Kelsey Grammer embraces his dark side as a seedy Chicago mayor. How much drama can he handle?
Kelsey Grammer is talking, of all things, about dismembered ears. Never mind whose ears they were; it's what Grammer's latest TV iteration does with them that counts. With cool confidence, the mighty mayor of Chicago he plays on his new TV series, Boss, shoves the pair down his garbage disposal and then casually mentions to his wife that they need a plumber.
Ruthless and twisted? Sure. But this is the kind of role the comedy giant has coveted for a decade. The scene, which comes early in the new Starz show (premiering Oct. 21 at 10 p.m.), leaves no room for conjecture about who his character, Mayor Tom Kane, is as a human being or a leader. He also stomps around with rage, shouts at his enemies, and is impenetrable to his underlings. As a man who has overcome formidable personal demons himself, Grammer says he is careful not to let Kane (seen below with his wife, played by Connie Nielsen) bleed into his psyche.
"I'm not one of those guys that draws on his personal experiences to fill a character," Grammer says during a recent interview at Casa del Mar in Santa Monica, Calif. "I kind of just let my imagination grasp what it would feel like and then try to play it. I do worry, though, sometimes, like when I played Macbeth [on Broadway], because he's so dark that it can affect your personal life."
Just in case, before Grammer filmed the pivotal kitchen scene in the first episode, he stopped and "prayed a little bit." After admitting that, he bursts out laughing and adds, "Of course, it's always a little fun, too."
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