Post by Jules on Dec 26, 2007 8:22:30 GMT -5
Fall 1993. Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service
In his Niles persona, Pierce, 34, is all prissy mannerisms and fastidious delivery. Off-camera, relaxing on the Frasier set in chinos, classic Nikes and paisley shirt, Pierce is both similar and different. Serious but unpretentious, he's taken aback by his sudden TV stardom, which comes after 10 years of more-work-less-glory in regional and Broadway theater and a brief supporting stint on last year's failed Norman Lear series The Powers That Be on NBC.
"I'm still pretty mystified by all this," said Pierce, kicking back in his dressing room. "I had no idea Niles would be such a huge hit when I started. I honestly think all the attention will pass, because I'm just the new kid on the block right now. Next year I'll be thinking, 'Why isn't anyone interviewing me?'"
If he's a bit wary of his newfound personal celebrity, Pierce seems totally comfortable with Niles, a role created just for him.
After Powers That Be bit the dust, Wings casting director Sheila Guthrie showed Pierce's mug shot to David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee, who were developing Frasier. They were wowed by Pierce's striking resemblance to Grammer and blown away by his edgy performance as suicidal mumbler Theodore on Powers That Be.
Pierce's days of mumbling are over. In a recent quintessential scene, he used the world's most fastidious diction to tell Frasier about watching the steamy Sharon Stone flick Basic Instinct on videotape with his uptight wife, Maris:
"I don't mind telling you we pushed our beds together that night," Pierce/Niles says. A pause as Pierce executes a socko prudish mouth-purse-and-pinky-crook. "And that was no mean feat." Pointed look. "Her room, as you know, is across the hall."
What's even funnier is the way Niles and Frasier mirror-image each other like identical twins. There they are, two fussy sky-highbrow Ivy League shrinks with thinning hair, doing a mincing verbal duet of brotherly love.
"What Kelsey and I try to bring out is moments when the brothers can be genuinely affectionate, so it's not just that brittle, intellectual sibling rivalry type of banter," Pierce said. "The writers have already given Niles lines that make him extreme, so I try to strike a balance and make him a real human being."
But sometimes the siblings' banter gets so WASPishly waspish that it recalls the kvetching of Oscar and Felix (Tony Randall and Jack Klugman) on ABC's 1970s series The Odd Couple. And sometimes, Niles and Frasier's relationship looks like a send-up of a stereotypical gay couple.
"That's a loony idea," Pierce said with typical frankness. "What people are responding to, which Kesley and I both work to bring out into our characters, is that Niles and Frasier know each other very, very well, that they are in some ways cut from the same cloth.
"And I think what people recognize in them is the family situation. When you're dealing with your own family you're dealing with people that you love very much, but (that) doesn't mean you can even carry on a simple conversation without getting furious at each other. That's also what viewers respond to in our (Niles and Frasier's) relationship with Dad (John Mahoney)."
If you talk to Pierce for long, you notice he mentions Grammer a lot. You sense a kind of quiet admiration for the former Cheers guy, who's nominally the bigger star.
Pierce first met Grammer in 1982, when they were doing different plays at the same venue, the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven.
"I thought we looked a lot alike even then," Pierce said. "Later, when I was doing plays in New York, I'd hear people say 'That guy from Cheers was really good.'"
Pierce grew up in upstate New York, graduating from Yale University (as did Niles) with a bachelor's degree in English and theater arts. He moved to Manhattan in 1981, where he sold ties at Bloomingdale's and worked as a paralegal in between New York and regional stage roles.
In 1982, he appeared in Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy on Broadway, followed by a 1988-89 tour to the Soviet Union and Japan in The Cherry Orchard. More recently he appeared on Broadway in Wendy Wasserman's The Heidi Chronicles before moving to Los Angeles last year.
Despite his small-screen success, Pierce seems to miss the theater, at least in part. He doesn't really like all the attention he gets as a TV star. He won't comment on whether he's married or single, for fear the tabloids, who are already dogging him, will have a field day.
"Kelsey told me that all this attention comes with the territory. But I thought, 'I don't understand WHY it comes with the territory.' I'm a very private person. I'm an actor because I can do things on stage that I'm not comfortable doing in regular life.
"I guess all the publicity is part of the game, but it was never part of the game in theater. I'm still acting, just like I always did. But the fact that it's television makes people approach you in a different way. And I'm still getting used to that."
COPYRIGHT 1993 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service
In his Niles persona, Pierce, 34, is all prissy mannerisms and fastidious delivery. Off-camera, relaxing on the Frasier set in chinos, classic Nikes and paisley shirt, Pierce is both similar and different. Serious but unpretentious, he's taken aback by his sudden TV stardom, which comes after 10 years of more-work-less-glory in regional and Broadway theater and a brief supporting stint on last year's failed Norman Lear series The Powers That Be on NBC.
"I'm still pretty mystified by all this," said Pierce, kicking back in his dressing room. "I had no idea Niles would be such a huge hit when I started. I honestly think all the attention will pass, because I'm just the new kid on the block right now. Next year I'll be thinking, 'Why isn't anyone interviewing me?'"
If he's a bit wary of his newfound personal celebrity, Pierce seems totally comfortable with Niles, a role created just for him.
After Powers That Be bit the dust, Wings casting director Sheila Guthrie showed Pierce's mug shot to David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee, who were developing Frasier. They were wowed by Pierce's striking resemblance to Grammer and blown away by his edgy performance as suicidal mumbler Theodore on Powers That Be.
Pierce's days of mumbling are over. In a recent quintessential scene, he used the world's most fastidious diction to tell Frasier about watching the steamy Sharon Stone flick Basic Instinct on videotape with his uptight wife, Maris:
"I don't mind telling you we pushed our beds together that night," Pierce/Niles says. A pause as Pierce executes a socko prudish mouth-purse-and-pinky-crook. "And that was no mean feat." Pointed look. "Her room, as you know, is across the hall."
What's even funnier is the way Niles and Frasier mirror-image each other like identical twins. There they are, two fussy sky-highbrow Ivy League shrinks with thinning hair, doing a mincing verbal duet of brotherly love.
"What Kelsey and I try to bring out is moments when the brothers can be genuinely affectionate, so it's not just that brittle, intellectual sibling rivalry type of banter," Pierce said. "The writers have already given Niles lines that make him extreme, so I try to strike a balance and make him a real human being."
But sometimes the siblings' banter gets so WASPishly waspish that it recalls the kvetching of Oscar and Felix (Tony Randall and Jack Klugman) on ABC's 1970s series The Odd Couple. And sometimes, Niles and Frasier's relationship looks like a send-up of a stereotypical gay couple.
"That's a loony idea," Pierce said with typical frankness. "What people are responding to, which Kesley and I both work to bring out into our characters, is that Niles and Frasier know each other very, very well, that they are in some ways cut from the same cloth.
"And I think what people recognize in them is the family situation. When you're dealing with your own family you're dealing with people that you love very much, but (that) doesn't mean you can even carry on a simple conversation without getting furious at each other. That's also what viewers respond to in our (Niles and Frasier's) relationship with Dad (John Mahoney)."
If you talk to Pierce for long, you notice he mentions Grammer a lot. You sense a kind of quiet admiration for the former Cheers guy, who's nominally the bigger star.
Pierce first met Grammer in 1982, when they were doing different plays at the same venue, the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven.
"I thought we looked a lot alike even then," Pierce said. "Later, when I was doing plays in New York, I'd hear people say 'That guy from Cheers was really good.'"
Pierce grew up in upstate New York, graduating from Yale University (as did Niles) with a bachelor's degree in English and theater arts. He moved to Manhattan in 1981, where he sold ties at Bloomingdale's and worked as a paralegal in between New York and regional stage roles.
In 1982, he appeared in Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy on Broadway, followed by a 1988-89 tour to the Soviet Union and Japan in The Cherry Orchard. More recently he appeared on Broadway in Wendy Wasserman's The Heidi Chronicles before moving to Los Angeles last year.
Despite his small-screen success, Pierce seems to miss the theater, at least in part. He doesn't really like all the attention he gets as a TV star. He won't comment on whether he's married or single, for fear the tabloids, who are already dogging him, will have a field day.
"Kelsey told me that all this attention comes with the territory. But I thought, 'I don't understand WHY it comes with the territory.' I'm a very private person. I'm an actor because I can do things on stage that I'm not comfortable doing in regular life.
"I guess all the publicity is part of the game, but it was never part of the game in theater. I'm still acting, just like I always did. But the fact that it's television makes people approach you in a different way. And I'm still getting used to that."
COPYRIGHT 1993 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service
