Actor Kelsey Grammer had an interview with BBC cut short when he doubled down on his support for beleaguered former Republican President Donald Trump.
Grammer rose to fame playing Dr. Frasier Crane, a character introduced in 1984 on the NBC sitcom Cheers and later featured in the spin-off series Frasier, which ran from 1993–2004.
The 68-year-old Emmy winner has reprised the role of the beloved psychiatrist for a 2023 reboot of Frasier.
According to Deadline, BBC Radio 4 journalist Justin Webb said Grammer was “perfectly happy” to elaborate on his support for the twice-impeached former President.
Trump is currently the GOP frontrunner in 2024. He also faces 91 felony charges across four cases, involving allegations of fraud, election interference, and tampering with government documents.
In the interview, Grammer backed fellow Trump voter Roseanne Barr, who had a short-lived comeback before being booted from her own eponymous reboot series in 2018 after she posted a racist tweet.
Webb later asked Grammer:
"You mentioned Roseanne early on who had a great comeback but also was a Trump supporter."
"You were, at least you were, a Trump supporter, I’m fascinated to know if you still are?”
The actor replied:
“I am and I’ll let that be the end of it."
In a rare position for most Hollywood actors to take, Grammer has been vocal about his allegiance to Trump, and he stated that voting for him in 2016 and 2020 had not affected his career.
The PR team for Paramount+ was not interested in hearing more on the matter from the Republican actor, however, and shut down the interview.
“I have to say actually Kelsey Grammer himself was perfectly happy to go on talking about it,” said Webb, per Yahoo UK.
"The Paramount Plus PR people, less happy that he talked about it at some length so we... They decided we'd had plenty of time for our interview."
When a co-presenter joked that Paramount would be "really thrilled" about Webb's question, Webb said:
"But I should stress that he was perfectly happy to talk about why he supports Donald Trump and still does in the forthcoming election."
Some people shared their disappointment in Grammer, while others were not surprised to hear of his political leanings.
Some social media users quickly lost interest in watching Frasier.
The Frasier sequel/reboot takes place with the title character returning to Boston to start a professorship at Harvard University, following the death of his father Martin and the end of his relationship with Charlotte.
The show premiered on October 12, 2023, on Paramount+.
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