Frasier role big break for actor
MARINA DEL REY, California- If Jane Leeves hadn’t been so naïve back in 1984, she would never have been dar ing enough to leave her native England in the hopes of becoming an actor in Hollywood.
Now, she’s glad that common sense didn’t prevail. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be one of the most popular characters on network television today thanks to her performance as Daphne Moon, the resourceful health-care worker in NBC’s Frasier.
Leeves trained as a dancer from an early age, but her ambition was to act. She did get some rewarding work back home notably in Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, which she says was “the greatest experience imaginable,” and in some “saucy British postcard humor” with the late Benny Hill-but she was still perceived as a dancer.
“It was just a whim to come to the United States because I had this dancer’s image hanging over me in England. So out of youthful ignorance I packed my suitcase, and arrived in Los Angeles with $1,000, thinking they’d be waiting for me at the airport with work.”
“But of course it wasn’t like that at all. I went through a period of adjust- ment and I was a nervous wreck.”
Slowly she started finding work: a guest spot on Murder She Wrote, a showy role in the film To Live and Die in L.A. She won even more industry attention after playing Miles Silverberg’s girlfriend on Murphy Brown and the virgin who has a tryst with John F. Kennedy, Jr., in a celebrated episode of Seinfeld.
When the producers of Frasier were preparing the pilot episode, they knew that Daphne would be a key character, and envisaged her as either Puerto Rican or English.
An NBC network executive was already high on Leeves because of the Murphy Brown and Seinfeld episodes and had some advice for the producers: “Make the character English and hire Jane Leeves.”
The perky talkative actor has earned a Golden Globe nomination and a Viewers for Quality Television Award for her work on Frasier. She says the show’s environment brings out the best in a performer. That’s because Kelsey Grammar and the gang get along wonderfully with each other.
“Frasier’s success is something of a mystery, because quality has nothing to do with success and you see so many great shows hit the floor. But here we are with a quality show that’s actually watched and successful. I think it has a lot to do with the chemistry between the cast, with the incredible writing. There is this in- credible atmosphere on the set where everyone gets along so well.”
The series is just getting back into production after an early season break while Grammar dealt with a recurring drug problem.
One of the most important components of the Frasier sound stage is the special “green room” where cast members get together and relax. Leeves says the idea has proved so successful that Paramount, which produces Frasier, wants every one of its shows to have a green room where the cast can bond. But Leeves isn’t sure it will
always work for other series.
“With us, I feel it’s by accident that they fell upon five people who couldn’t be more different from each other but who genuinely adore and respect each other and have the same sort of values.”
A particular favorite is John Mahoney, who plays Frasier’s cantankerous father. This is because Mahoney who appears to be the archetypal American male – was born in Lancashire, England, and came to North America when he was 19.
“It was sort of a meeting of souls. Our first bonding was when we went to the Continental Shop in Santa Monica and bought English candy together. We also have complete conversations together in Lancashire accents.”
Although she has been in the States for 12 years, Leeves has always been able to work in her own English accent. And although some colleagues have suggested she get rid of it, she thinks the alternative would be worse.
“I’ve always played an English per- son. I can only sound like an American if I really drop my voice.”
But her distinctive voice won her work as the voice for a feisty ladybug in Disney’s animated feature, James and the Giant Peach, now on video. Still, Leeves finds it difficult to believe that any actor can really feel secure in the
volatile entertainment business. She’s still plagued by insecurity.
“The best part of the business is also the worst part. You’re only as successful as the last job you’ve done. Frasier literally happened in two days, and my life changed. Before that, I was sitting beside the phone and thinking. ‘I’ll never work again.’ Well, I could be feeling that again in the future.”