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SEAN HAYES | JEREMY NORTHAM
 Sean Hayes is best known for his Emmy Award-winning role as Jack McFarland on the hit television series "Will & Grace." His performance on the show has garnered two Screen Actors Guild Awards and three Golden Globe nominations. Hayes made his feature film debut in 1998 in the title role of the art-house hit "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss." He went on to lend his voice to the role of Mr. Tinkles in the highly-successful animated film "Cats & Dogs."
INTERVIEW WITH SEAN HAYES
Why Hayes Decided to Take the Role
"Craig Zadan (executive producer) had mentioned it to me a couple of years ago, and at that time I really didn't want to listen because the thought of doing a TV movie wasn't appealing to me," explains Hayes. Zadan persisted and finally got Hayes to read the script. Hayes continues, "After reading hundreds of feature film scripts, this was one of the best scripts I had ever read. Everything was there for the actor."
It's not surprising that Zadan, a good friend of Hayes, thought to cast him in the role. "A lot of the camera guys on 'Will & Grace' would tell me that from certain camera angles, I look and act like Jerry Lewis," Hayes admits.
Hayes' Knowledge of Jerry Lewis Prior to Taking the Role
"I had seen little clips here and there throughout my life of Jerry Lewis, but I never really sat down and watched what he did," Hayes explains. "When his face would appear, I'd always laugh and thought he was hysterically funny, but I didn't really get to know him until I went through my own Jerry Lewis studies and dove into 'Jerry Lewis 101.'"
Hayes' Research for the Role
"I watched all the old club acts and some that nobody has ever seen that he [Lewis] lent to us," says Hayes. "I read some biographies and really did as much research as I could. 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."
 Hayes Talks About Lewis' Comedy
When asked about his favorite Jerry Lewis act, Hayes says, "There are so many," but goes on to describe one that stands out in his mind: "There's a small fan. Jerry turns it on and acts like he's in a wind tunnel and knocks over all the food on a banquet table. He tries to get closer to turn it off, and just gets blown back again."
Adds Hayes about the role, "It was completely freeing to be able to dive in and be as free as Jerry was. He and I spoke about that. A lot of comedy comes from having no fear. Believe me, you do fail a lot, but you still have yourself to wake up to the next morning."
Hayes Discloses the Role's Biggest Challenge
"The physicality of it was tough," explains Hayes. "I thought it would be the easiest part, but it was actually the hardest. The dramatic part was hard, but between the two, that came easier. After 14 hours of dropping plates, I was just exhausted. It was the same physical angles over and over."
Hayes on the Executive Producers and Writer/Director
"If you're going to do a TV movie, these are the people to do it with," comments Hayes, referring to Emmy Award-winning executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and writer/director John Gray. "They have a complete grasp of what's good and what's bad, and they have a great work ethic. They're there all the time and they care so much about every single word and every scene. A lot of producers just check in once a week, but they were there."
What Hayes Hopes Viewers will Take Away from the Movie
"People don't really realize how huge, how enormously successful these people were," Hayes explains about the Martin & Lewis phenomenon. "They were the Beatles, Elvis, before TV was huge. It was all about the club acts. They were incomprehensibly famous, and I'm glad people will get a chance to learn that. I certainly didn't realize it."
Hayes also wants viewers to understand how Martin & Lewis changed comedy. "Still, to this day, there's no act like them," he says. "It was insane: improv to the nth degree. Anything went, which is where Jerry's brilliance came from."
"Also, a lot of people only know what they know [about Lewis] from what they've been told through the press," continues Hayes. "I love that they'll get to see how he was when he was younger and how and why he is who he is today. It's exciting to see the story unfold of how they made it. What people may not know is that Jerry is one of the kindest, most giving, most intelligent people I've ever met in my life. And I'm glad they'll get to see his vulnerable side. He just needed so much love that he never got. The one person he needed it from most was Dean Martin, and in pursuing that love, he kept pushing Dean further away. That's basically what the movie is about."
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Which Martin & Lewis performance
do you like best?
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