Zap2it - TV news - Hayes Segues From 'Just Jack' to Simply Sean:
A breakout star from the moment 'Will & Grace' hit the airwaves, Hayes was passed over for an Emmy nomination as best supporting comedy actor after the show's first season but got an even more meaningful pat on the back when the winner, David Hyde Pierce of 'Frasier,' used his own Emmy acceptance speech to gently chide the voters for overlooking Hayes' performance.'That was an unbelievable moment in my life,' he says quietly. 'Totally surreal. I was sitting on my couch, in my sweats and T-shirt, watching the Emmys by myself, and then he said my name and this wave of heat came to my face. At first it was like an out-of-body experience, where I thought, 'How nice that he said that guy's name,' and it took a minute to sink in that he was talking about me. I sent him these huge flowers afterwards. What a selfless, kind and incredibly generous thing for him to say!" Perceptive, too, because Hayes found himself at the award podium during the 2000 ceremonies, when he won an Emmy of his own. He has been nominated every season since, in addition to receiving multiple other awards and nominations.
"I'm constantly thinking I'm going to be poor again tomorrow," he says. "You go one winter without heat in Chicago, and it changes your life. You just don't forget that. My father left us early on, and my mom raised five kids by herself. In addition to no heat, our car was repossessed and the phone was turned off. After something like that, the second you become financially successful, you do everything you can think of to protect it, because the fear is just that large. I know that I will always, always, always worry about where my next job will come from -- which makes me work harder. That's why I started a production company, and we have TV shows and films in development.
I got the show when I was 27 years old, and I had no experience in sitcoms and very little in TV at all. I never really pounded the pavement for a job in Los Angeles, and I know some people hate me for that, because I got lucky so quick.
Because it happened so early for me and so quickly, I have set my mind to enter that same space as where I was before I got 'Will & Grace.' I'm trying to psych myself into believing that only five minutes have passed, not eight years, and now let's roll up our sleeves and start working."