Post by Jules on Dec 26, 2007 8:23:57 GMT -5
DON'T BUG DAVID ABOUT LIFE - SUNDAY EXPRESS, Jan 31, 1999
(by Simon Gage)
David Hyde Pierce doesn't talk about his private life. He'll talk about growing up in Saratoga Springs in New York State, going to Yale to study English and theatre arts, the fact that it was his later father's dream to be an actor, that both his parents have now passed away, his years as a beardy bohemian, his bother who is 13 years older than him, his career as a tie salesman, the fact that he can be a bit obsessive. But no private stuff, understand?
He'll talk about Niles, the snobbish younger brother he plays in psychiatrist sitcom Frasier and about how similar to him the character is. He'll also readily talk about A Bug's Life, the brilliant new animated Disney movie in which he provides the voice for a self-admittedly very Niles-like stick insect called Slim. But ask him a simple question like who he went to the premiere with and he says "No one cares." Asked if he lives alone, he says: "I never go into that." He even jokes about his reticence.
When I ask if he gets to get it on with Daphne, the physical therapist Niles is obsessed with, he mock-snaps "That's none of your business... Oh, in the show you mean" (not that he'll even tell me that). All that he can say is that "there is plenty of Niles-Daphne, erm, intercourse in the next series" and that he hires a sleazy lawyer to finish off his messy divorce from Maris.
"How long have we know each other," he laughs when I press him about the simple existence of a significant other, "27 minutes? I don't understand why people expect to talk about personal stuff straight away."
Loafing here in his Hollywood home in grey sweatpants, a rather ratty shirt and bare feet, David Hyde Pierce certainly doesn't look like Niles and his language is very different, peppered with "man" and "cool" but he doesn't resist the comparison. "Niles is extreme, so fastidious, so uptight. I'm sure I can be like that, just not as much." Niles and Frasier's relationship seems almost gay to me, I throw in.
"Now why do you say that? I always thought that the only thing that made men gay was they had sex with each other. I think it says more about people's stereotypes than the characters."
It's a good answer, but a little disingenuous considering there have been jokes about how gay the Frasier characters seem in the show itself. And American actors are notoriously sensitive about being identified with anything with a whiff of gay about it.
"I don't have a problem being identified that way. But I don't think of Niles like that," he replies, very good-naturedly, considering I'm grilling him like a trout.
I shift gear. We talk about A Bug's Life, a runaway success in America taking over £1 million in less than two months, making it the fourth most successful animated film ever. It's ironic that he's been in movies as Nixon, Sleepless in Seattle, Jodie Foster's Little Man Tate and Wolf with Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer, yet his smash hit is turning out to be in a film you don't see his face in. The anonymity provided by animated movies is pretty irrelevant when you are in a mega-syndicated TV show. David says he's even careful about what he puts in his supermarket basket just in case someone is watching.
But does the idea that people might be watching you impede you getting on with going out with people, establishing relationships, breaking up...
"I don't worry about it," he says. "Public interest in that is the
public's problem. My life is an open book, just don't expect me to read it."
(by Simon Gage)
David Hyde Pierce doesn't talk about his private life. He'll talk about growing up in Saratoga Springs in New York State, going to Yale to study English and theatre arts, the fact that it was his later father's dream to be an actor, that both his parents have now passed away, his years as a beardy bohemian, his bother who is 13 years older than him, his career as a tie salesman, the fact that he can be a bit obsessive. But no private stuff, understand?
He'll talk about Niles, the snobbish younger brother he plays in psychiatrist sitcom Frasier and about how similar to him the character is. He'll also readily talk about A Bug's Life, the brilliant new animated Disney movie in which he provides the voice for a self-admittedly very Niles-like stick insect called Slim. But ask him a simple question like who he went to the premiere with and he says "No one cares." Asked if he lives alone, he says: "I never go into that." He even jokes about his reticence.
When I ask if he gets to get it on with Daphne, the physical therapist Niles is obsessed with, he mock-snaps "That's none of your business... Oh, in the show you mean" (not that he'll even tell me that). All that he can say is that "there is plenty of Niles-Daphne, erm, intercourse in the next series" and that he hires a sleazy lawyer to finish off his messy divorce from Maris.
"How long have we know each other," he laughs when I press him about the simple existence of a significant other, "27 minutes? I don't understand why people expect to talk about personal stuff straight away."
Loafing here in his Hollywood home in grey sweatpants, a rather ratty shirt and bare feet, David Hyde Pierce certainly doesn't look like Niles and his language is very different, peppered with "man" and "cool" but he doesn't resist the comparison. "Niles is extreme, so fastidious, so uptight. I'm sure I can be like that, just not as much." Niles and Frasier's relationship seems almost gay to me, I throw in.
"Now why do you say that? I always thought that the only thing that made men gay was they had sex with each other. I think it says more about people's stereotypes than the characters."
It's a good answer, but a little disingenuous considering there have been jokes about how gay the Frasier characters seem in the show itself. And American actors are notoriously sensitive about being identified with anything with a whiff of gay about it.
"I don't have a problem being identified that way. But I don't think of Niles like that," he replies, very good-naturedly, considering I'm grilling him like a trout.
I shift gear. We talk about A Bug's Life, a runaway success in America taking over £1 million in less than two months, making it the fourth most successful animated film ever. It's ironic that he's been in movies as Nixon, Sleepless in Seattle, Jodie Foster's Little Man Tate and Wolf with Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer, yet his smash hit is turning out to be in a film you don't see his face in. The anonymity provided by animated movies is pretty irrelevant when you are in a mega-syndicated TV show. David says he's even careful about what he puts in his supermarket basket just in case someone is watching.
But does the idea that people might be watching you impede you getting on with going out with people, establishing relationships, breaking up...
"I don't worry about it," he says. "Public interest in that is the
public's problem. My life is an open book, just don't expect me to read it."