Tom Henry: Sir, it's a great honour.
Kelsey Grammer: The pleasure's mine. Would you like to get inside the mind of Frasier Crane?
TH: I'm so glad you asked. He's, in my mind, one of the great all time characters.
KG: Alot of the time on the show we would use irony as a comedic device.
TH: Interesting.
KG: Right, take for instance one of my favourite episodes. Niles and I have broken into a neighbour's condo apartment after a string of inevitably failed logic leads us there. Niles, as his character dictates, is noticably shaken, but not me, I'm getting high off it. I proclaim in an excited sort of half whisper, half talk; "I'm a cunning cat burglar, I have nerves of steel." Just as I finish that sentence, the door opens, I shriek; "aaaaah!"
Frasier is full of contradictions and character flaws, it makes him very funny and also very relatable.
TH: I've noticed that.
KG: Other times the character of Roz and I would play vaudeville pitch perfectly. I would have a cold, probably from the famous Seattle rain, and I would be coughing fervently. Roz comes in and says; "I haven't heard that much coughing since I was backstage at the Carribean Reggae Sunsplash concert."
Some of the episodes I'm most proud of are when I'm not aware that someone's right behind me, so I say something innapropriate about them very loudly. And then usually, I see the looks of shock and consternation on everyone's faces, and I tack on rather slowly and feebly; "...and they're right behind me aren't they?" and of course they are.
TH:...
KG: My other favourites are the times when I'm talking to someone, and we're both talking about different things, but we think we're talking about the same thing. Like, I say; I rear - ended somebody, and I mean it in the most literal sense, like a car accident, but they have been lead to believe I'm speaking in sexual inuendo.
That wasn't really the device irony, we had a name for those episodes, I can't remember right now.
TH: What's your real life like now?
KG: It's alot like Frasier actually. My wife sometimes jokes, "Uh oh, you're making that Frasier face again."
TH: What's that face look like?
KG: Most of the faces I make in Frasier are from real life, so I guess that's why she gets confused. And also she looks alot like a mix between Daphne and Roz.
TH: Oh really?
KG: Yeah, her name is Raphne.
TH: What kind of a name is that?
KG: I think she's Polish. She makes great stew, Campbell's Chunky.
TH: Quite the coincidence.
KG: Similarities aside, her comedic timing is terrible.
TH: Has that been a problem?
KG: Of course I love her for whoever she is, but sometimes I wish there would be like an incriminating message on the answering machine, and she would be like; "What is this?" and I would get all flustered, but then cover it up like; "hahaha, that's my friend playing a trick on me, not a real message."
TH: She can't keep up though?
KG: Well I guess the first problem is I don't get those messages, plus we have an answering service, not one of those outloud playing answering machines.
TH: Oh
KG: We usually just watch movies and stuff. We just got an early screening of the new Pixar film, Dear Deer. It's about a buck who wants to write letters, but is inhibited by it's hooves.
TH: Moving on, you played Beast in the X-Men. What was that like?
KG: X-Men is a huge franchise, much like Frasier. It was nice being on that set, Professor X really reminded me of Marty Crane, full of wisdom and with a passion for justice, Marty being an ex-cop of course, and Professor X being the head of a crime fighting syndicate.
I think Martin would have made a great X-man actually, but those dreams probably would've gone out the window when his wife, my mother, Hester died.
Funny thing actually, she's long dead before the show starts, but in one great episode I date Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks' wife. Here's the kicker, she looks just like my dead mom, so that plays in to the whole Freud thing, because of course Frasier is a psychologist.
TH: Was Tom Hanks on set?
KG: Yeah, we don't really get along. I don't know this for definite, but I'm pretty sure he was up for the part of Frasier.
TH: Thanks for your time.
KG: Goodnight Seattle, I love you.
TH: haha
KG: I mean, cheers.
TH: Ok.
KG: Cheers.
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