Kelsey Grammer on The God Committee, Frasier revival and his horror ambitions

Kelsey Grammer’s new character might present as cold but the actor finds him a tragic figure with a story that makes him cry.

What if you had the power to decide who lives and who dies?

How would you shoulder that responsibility? Would you let it change you?

That’s the premise of The God Committee, a sombre medical drama starring Kelsey Grammer, Julia Stiles, Janeane Garofalo and Colman Domingo.

Centred on a brilliant but cold doctor played by Grammer, the story explores the world of the boards who choose organ recipients. It’s a world Grammer didn’t know much about before he took on the role.

“It’s an extraordinary thing, you understand the naming of it,” Grammer told news.com.au. “What it is to sit up there and suddenly decide someone’s going to get life or not. That’s sort of a god thing.”

Grammer’s character, Dr Andre Boxer, comes off as rigid and emotionally distanced, a no-nonsense guy who focuses on the hard facts and seems little moved by the fuzzy details like someone’s family connections.

Boxer’s remoteness, including from Dr. Jordan Taylor (Stiles) with whom he is in a sexual relationship, makes him a prickly character that audiences might struggle to connect with. But Grammer has great compassion for him.

Kelsey Grammer as an emotionally cold doctor in The God Committee. Picture: Vertical Entertainment

“This character was fascinating to me because he’s ultimately a selfless guy. He was already decided that he’d sacrifice every ounce of his being, his last breath to solve this problem [of more demand for organs than there are organs], which is extraordinary.

“He has decided he’s not going to allow himself the joys of life. That he’s not meant for them. The idea of a son or of marriage or love, all those things are ‘don’t have time for them’. That’s what he said to himself.

“He’s a tragic figure because you see there’s potential in him. He has profound love, and he’d give himself for his fellow men. He was arrogant and obstreperous. He made this deal in his life that he’s going to take no prisoners, but he’s going to pay the final price.

“I cry when I see the movie. I find it really emotional.”

When Grammer was first sent The God Committee script, Boxer wasn’t the role that was pitched to him. The filmmakers originally had him in mind for the character of the priest, which was eventually portrayed by Domingo.

But Grammer saw something in the Boxer role that appealed to him, and the filmmakers agreed.

Kelsey Grammer has written his own horror movie he hopes will be shooting soon. Picture: Michael Kovac/Getty Images

In a career spanning more than four decades, Grammer is always on the lookout for a challenge he hasn’t done before.

He’s played a comic book superhero (X-Men), a corrupt mayor (Boss) and a maniacal cartoon clown with a predilection for Gilbert & Sullivan and murder (The Simpsons), not to mention his most iconic character, Dr Frasier Crane, a role he played for 20 years over three series.

He’s even played himself a few times in 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt but admitted, “To play oneself is a challenge”.

“Part of my criteria for choosing roles now is the fact that I don’t want to repeat too much,” he said. “I could do a Frasier [type role] 40 times in a different venue but why would I?”

Grammer said there are still many roles, heroes and villains, he would like to try on.

“I almost did a Western recently, I’d still like to do that, if I find the right one.”

Another genre he hasn’t played in to a great extent is horror. But rather than wait for the right role to come along, he’s written his own, a film that takes place in the 1840s and now.

“I’ve got a horror movie I wrote that I want to get done – a historical horror thriller,” he revealed.

“It was brought on originally by my brother-in-law, who did a sort of funny short, a tongue-in-cheek short up at our property in upstate New York. It was a kind of homage to horror movies.

“Then I started looking at it, thinking, ‘What if we expanded this a little bit?’. Then as I made that commitment, a whole new world fell into place of this knowledge that I have of the area where the house is. I’ve been living there 30 years.”

Grammer promised that it will feature a “big, big axe”. “Hopefully we’ll start shooting that fairly soon.”

Kelsey Grammer is confident the Frasier revival will give fans ‘a great deal of pleasure’. Picture: NBC

While he’s a prolific performer with a varied filmography and an appetite for new challenges, it’s still Frasier Crane that Grammer is most associated with, a character he originated on Cheers in 1984 and then went on to play until 2004 in his own series.

At the most, a week would go by without someone asking him about the Frasier revival set for 2022.

“It’s a project that’s been anticipated, people really are very fond of those characters and want to see them come back. They’ll be in a different world, they’ve grown, they’ve evolved.

“It’s a challenge but we’ve just sort of hit something that I’m very, very happy with.

“To be responsible about bringing back a group of characters, you’ve got to make sure it’s still fresh. There are fresh challenges in their lives and that’s what we’ve done. I feel confident about it. The audience will get a great deal of pleasure from it.”

The God Committee is available on digital rental and purchase from Monday, September 27

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