--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley, and I'm here with my co-host Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for joining us, John.
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--:-- John Bickley: Since rising to fame in the beloved series Cheers and its hit spinoff Frasier, Kelsey Grammer has continued to take on big roles at a frenetic pace. Along with racking up awards over the years, the actor has set himself apart as a Hollywood star who's fearless about sharing his Christian faith. In this episode, we sit down with the decorated actor to discuss his new film The Christmas Ring, the role military veterans played in its making, and the way his faith in Christ has shaped his career.
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--:-- John Bickley: Joining us now to discuss his new film, The Christmas Ring, written by Christian author Karen Kingsbury, is Kelsey Grammer. Kelsey, first of all, we're all big fans of you. Thank you so much for joining us.
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: Sure, man. It's a pleasure.
--:-- John Bickley: So we wanted to talk to you about, well, a number of things. But first, your new film, which is a very relevant wrinkle to it. We just celebrated Veterans Day this week, and the Christmas ring actually involved at one point about 100 actual veterans and service members. Can you tell us about that?
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: Yeah, they inhabited the film, at least in one of the big scenes, with some veterans and some active duty members as well, and retired and, you know, reservists. But it was just an opportunity to salute the troops. The whole story is sort of based upon a World War II D-Day dropping behind enemy lines. It commemorates their sacrifice a little bit and the continuing sacrifice of service members. And so that being around on Veterans Day was important to the filmmakers.
--:-- John Bickley: I know that. And I understand that Gary Sinise and his foundation played a role in finding some of those veterans to populate the film.
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: Oh, I didn't know about that. I didn't really know about that because Gary and I are pretty old pretty good friends. And he actually checked in with me. What do you think of this movie? And I said, well, it's a nice story. You know, so I hope I helped you know facilitate some of that. But yeah, I think it went pretty well. And, you know, we didn't, we didn't reinvent the wheel or anything, but it's a nice story about, you know, redemption and love and forgiveness and about Jesus. So it's, it's a nice movie.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, I wanted to ask you exactly about that, in fact, the role of faith in this film. The author of the book that it's based on is Karen Kingsbury. She's a Christian author. You recently starred in Jesus Revolution, a powerful film. You played the role of Chuck Smith, the founder of Calvary Chapel, where I actually used to go to church, in fact.
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: Yeah, well, I don't actually go about trying to play him too much. Actually, the night before I read the script for Jesus Revolution, I was sitting there in kind of a quiet reverie and a little bit lonely and, you know, wondering what was next for me. And I said, you know, I just want to do something that means something, that has some meaning. And the next morning that script came and I said, okay, I guess this is it. And I called my agent and in about two hours I said, yeah, I'm going to do this movie. And it was important to me, but what was funny was it didn't really kind of resonate for my life until I was doing an interview. I think it was Kelly or, you know, down the East Coast, and somebody talked about, you know, well, what's your feeling about Jesus and all that? And I said, well, you know, the truth is I'm a believer, and I don't go around proselytizing or speaking the born-again lingo very well, but I would never deny Christ. I would never deny him.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, and your portrayal of Chuck Smith was, first of all, really terrific. It clearly grounded the film. It's the heart of the film. This is a very complicated story. It's not straightforward. The lives of the real people that it's based on were messy. They lived messy lives. Well, that's what Jesus is for, you know. That's why he came along.
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: That's why he came along. I work with these guys, Operation Restored Warrior. They talk about the world Jesus was born into. The world was a mess, filled with infanticide, killing babies, all kinds of just horrific stuff. Roman rule was not the greatest thing in the world, a lot of violence. And God chose to send a baby to save the world, a baby that would need other people to save him. It was pretty fascinating.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I always loved that idea that into this mayhem, the beauty of a new life, of a redemptive life, is such a gift. And we get to watch it every year at Christmas. We get to see the same story told again and again. And it's our story. And it's a story that never gets old, does it?
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: Yeah, I think that's right. You talked openly in the past about the role faith in general has played for you and how important it is. And I think you touched on it there, this hope for the beauty of a new life in redemption and that ultimately that brings people together. Do you look for at least an element of that in terms of the projects you get involved with?
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: Well, you know what, I'm... I'm about to go play a role where the guy's kind of a shyster, sort of, not evangelist, but what you would call a fanatic, who turns out to be kind of a very negative kind of guy. But that's what they say, you know, I mean, the devil can quote chapter and verse, you know. I mean, it's like these elements exist. And so I just believe I'm supposed to, as an actor, play everything that comes to me that, you know, is part of the human experience.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, it's messy. Now, obviously, you've played a lot of roles. The landscape has changed for Hollywood in so many ways in recent decades. How have you seen that dynamic playing out in terms of your career?
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: Well, listen, there's some diehards here. They're sticklers for, you know, they just don't like religion. And they're not going to go for it. They're not going to be part of it. But there are others who are, and that's great. I just think Hollywood finally realized that, you know, there's money out there for these kind of movies as well. You know, most of the people in America actually still really like God and Jesus and all that sort of stuff and like one another and they want their kids to ride their bikes in neighborhoods where they're safe. They, you know, these are corny values, but still there they are, and that's part of America and a place where you can aspire to do something and nobody says to you you can do it or the only way you going to be able to do it is if the government gives you some money for it. No, we do this. People do this. I always believed that social programs were society business and not the government anyway. So that's who I am.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. We've been documenting on this show what looks to be a trend in entertainment. Like there's more of a space for faith-focused films lately. And I do think, like you're saying, actually capitalism can end up promoting for its own purposes, you know, a lot of good things. People really do want to see this stuff. There's a real hunger for it.
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: Yeah. So what's coming next for you? You've got this shyster role coming. What else is on the horizon for you?
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: Well, I'm planning that next time. I'm going to go shoot that next week. We've got one in the can that's coming out pretty soon called Turbulence, which is really, really fun. A day trip on a hot air balloon over the Alps is short-circuited by a nutty woman. That's okay. Yeah, it happens. And I don't do so well. Somewhere around the middle of the film, we pitch my guy off the basket. There's another one coming up when I'm going to be fighting some sharks. There's just fun stuff I get a chance to do. I haven't fought a shark before, so I'm going to do that one. Just don't jump a shark, whatever you do.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, exactly. And I've got another one coming up in Malibu where I'm going to shoot for a week. It's called Claws, where a mountain lion's gone a little crazy and killing some people. I end up fighting.
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: All right, so you fight gravity, sharks, and a mountain lion. Everything you can.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, everything they throw at me, I'm going to take it on. Sounds like a lot of fun. So things not slowing down for you at all, even with the holidays here coming up.
--:-- Kelsey Grammer: Kelsey, thank you so much for talking with us. Just a total joy and great luck with the upcoming projects.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks, man. Good to see you. It's a pleasure.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Kelsey Grammer talking about his new film, The Christmas Ring. And this has been a weekend edition of Morning Wire.
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