Brian Damage
10-25-2011, 11:32 AM
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What’s your relationship with Niles Crane all these years later — that inseparability that comes from playing a long-running hit-TV-show character?
It’s less like that now. First of all, it’s been so long since the show. Maybe it’s because I’ve left that world and I’m here in New York doing theater, so I’m more in tune to audiences coming to stage doors and seeing plays that I’m in and talking about the characters I’ve just done — not necessarily Niles. But my relationship with the character? I’d have to say I just have nothing but affection for him. We had such a good time together, and when people do come up and talk to me, they’re so enthusiastic and affectionate — not just about me and the character, but the show. So many times — it just continues to happen, I think because of all the reruns — people come up to me and say, “You got me through the worst times.” Which is not something you’re thinking about when you’re making a sitcom.
I’m very close with Niles, I think, but I’m glad to step away. One of the blessings I got from that show was enough financial security that I’m able to choose what work I do instead of take whatever comes. And therefore, I don’t choose to do characters who are like that. I’ve done him! If that’s what people want to see, then that’s fine. But I don’t have to do it. That said, one of the things I loved about The Perfect Host is how it took a very similar kind of character and then moves him in a very different direction.
http://www.movieline.com/2011/06/david-hyde-pierce-on-the-perfect-host-fearlessness-and-living-with-niles-crane.php?page=all
Yes, Frasier. For 11 seasons, Pierce played snooty Niles Crane, Frasier’s younger brother, on the NBC juggernaut, now in syndication. That character, constructed from tangents, is an effete intellectual. It has brought him renown and many accolades. The role also has allowed him to lavish attention on his first love: the stage.
“Maybe it’s because it’s the first thing I came to,” he said. “But I think it’s more than that. Having had a chance to do television for many years in as good a way as an actor could…I don’t feel a strong draw to go back. …Film is something where you do a whole lot of work ahead of time. You let it go and they catch it and you’re done. …It goes to an editor.”
http://www.davidhydepierce.org/2011/03/the-many-stages-of-niles-crane/
What’s your relationship with Niles Crane all these years later — that inseparability that comes from playing a long-running hit-TV-show character?
It’s less like that now. First of all, it’s been so long since the show. Maybe it’s because I’ve left that world and I’m here in New York doing theater, so I’m more in tune to audiences coming to stage doors and seeing plays that I’m in and talking about the characters I’ve just done — not necessarily Niles. But my relationship with the character? I’d have to say I just have nothing but affection for him. We had such a good time together, and when people do come up and talk to me, they’re so enthusiastic and affectionate — not just about me and the character, but the show. So many times — it just continues to happen, I think because of all the reruns — people come up to me and say, “You got me through the worst times.” Which is not something you’re thinking about when you’re making a sitcom.
I’m very close with Niles, I think, but I’m glad to step away. One of the blessings I got from that show was enough financial security that I’m able to choose what work I do instead of take whatever comes. And therefore, I don’t choose to do characters who are like that. I’ve done him! If that’s what people want to see, then that’s fine. But I don’t have to do it. That said, one of the things I loved about The Perfect Host is how it took a very similar kind of character and then moves him in a very different direction.
http://www.movieline.com/2011/06/david-hyde-pierce-on-the-perfect-host-fearlessness-and-living-with-niles-crane.php?page=all
Yes, Frasier. For 11 seasons, Pierce played snooty Niles Crane, Frasier’s younger brother, on the NBC juggernaut, now in syndication. That character, constructed from tangents, is an effete intellectual. It has brought him renown and many accolades. The role also has allowed him to lavish attention on his first love: the stage.
“Maybe it’s because it’s the first thing I came to,” he said. “But I think it’s more than that. Having had a chance to do television for many years in as good a way as an actor could…I don’t feel a strong draw to go back. …Film is something where you do a whole lot of work ahead of time. You let it go and they catch it and you’re done. …It goes to an editor.”
http://www.davidhydepierce.org/2011/03/the-many-stages-of-niles-crane/