Debra Messing (The Starter Wife) stars as a high-powered business woman who has to face one of her biggest fears – meeting her mother-in-law who wants grandchildren – in the Christmas comedy/drama Nothing Like the Holidays. To make matters worse, Messing's character is a real outsider at her husband's family reunion. But according to Messing, the chance to play the one who doesn't fit right in was part of what drew her to the film in the first place.

"I’d never played a part like that before," said Messing at the Los Angeles press day for Nothing Like the Holidays. "I’d never served that function within a story before. And yes, the second I got there I felt like an outsider. You know, people were speaking Spanish I didn't understand. People were telling jokes with references that just went over my head. It was very clear that I was the outsider because I didn’t know everybody. But then as the time went by and we all just became such close friends, I found my inner Latina a little bit, a little bit…"

Getting in touch with her 'inner Latina' meant picking up the rhythm of the culture - literally. Although Messing says she faked the Salsa dancing in the film's last scene, her co-star Elizabeth Pena says she's actually very good at it. "I have a little bounce on my hips." joked Messing. "By the end, the cultural difference just became irrelevant. I think that, for me, was what I came away from the movie feeling is that at first it’s just so present and by the end you realize, 'Oh, we’re all the same.

It’s just about family, you know? The larger themes sort of rise to the top."

Messing also picked up some new swear words. "It’s official, it’s going to get [out], my mother’s going to be so proud," said Messing when asked about the rumor she used language on the set that would have embarrassed a sailor. "Okay, I will be forthcoming. Yes, I did have a potty mouth but it was in an attempt to fit in. I was the outsider. Everybody else including [Elizabeth Pena] had the most filthy mouth, had told the dirtiest possible stories and jokes I’d ever heard in my entire life, and I was the little nerdy white girl on the outside. And I was like, 'Okay, I could hang.' And so I did my little F-bombs and some other stories, and I think I just shocked the crap out of everybody."

Messing's Jewish but she can relate to this Christmas-y film's themes. "I think there is something universal, and I think it is wonderful that you can go to this movie and you can say it’s about an American family who happens to be Latino. And in my case, you know, every time the holidays come around it’s almost like you have amnesia. It’s like, 'Oh my gosh, it’s just beautiful and it’s happy and it’s peaceful and this is the time when the family’s supposed to come together and sing Kumbaya and catch up with the year and love each other.' But there's always a little anxiety, there's always a little dread. There's always hope, but then it goes south and then drama happens. It’s like, 'When you were seven years old you did this to me…,' and, you know, the things come out. But then, at the end of the day, it’s your family and you want to do it all over again next year. So I think it doesn’t matter what culture or what religion you're in."

Messing and the cast bonded so well that even when the cameras stopped rolling, the cast continued to act as though they were one big, happy family. "We didn’t leave the table; we didn't leave the set. We were laughing," recalled Messing. "I thought my family was loud and boisterous… The first day I literally was like, 'Okay, I can't hear! I can't hear and everyone is talking so loud!' And I'm like, 'Okay, this is going to go down at some point,' - and it never did."

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Nothing Like the Holidays hits theaters on December 12, 2008 and is rated PG-13 for thematic elements including some sexual dialogue, and brief drug references.