Kelsey Grammer: ‘I auditioned for the original Star Wars’

Kelsey Grammer is still upset he missed out on a role in Star Wars.
The former Frasier star landed an audition for the film with the help of his Juilliard School drama teacher, but he had no idea what the project was.
“(My teacher) Edith Skinner sent me over to a fellow named Mort Schwartz, who was a very big agent at the time…,” Grammer U.S. chat show The Talk on Thursday (27Jul17). “He says, ‘I want you to go (to this audition). There’s a fellow up there meeting some young actors for this movie about space’. So I said, ‘Cool’.”
Kelsey met with director George Lucas, but had no idea he was in the presence of greatness – and so close to landing a role in a film that would change movie history.
“I went and sat… in front of this guy…,” he added. “He said, ‘We’re making this movie, it’s kind of a fairytale in space. I don’t know what’s going to happen with it, but it’s going to be fun. There’s a couple of guys in it you might be right for. One is kind of a cowboy, another is a young guy’, and I thought, ‘Yeah that sounds like fun…’ and he says, ‘No, you’re right for some of the roles, maybe I’ll see you again’. Well he never saw me again.”
Kelsey landed his first acting job two years later and celebrated by going to see Star Wars at the cinema – and quickly realised the opportunity he missed out on.
“I’m sitting in the movie and this big battleship goes over my head and I start thinking, ‘This is that movie. This is Star Wars. That was George Lucas!'” he said. “That was the closest I got to that kind of fame…”