NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 28: Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce (they co-starred on TV in "Cheers" and ... [+]
The Exorcism star David Hyde Pierce has been around self-possessed actors before but he’s happy to say that his Frasier co-star Kelsey Grammer is not one of them.
In The Exorcism—a horror thriller that opens in theaters Friday—Russell Crowe stars as Tony Miller, a once great actor whose personal fall from grace has made him barely employable. When Tony gets a chance to play a priest in a film reminiscent of The Exorcist, however, he accepts the challenge despite the torment he’s harboring from a traumatic incident from his youth.
As such, demons from Tony’s troubled past bubble up to the surface, which puts him on a collision course with the film’s production that appears to be cursed. Pierce stars in the key role of Father Conor, a priest brought aboard as a consultant on the film who in turn gets pulled into the bizarre and eventually, deadly, happenings on the production.
David Hyde Pierce and Russell Crowe in "The Exorcism."
Pierce, of course, has a rich history of acting on stage, television and film, including his multiple Emmy-winning role as Dr. Niles Crane opposite Grammer’s Dr. Frasier Crane on the classic NBC sitcom Frasier.
While discussing The Exorcism in a recent Zoom conversation, Pierce told me that he fortunately hasn’t encountered any demonically possessed actors in his work over the decades. That’s not to say, however, that Pierce hasn’t crossed paths with any talent on set who were in the business for themselves.
“I think I can say that I’ve encountered every kind of actor and that goes for directors as well,” Pierce recalled. “I think the criterion for me is, ‘Do they work with you or are they busy doing their own thing?’ There are some really fine actors who are more interested in doing their own thing than having it come out of a connection between you. That’s just not as much fun for me. That’s as close as I could get to … I guess they’re self-possessed.”
FRASIER — Season 3 — Pictured: (l-r) Peri Gilpin as Roz Doyle, David Hyde Pierce as Doctor Niles ... [+]
Pierce Said Grammer Is ‘Always Working With You’
Luckily, David Hyde Pierce said, Kelsey Grammer was a complete team player who cared just as much about his co-stars as he did about his own performance on Frasier, which ran for 11 seasons on NBC from 1993-2004.
“Kelsey Grammer is one of the finest actors I’ve ever worked with,” Pierce enthused. “I’ve seen him do many roles, not just Fraiser. He inhabits that role. He can step into it and step out of it. He can go anywhere [with a role].”
Pierce added that Grammer is not only a great actor, he’s a great teacher, too.
“I learned from him that as long as you believe in yourself you can incorporate every single style of acting imaginable in the performance of a single character because it can be appropriate for the moment,” Pierce said.
“He’s one of those people who could be the star of the show but he’s always working with you,” Pierce added. “I wouldn’t have had the success on that show that I had if not for the fact that, A) He’s very collaborative and B) He has the confidence in his own talent to allow other people to shine. Less talented people want to squash everybody else down because they don’t let anybody else [shine], but he let everybody else around him be good.”
LOS ANGELES - APRIL 22: Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Frasier Crane and David Hyde Pierce as Dr. Niles Crane ... [+]
As for why Pierce didn’t return to his role as Niles Crane opposite Grammer in the Paramount+ reboot of Frasier in 2023, one thing the actor doesn’t want people to believe is that he didn’t come back because of any sort of conflict between he and his former co-star.
“In my experience, you can’t control what other people think,” Pierce said. “You just tell the truth and people will think whatever they need to think—but I loved every minute of that show. The reason I didn’t go back to the new show was because I loved every minute of [the original] show. It was not one of the great moments just of my performing career but of my life, so I didn’t want to touch it again.”
On top of that, Pierce said his desire to do a variety of other projects helped his decision to not reprise Niles in the Frasier reboot.
“I need to do other kinds of stuff for my own creativity and for my own reasons, and being committed to how many episodes there were of the show, I couldn’t do those things which I have now done and will continue to do,” Pierce explained. “But it never had anything to do with any bad feeling for Kelsey or anybody else on the show. I loved every second of it.”
The Exorcism is new in theaters on Friday.
Check back for another feature on Pierce’s work with Russell Crowe on the film.
