Benny Hill babe becomes the queen of U.S. TV
A fake Mancunian accent, an uptight Seattle psychiatrist and a dog named Eddie is what it took to help transform Jane Leeves from a one-time Benny Hill girl into one of the most successful British actresses on U.S. TV. It’s been six years since the quirky TV comedy Frasier came to an end, and Jane, who played Daphne Moon, the somewhat kooky housekeeper, admits that the parting was a difficult one.
‘It took us all a long time to get over the fact that the show had ended,’ she says. ‘It was a decade of some of the most fantastic experiences of my life, and there were times I’d wake up crying that it was all over.’
It’s a sentiment shared by the show’s fans for whom the pomposity and comic misadventures of radio show psychiatrist Frasier Crane — played by Kelsey Grammer — were a must-see for almost 11 years.
The show, a spin-off from the sitcom Cheers, won a record-breaking 37 Emmy nominations and critical as well as commercial acclaim.
It followed the fortunes of Crane alongside his equally refined yet uptight brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce), their disabled blue-collar father Martin (John Mahoney) and Martin’s Jack Russell terrier, Eddie (played by canine star Moose).
It was Daphne though, Martin’s physical therapist and the Cranes’ housekeeper, who was called upon to inject a touch of common sense, ‘and something about her earthiness appealed to people,’ says Jane.
Since Frasier ended in 2004, Jane has had a few roles in series such as Desperate Housewives. But that is about to change.
Her new sitcom, Hot In Cleveland, which launched in the U.S. last month, and which looks set to air in the UK later this year, has brought Jane back into the public eye.
‘I ’ve gone from playing someone grounded and happy to playing a cynical old bag and I love it,’ says Jane.
Hot In Cleveland is about three Los Angeles-based, 50-something friends — Joy, a beautician (played by Jane), Victoria (Wendie Malick), a soap opera star whose show has just been cancelled and Melanie (Valerie Bertinelli), a recently-divorced writer — who head off to Paris for a getaway. But their plane has to divert to Cleveland, Ohio, an industrial city that falls somewhat short of the exotic setting they were anticipating.
DISCOVERING their sexual stock is considerably higher there than in youth obsessed LA (‘I haven’t felt like a piece of meat in so long,’ Joy enthuses), the three women decide to settle in Cleveland and rent a house managed by a cantankerous caretaker (played by The Golden Girls’ Betty White) upon which much mayhem ensues.
With guest appearances by the likes of Joe Jonas, the show appears to have hit a nerve with U.S. viewers who appreciate jokes about cougars — predatory older women.
‘There are no other real representations of women of a certain age on TV,’ says Jane, ‘and it’s been great for me because as you get older, you do worry about younger women, especially in Hollywood. You also worry about your looks.’
Never-mind Cleveland: Jane Leeves would still be hot pretty much anywhere. At 49, she has retained her enviably slim dancer’s physique (Jane is ballet-trained) and she insists that: ‘I haven’t succumbed to the scalpel just yet’.
For fun, few jobs could seemingly top Frasier — an experience Jane describes as, ‘one of those great times where we laughed all the time’.
‘I’d already had offers for two different shows — The Incredigirls, which was going to be myself and Nicolette Sheridan (of Desperate Housewives) and an established show called Nurses. My agent said: “Take the show that’s already on”, but I was such a fan of Cheers and of Kelsey that I took Frasier, instead.’
It turned out to be the best career decision Jane ever made. The role brought her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and having signed a three-year deal reputed to be worth around £20million, it turned Jane into the highest-earning British actress at the time.
The slightly bizarre accent she deployed on the show, likened by one writer to that of ‘an American Bet Lynch’, was, says Jane, the producers’ idea. ‘The accent we settled on was one which sounded like I’d grown up in Manchester but had lived in the States for a while.
‘It was such fun. We’d always joke on set, but they weren’t sophisticated Frasier-style jokes — they were crude. We would leave phone messages for Peri Gilpin [who played Frasier’s radio show producer Roz], pretending to be her gynecologist, reminding her that she was due for an examination. It was childish, but it would crack us up.
‘And Kelsey, far from being as uptight as onscreen character Frasier, was a real beach boy and would wander around the set in shorts and flip-flops.’
Were there lots of on-set crushes? ‘Well, because Niles and Daphne got together in the end, I had a soft spot for David.’
Frasier also inadvertently introduced her to her husband, Marshall Coben, an executive at Paramount — the studio which filmed the show. ‘We met at the Christmas party,’ says Jane. ‘Someone introduced us and we just couldn’t take our eyes off each other.
‘It was love at first sight for me, but he told me afterwards that he wouldn’t have i magined anything would happen in his wildest dreams and had to be marched over by another executive who said: “You are going to ask her out”. ‘It took him a couple of days to ask me out for a drink and I said: “How about tonight?”, so I obviously played it very cool! We were married a year later.’ The couple now have two children — Isabella, nine, and Finn, six.
Growing up in East Grinstead, Sussex, Jane trained as a ballet dancer until an ankle injury forced her to turn her attentions to acting, instead. At 18 and just out of drama school, she landed an audition with Benny Hill as one of the scantily-clad dancers of his Hill’s Angels troupe.
‘They asked me to audition for him and so I went to his house which was a bit naive,’ she says. ‘ Luckily, there wasn’t anything overly sexual about him, shall we say. We read the sketches together and I got on his show.’
When her career failed to take off in the manner she had envisaged, Jane packed her suitcases and headed for LA at the age of 21.
‘I look back on the person I was and think: “So young and so stupid — thank God!” I just wanted to act and when you’ re that young and that driven, you just go for it.’
Once in LA, she took up acting classes and would offer to clean up after rehearsals if food had been involved in the scenes, ‘just so I could have a little snack’ and found herself sharing a class with Ellen DeGeneres, Winona Ryder and Jim Carrey.
‘Jim was living out of his car at some point, but even then he was so charming. I recall thinking: “This comedy thing he does is all well and good, but he should do some proper acting instead. Thank goodness he didn’t listen to me.’
Even now, Jane admits that she still has pangs for Frasier. ‘I miss the show, but we all speak constantly. John just celebrated his 70th birthday; I saw Kelsey recently on Broadway and I’m going to London to see David who is performing in the West End in London next month.’
Is a Frasier reunion on the cards? ‘It was a great show, perhaps we should just remember it as it was.’
Hot in Cleveland, an Endemol programme will be out in the UK later this year.