. There was never going to be a line where Grace said on this sitcom, 'He touched me down there.' It was always going to be something specific and graphic and we just had to figure out how far we wanted to take it and what felt right for the show." ALSO: "Grace's Secret" was really about the "not-so-innocent bystanders" who are neither victim nor perpetrator in sexual assault cases.