The crushing moment Debra Messing was humiliated by a film director.

It seems hard to imagine, but once upon a time Debra Messing was a little-known actress looking for her big break.

The 48-year-old, who will soon be returning to TV as Grace Adler for the highly anticipated Will & Grace reboot, recently recalled the trauma of her making her first film 1995’s A Walk In The Clouds.

“I was doing a love scene with Keanu Reeves,” she told Elle magazine at the Makers conference in California this week.

“We started filming and the very famous director screamed ‘Cut’ and said, ‘How quickly can we get a plastic surgeon in here? Her nose is ruining my movie.'”

Messing, who had just graduated with a Masters in acting, was shocked to suddenly be “reduced to an un-Hollywood nose.”

It’s #EVERYONEMATTERS DAY!! Show your support and post your own #IAM selfie! #EveryoneMatters @everyonematters -#whatmakesusdifferentiswhatmakesusbeautiful

A photo posted by Debra Messing (@therealdebramessing) on Apr 12, 2016 at 12:22pm PDT

The director in question was Alfonso Arau, who also allegedly coerced the young actress into stripping off for the scene, which was unplanned and not in her contract.

It also didn’t make the final cut.

“There is a very narrow definition of what a beautiful, vital, vibrant, interesting woman looks like, and that’s the thing we’re constantly fighting against. My entire career I’ve been swimming in that pond, where it’s like, ‘Oh no, you don’t look right’,” she told Elle.

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Nearly nine years later, the TV star bumped into her first boss and blanked him in the street.

Messing, who counts the incomparable Barbra Streisand among her idols, took years to finally love her individuality.

Hello Gaw-geous. Happy Birthday to my Idol @BarbraStreisand

A photo posted by Debra Messing (@therealdebramessing) on Apr 24, 2016 at 10:12am PDT

“I have a strong nose, I have small breasts,” she said.

“I’m a f*cking original. My nose and I have come this far, and like Barbra Streisand I’m defiantly keeping it.”