John Lithgow turned down chance to play Frasier Crane: “I wonder about the road not travelled”

John Lithgow has discussed how he turned down the role of Frasier Crane in Cheers – and his refusal to portray Donald Trump.

• READ MORE: ‘Conclave’ review: Ralph Fiennes and friends battle it out on ‘top of the Popes’

Radio Times asked the 79-year-old about the decision to turn down the chance to play Crane in the iconic 1980s sitcom Cheers. The character first appeared in the third season of the show, and it was Kelsey Grammer who portrayed the psychiatrist. He started out as a recurring character before becoming part of the main cast, and subsequently spawned the spin-off Frasier, which ran from 1993 to 2004 with a revival series beginning last year.

Lithgow replied: “Sometimes. When it came up, it was my early years in Hollywood, and I’d had two Oscar nominations in two years. There was this chance to play a supporting role on Cheers and my agent and I agreed, ‘Let’s not think about episodic TV.’

“I can’t help but wonder about the road not travelled. But I have so few regrets. For one thing, I did do 3rd Rock from the Sun for six years, which was a glorious experience.”

When asked if he made the deliberate decision not to do as much comedy as he used to, Lithgow explained, “Well, comedy doesn’t really come up! For one thing, I think when you get old, you’re not as funny. I’m sometimes asked if I have any interest in reviving 3rd Rock and I say, ‘No, that was a young man’s game.’ Old age has been wonderful for me in the serious roles, because so many of them have cropped up and there’s so little competition! If you last as long as I have, you’re the go-to man…”

He said that he was anxious about being typecast after 3rd Rock, but that his role as an alien who was trying to be human was a “built-in antidote to typecasting” – one of his next roles was as the Trinity Killer on Dexter, a “deadly serious and terrifying” role.

And when asked if he’d consider playing Trump, who he describes as a “ghastly threat,” he shared that he’s already turned down the role a few times. “I wasn’t interested,” he explained, “I feel the only way to play him is by being an outrageous caricature of him. I also think we need a little distance. Give me a few years!”

Lithgow’s latest film, the mystery thriller Conclave, arrived in UK cinemas on November 29. Based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris, it also stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, Sergio Castellitto and Isabella Rossellini.

In a four-star review of the movie, NME said: “While Conclave isn’t a hardline take down of an institution that has been beset by scandal this century, including cover-ups of sexual abuse by priests, it does acknowledge that the Church has much to do to modernise. What results is a film that both works as a finely-tuned thriller and a meditation on the Church’s place in today’s society. More robust than similar films like The Two Popes (2019) and We Have a Pope (2011), Conclave is a perfect winter warmer.”

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