I’M A LOT LIKE DAPHNE
Life Couldn't be sweeter for Jane Leeves, who plays kooky Moon on TV's Frasier. By Debra L. Wallace
While I hate to admit it, I'm a lot like Daphne. But I have gained a lot more confidence in recent years says actress Jane Leeves, who kooky, warm-hearted home health aid Daphne Moon on TV's Frasier. “Daphne knows what's right for everybody deal with things. But when it comes to who she is and what she wants, she hasn’t a clue. I have a bit of her earthiness, yet I definitely know what I want out of life." Breaking into show business is what Jane, 37, when she left her close knit family in small town of East Grinstead in Sussex, England for the bright lights of Hollywood. She had grown up wanting to be a ballerina, but an ankle injury at 18 derailed that dream. She turned her attention to acting and the unfamiliar world of Los Angeles where she arrived with $1,000 in her pursue. She found a room to rent, learned how to drive and immediately enrolled in an acting class. "I was a mere babe in the woods when I left on a whim on February 11, 1984 and I remember being terrified. I'll always thank my parents for not saying “Please don't go,' because if mum and dad had said those words I would have turned airport," says Jane. "My parents ie a true sense of family. It's so much easier to go off into the world when you have a stable place to come back to.'' It took Jane a year to break into the business, a short time compared with many aspiring actresses who spend years waiting tables before being discovered.
"Looking back on it, my goodness, what a scary thing to do ! l didn't have a clue about Los Angeles and knew even less about acting. I was just so dreadfully homesick. I thought, 'What have I done?' 'What am I doing here?' But soon I was having so much fun in acting class, I realised it was exactly where I belonged. I was very lucky."
The part on Frasier was actually the easiest job Jane ever landed. "I read for them one day, then Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) walked in and read with me the next day, and they said, 'Could you go outside for a second?' I went outside and then they opened the door and said, 'ladies and gentlemen, Daphne Moon.'" The show first went on the air in America in autumn 1993 and has become a major hit worldwide.
She says her cast members helped put her at ease. John Mahoney (Frasier's dad Martin Crane) and David Hyde Pierce (Niles) are good pals. Grammer is also a joy to work with.
"Kelsey is a great teacher in every sense of the word. I learn so much from just watching him. Now we are so fortunate that he is directing some of the shows. He has a wonderful voice and a real talent for directing." Jane and Frasier co-star Pen Gilpin (Roz) are also close pals. In fact, they have created Bristol Cities, a production company to develop television movies to star in and produce. Her parents, Cohn, a retired engineer, and Ruth, a former nurse, visit Jane regularly. On a visit to LA her younger sister, Katey, met and fell in love with her husband, Rajan. They have an eight-year old son, Colin, and live around the corner from Jane. Jane too found love a few years ago. That too came at the right time. Jane went to a holiday party (in 1995) for the cast of Frasier and spotted a stranger across the room. "I arrived really late to the party and Marshall Coben, an executive at Paramount Studios, walked towards me and that was it. I fell for him immediately. It was love at first sight. He had a killer smile and l just melted. We stood there and talked for hours but by the end of the evening, he hadn't asked me out - I later found out he was really nervous. A few days later he came by the (Frasier) set and asked me out for a drink.
We've been inseparable from that day on." Jane says that her husband has the exact qualities she had been seeking in a lifelong companion, but had not been able to find previously. "I had been used to people pretending to be men with the tough guy act, macho. He's kind and he's true to who he is. He is also totally supportive of my career. He's given me a little more strength and confidence in myself." Her wedding to Marshall on December 21,1996 was right out of a storybook. She turned down offers from several fashion magazines to feature the ceremony and chose to keep her special day private.
"We were married during Christmas in the small village where my parents live in the south of England. It was a quiet intimate wedding with only 36 guests. The ceremony took place in a village church on the top of a hill. We had our reception at a 14th Century mill that had been turned into a restaurant. I can truly say it was nothing less than magical." Since meeting her husband she feels she has a well rounded personal life. "On Friday nights my husband works late so I have my sister, Katey, nephew, Colin, and brother-in-law , Rajan, over for dinner. Usually I make chicken soup and crusty bread," she says. "Saturday afternoons I go down to the beach in Malibu and watch my husband surf. Usually, after he comes in from surfing, we laze around in the hammock, reading scripts and going for long walks." Jane also likes entertaining. "I love cooking for large groups of people and enjoy making the classic English recipes like shepherd's pie and roast beef and Yorkshire pudding which I learned to make from my mother. Sometimes I also bring soup to work to share with the cast." She is involved in the film5O Violins starring Meryl Streep, Angela Basseft and Aidan Quinn.
Her other movie roles have included the remake of Miracle on 34th Street Monty python's The Meaning of Life, The Hunger, and Mr Write. Her most recent role was in an independent film with ER's Anthony Edwards called Don't Go Breaking My Heart. One topic which Jane and her husband talked about soon after they met was their mutual desire to have a family. "Since we married, a year from the day we met, we decided we wanted to have a bit of a honeymoon period, with just the two of us. But we are planning to have a family at some point in time. We want two children." And Jane says that being a mum, like her own, who instills strong self confidence in her children with a solid foundation of love, will be an important lasting legacy.