Megan Mullally as... Grace Adler?

It almost happened as Mullally explained in the new NBC special The Paley Center Salutes the Best of Will & Grace.

In a new on-set interview Mullally recalled auditioning for the role of Grace, not getting it, and then a weeks later, her agent calling her to have her read for the show again, this time for the role of Karen.

"We didn't really respond to her as Grace," said co-creator Max Mutchnick. "They brought her in a few weeks later to read for Karen, and we loved her."

But Mullally feared that Karen was too much like Christine Baranski's character from Cybill, and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to "top that" so she "put a little twist on it, so she's a little weirder," Mullally confessed.

If you have re-watched the first few episodes from the first season you will notice that Karen sounds a lot different than the pill-popping socialite everyone remembers because Mullally didn't initially do Karen's distinct high-pitched voice.

"I'm not going to do a crazy high voice because I'll get fired," the actress recalled. "So I just kept making it a little bit higher and a little bit higher" as the episodes went on, and before you know it, the Karen we all know and love was born.

"Megan, the woman, is so different than the woman she plays in Karen," Mutchnick assured fans of the show.

They may not be the same person, but they're both hilarious.

Watch her full on-set interview below.

Will & Grace returns to NBC on September 28.