Marian Seldes on Kelsey Grammer: A Joyous Abandon

 

Marian Seldes on Kelsey Grammer

Interview with James Grissom

NYC

2006

I remember a joyous abandon, firstly, and also a very dry intelligence--not without heart, but just very crisp. Fumes of this humor rose from everything he did. I know that all of my students--and all actors, because he is now my peer--have fears, but he was very good at hiding those fears, so there was a bigness--of heart, talent, personality--in what he did. 

Images of Grammer as Cassio, opposite Christopher Plummer as Iago, in OTHELLO, 1982.

I don't know what was happening to interior Kelsey, but the exterior Kelsey was perfectly prepared, professional, and crisp--there's that word again. I came to think of his acting as a perfectly made hospital bed--everything was covered; there was comfort; order. When I say bigness, I don't mean messiness or artificiality: I mean a complete expression of all he had to give to a part. 

Kelsey Grammer, Remak Ramsey, Roy Poole, and John Cunningham in Simon Gray's QUARTERMAINE'S TERMS, 1983.

I love watching him act; I always have. He came to us with a poetic beauty--he had a wild, lovely Byronic look about him. Ravenous. He had a sexuality that not many of the male students had. I don't know if he knew this, and I don't know if he would agree with me. So years pass, and I watch him grow in talent and fame, and nothing seems out of balance: He will not squander his talent. And he shares so beautifully, and he let me into his world, and there I was, in that perfectly made bed with him, with Laura[Linney, on an episode of Frasier), and it was lovely. There is no limit.

Kate Nelligan and Kelsey Grammer in David Hare's PLENTY, 1983.

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