Kelsey Grammer on Boss: "Just When They Think They've Figured You Out, You've Got to Show Them Something They Didn't Know About"

Kelsey Grammer said it plainly: "Just when the Hollywood community or casting directors or anybody else thinks they have figured you out, you've got to s…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

On October 5, 2011, Starz Entertainment hosted a press call with Boss star and executive producer Kelsey Grammer ahead of the show's premiere on Friday, October 21 at 10 p.m. on Starz. Grammer plays Chicago mayor Tom Kane, a powerful and ruthless politician secretly battling a degenerative neurological disorder. Premier Guide Media's Daedrian McNaughton was on the call and asked two questions.

Just when the Hollywood community or casting directors or anybody else thinks they have figured you out, you've got to show them something that they didn't know about. I think maybe we've done that with Boss.

Daedrian McNaughton: Hi Dr. Crane, how are you doing today? I've been following your career from when I was a kid in Jamaica — from Cheers to Frasier and now Boss. You have managed to keep your career alive and kicking. Can you tell us what has actually contributed to your success?

Kelsey Grammer: I'll borrow it from Jack Benny, who I saw on a television show a long time ago. He was on the Johnny Carson Show and he was asked the same question, and his response was: I always play up to my audience. The only nuance I would add to that caveat would be simply that I always try to keep them guessing. That's something I determined a long time ago. Just when the Hollywood community or casting directors or anybody else thinks they have figured you out, you've got to show them something that they didn't know about. I think maybe we've done that with Boss.

Daedrian McNaughton: So are you satisfied with this level of your success, and is Boss the ultimate Kelsey Grammer?

Kelsey Grammer: I don't know. Your goals keep changing, you reset the bar a lot of the time. I am very happy with the bar we set on this character and on this show, and I think we've hit a pretty high mark and I'm very proud of it at this point. And I'm really looking forward to the next several shows that we work on.

Playing Tom Kane — stripping away the comedy instincts

On the shift from comedy to drama: "I decided that I needed to just strip myself bare and play the words as I saw them and be honest emotionally and be pretty vicious honestly. Tom Kane is a very, very complex character to play and he's fun to play for that reason." The key difference from comedy: "In comedy you always have to be aware — even if there's not an audience when you're shooting film — of what the audience may be perceiving. You have to invite them to laugh and be ever conscious about that. But in this case it's more important to be self-indulgent enough to allow just you and the role to take their path without a real awareness of how it may or may not impact the audience. In a weird way it's a little more honest. It has less artifice than doing a comedy does." On the soliloquies: "Good writing is always easy to learn and Sarha's writing is exemplary. It goes in the head very quickly and easily because one thought leads to the next. The thoughts of the character are kind of twinned with what he's actually saying. It's a little like doing Shakespeare because the same thing is true of Shakespeare's writing — it is easy to learn even though it seems so difficult because it makes so much sense."

The Shakespearean DNA — and Chicago as a character

On the show's classical framework: "We've borrowed a lot from Shakespeare. The kind of world — the intrigue and betrayal and violence and implied violence and a simmering plot where people can die — was what we wanted in the body of the show. The fact that the stakes are enormous, that he's losing his kingdom, that betrayals are the betrayals of lifetime friends and family and wives and husbands — that's classically Shakespearean or Jacobean." On Chicago as setting: "Tom Kane's life energy comes from Chicago. It is his relationship with that city, his relationship with the history of that city that makes him a remarkable guy. His choices, his life, his energy is as big as that town and it's pretty damn big. It's got a swagger about it, an interesting dynamic that is really unique to Chicago. And it's twinned with Tom Kane's energy." As writer Sarha put it: "Chicago is operatically corrupt. You don't really need to blame that on any one person or any one mayor or any particular party." On the show's larger theme: "It says a lot more about human nature than politics. There is a kind of arrogance that comes along with power and there is a kind of demonic quality to somebody that's able to stay in power for a long, long time that I think is worth exploring."

Tom Kane's diagnosis — legacy over the moment

On how the neurological disorder changes Kane: "He suddenly has that next mission — to try to forge and determine what place he will hold in that pantheon of mayors. There are moments in the performance where suddenly he isn't there anymore. He is actually looking at his own image as a mayor and what story that will be rather than the moment he's in. It's as though he has started his step off of his plane a little bit because of the news he has gotten. And there's something freeing and gentling about that. His legacy is now as much a concern as his day-to-day." On the ear-grab scene in the pilot: "I'm a pretty much from 0 to 120 kind of guy. I don't do a lot of preparation — I just say oh is it time to go? Okay, floor it. I'll be having a lovely conversation just moments before we shoot that scene and then off I go. After I held the guy's ear I said: is your ear okay?" On whether this is the heaviest thing he's done: "Yes, probably. Macbeth is a little heavier but this character is as complex and interesting and fun to play and dark as any I could have imagined."

Robert Plant, the Book of Job, and the show's sound

On the absence of musical cues: "We believe in the word in this show. Our device for transition happens to be picking up the dialog from the next scene before we go to the scene visually. I think that has been very effective and it helps propel the show on a kind of pace that keeps it about the spoken word. The world of politics is about the spoken word." On the Robert Plant theme: "We sat down after one of his shows and I started saying I'm doing this new show Robert and I'd love to use something from his latest album, the Band of Joy album. And he looked at me and said: well, how about taking 'Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down'? And I was like — yes, okay, that's pretty good." On the Book of Job as a personal touchstone: "I have turned to the Book of Job to get a little guidance during my lifetime and I was not disappointed. There is something to the idea that you never give up and you never curse the Lord. Patience is the key and hanging in is the key." Boss premiered Friday, October 21, 2011, on Starz. Season 2 — ten episodes — was already greenlit before the first episode aired.

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