John Lithgow “can’t help but wonder” how life would have turned out had he not turned down the role of Frasier Crane earlier in his career.
The 79-year-old is starring as politicking priest Joseph Cardinal Tremblay in Edward Berger’s new film Conclave, about a secretive election process for the papacy.
But years before that he was courted for the role of the beloved psychiatrist on Cheers. The success of Kelsey Grammer in the role as a supporting character led to spin-off Frasier, which won numerous awards, ran for over a decade, and was recently rebooted.
Lithgow had been offered the role at a time when he was coming off the back of two Oscar nominations for his performances in 1982’s The World According to Garp and 1983’s Terms of Endearment. He has previously joked that the role was “beneath his dignity” and that he “barely even remember[s]” the role being offered to him.
Yet as the years have gone on, Lithgow has admitted that he thinks about what could have been.
Asked if he ever thought about turning down that role he said, “Sometimes,” in an interview with Radio Times.
“When it came up, it was my early years in Hollywood, and I’d had two Oscar nominations in two years,” he explained.
“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.”
Although the star turned down the TV series at the time, he went on to play Dick Solomon on 3rd Rock from the Sun, another acclaimed sitcom, from 1996 to 2001.
He added: “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.”
In a 2020 interview with The Guardian, he said of turning down the role: “I never wanted to put that out into the public for many years, really sympathising with Kelsey Grammer. But it was at a time when I was ticking off movies.”
He continued: “I’d gotten two Oscar nominations in a row. A TV comedy series was so beneath my dignity that I barely even remember being told that it had been offered to me.”
