Jane Leeves Article

[Family Ties Forever!]

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Breaking America (take note Cheryl Cole): Actress Jane Leeves on how she left Surrey for Hollywood at 21 and found sitcom stardom
By Rebecca Hardy

Last updated at 10:30 PM on 10th June 2011



Jane Leeves doesn’t do shallow. She doesn’t do Botox either. She says her husband, TV executive Marshall Coben, would be furious. Besides, she doesn’t need any cosmetic help. Jane has been gifted with great skin - and she’s happy in it, which helps too. ‘I have led this magical life if you think about it,’ she says. ‘But for me, my life in Hollywood has always been about the work. I think people invite craziness into their lives when they hunger to be famous rather than focus on trying to be a good actor.

‘Some people will sell their soul to the devil for fame, but they lose part of themselves, become damaged. People who work hard to achieve their success aren’t like that. People like Julia Roberts, who used to live at the end of our road. I have such admiration for her. You never see her kids in magazines. Merry dance: Jane Leeves landed a role on the popular sitcom Frasier playing Mancunian care worker Daphne Moon and was one of the highest-paid British actresses of all time, earning £275,000 an episode

‘We first bumped into her when the housekeeper was walking the dog with my children [Isabella, now ten, and Finn, seven]. These little kids came running up saying, “Can we pat your dog?” Their mummy came over and it was Julia Roberts. After that we’d see her on the beach and she’d say, “Can we have a lift?” and jump into the back of our pick-up with her kids, just like any other family...’

Which is how Jane chatters on. The names of Hollywood’s biggest stars trip off her tongue with an ease that says, ‘I’ve made it too.’ And she has. The America that gave Cheryl Cole the heave-ho in a few short days has embraced Jane for more than two decades. Indeed, in her 11 years as Mancunian care worker Daphne Moon on the hugely popular sitcom Frasier she was one of the highest-paid British actresses of all time, earning £275,000 an episode and scooping enough awards to crowd a sizeable mantelpiece.

The difference between her and Cheryl? Having interviewed both of them, Jane is, dare I say, a lot nicer. Less plastic too, with laugh lines and an emotional intelligence that says, ‘I’ve had knocks along the way, but aren’t I blessed?’ Which she is. Seven years after the last episode of Frasier aired, and just as she’s reached 50, she’s in the biggest new comedy to come out of the States, Hot In Cleveland, with Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli and Wendie Malick.

The series charts the adventures of three ‘old broads’ from showbusiness whose Paris-bound plane lands in Cleveland, Ohio, where they find a community that’s much less shallow and youth-obsessed. ‘In real life we’re all old broads who’ve been in this business a long time,’ says Jane. ‘Usually, at our age, work dries up. To be handed a show that celebrates our age and also pokes fun at it is a gift.’

Even if she hadn’t found the role, she’d never consider Botox or having her lips done to make her look younger. ‘You can’t tell if someone’s 40 or 75. And the Jane is one of nature’s lucky few with the kissable lips many women pay a fortune for. Point this out, and she shrugs. ‘Funny isn’t it how what can be such a negative when you’re younger ends up being such a positive. I was teased mercilessly at school. I was called rubber lips. They called me spider, too, because I had long arms and long skinny legs. I guess I wasn’t very popular,’ she says.

She was, in fact, horribly bullied at the East Grinstead secondary school she attended with her brother and two sisters near their home in Sussex. But, she says, it inspired her success. ‘I was consumed by the love of dance and acting. I liked the idea of escaping into another world and being somebody else – someone who wasn’t shy, gawky or bullied. So the bullying spurred me on really.’ Career advice: 'They say if you can deliver a funny line and you're not ugly, it's gold'

Jane bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles when she was 21 after training as a ballet dancer at Bush Davies School of Dance, East Grinstead, with the blessing of her mother, a nurse, and father, a civil engineer. ‘I was determined to do what I did. If you talk to anyone who’s successful, they always knew they would be. There’s no other option.’ Jane found herself in the same acting class as Ellen DeGeneres, Winona Ryder and Jim Carrey. She also discovered a talent for comedy.

‘They say if you can deliver a funny line and you’re not ugly, it’s gold,’ she says. ‘I was on a show called Throb in the first two years, which put me on the map. I got a pilot every year, although until Frasier none of them went into a series.’ Jane adored working on the show. And it was during the early years that she met her husband. ‘I’d never, never thought about marriage and babies,’ she says. ‘Then, when I’d been on Frasier for a few years and was earning well and had a grown-up house, I said to a friend, “Maybe I should think about adopting.” He said, “Don’t do that. You’ll meet someone within a year. You wait.” A year later I arrived late at a Christmas party and Marshall walked towards me. That was it. His smile. My smile. I’d never had that feeling when you’re completely in love with someone immediately.’

Jane was 35 when they married. Four years later she gave birth to Isabella, and Finn, conceived by IVF, was born when Jane was 43, just before the axe fell on Frasier. ‘Kelsey fought it because he wanted to be the longest-running actor in TV history playing the same character. But how many more stories can you tell? I did start crying at the press conference to announce the end of the show. I’d just had a baby and was emotional, but the people on Frasier were like family.

‘But my husband always says my life has a way of working itself out. I was offered hour-long shows but he’d say, “No way. You won’t be here. Just wait and the right thing will come along.” How right was he?’ She looks delighted as she says this. ‘This series affords me the same life I had when I did Frasier. I’m able to take my kids to school and pick them up.’ And as the interview is reaching its end, one of Britain’s highestpaid actresses pulls out her iPhone to show me pictures of her husband and kids. ‘He is the greatest thing that ever happened to me,’ she glows. ‘Apart from my kids. Look aren’t they so beautiful?’ And they are. Much like their mum.

Hot in Cleveland, Tuesdays, 8.30pm, Sky Living. Series 1 is on DVD now.

[AB]

Nice article!

[Schmoopie]

That was interesting, thanks for sharing! I love Jane as Daphne Moon. Haven't watched HOC yet, but I plan to when I finish watching every episode of Frasier! The dress she's wearing is gorgeous!
But one thing bothers me... Was Frasier really canceled or did they mutually decide to end it? I mean, I know that eleven seasons is a loooonnnggg time for a show to run, but I hate to think that the network canceled it because of ratings or something.