Jess Salgueiro
#INTERVIEW: KELSEY GRAMMER & JESS SALGUEIRO ON “FRASIER” SEASON TWO
Beloved Frasier Crane is back! Now known as the longest-running character on US Primetime Television ever, the second season of the Paramount+ reboot has arrived, with its first two episodes just dropping last night. New episodes arrive Thursdays.
In-town to gets us excited about this were none other than legendary Kelsey Grammer who reprises the titular role again. His list of accomplishments continue, including six Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Tony Award. Joining him on the Red Carpet at Bluma Appel Theatre was Toronto’s very own Jess Salgueiro who stars in the series as Eve, a friend of his son Freddy‘s (Jack Cutmore-Scott) who is coping with the loss of her firefighter husband.
Veteran Sitcom Director Jack Burrows also returns to direct select episodes of this second season of FRASIER, which manages to keep intact the charm of the original series, undisputedly because of Grammer‘s phenomenal work. Frasier Crane‘s still got it.
We chat with Grammer and Salgueiro about their approaches to this upcoming season which sees Frasier approaching his Third Act, after evolving from a radio personality, to a TV personality and now wanting to be taken seriously as an academic at Harvard, while repairing his relationship with his estranged son.
Salgueiro tells us about how she approached Eve differently from the previous season, saying “I think I just started to trust myself a lot more and also the writers started to at the end of the first season and begining of the second, to write for us. We kinda found these characters together. I approached her by just trusting and not second guessing. It’s hard when you’re starring in a revivial – there’s a lot of second guessing.”.
Grammer uses a similar approach to this season from the past, saying “I always approach them all the same way – keep an open mind and an open heart. That’s the key, that’s what I bring to it – the love I have for the character. I won’t let him lie too much. If the writing’s going a little askew, I’ll say ‘Whoa!Whoa! We’ve gotta pull it back, we’ve gotta go over here, because Frasier wouldn’t do that!’.”.
He adds, “But in terms of direction of the show, it’s going towards Frasier becoming a man in full. I mean, that’s what we were living for. That’s where his life was always headed toward. It started 40 years ago on Cheers when he was just trying to be a man in love. He fell in love with Diane completely and that was always to his credit. She didn’t love him back the same way he still hung in there. That’s the kind of guy he is and he’s still that guy.”.
Full chats below:
Some snaps from the Red Carpet:
(Photo/video credit: Mr. Will Wong)
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