Kelsey Grammer on Hollywood, Redemption, and Real Life

Summary

Morning Wire: Kelsey Grammer on Hollywood, Redemption, and Real Life

Episode Date: November 16, 2025
Hosted by: John Bickley and Georgia Howe

---

Episode Overview

In this weekend edition of Morning Wire, hosts John Bickley and Georgia Howe sit down with the acclaimed actor Kelsey Grammer to discuss his new film, The Christmas Ring, the unique involvement of military veterans in the project, and how his Christian faith influences both his life and career choices. Grammer candidly reflects on redemption, the evolving landscape of Hollywood, and why authentic, faith-infused stories remain relevant and deeply resonant with audiences.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Christmas Ring: Honoring Veterans and Themes of Redemption

• Veterans on Set (02:21 – 03:13)

  • Kelsey Grammer shares how The Christmas Ring featured nearly 100 actual veterans and service members in a pivotal scene, commemorating their sacrifices and bringing authenticity to the story.
    • Quote:
      "They inhabited the film, at least in one of the big scenes, with some veterans and some active duty members as well, and retired and reservists. But it was just an opportunity to salute the troops." — Kelsey Grammer (02:37)
  • The film’s central plot is linked to a WWII D-Day drop, and its release near Veterans Day was significant to the filmmakers.

• Gary Sinise’s Involvement (03:15 – 03:20)

  • Gary Sinise and his foundation helped connect the production with veterans.
    • Grammer notes, “Gary and I are pretty good friends... I hope I helped, you know, facilitate some of that.”

• The Film’s Message (03:20 – 03:47)

  • Grammer describes the movie as telling a “nice story about redemption and love and forgiveness, about Jesus.”
    • Quote:
      "It's a nice story about, you know, redemption and love and forgiveness, about Jesus. So it's a nice movie." — Kelsey Grammer (03:40)

---

Faith and Role Selection in Hollywood

• Meaningful Roles and Divine Timing (04:13 – 05:39)

  • Grammer reflects on how he came to play in Jesus Revolution and how faith impacts his choices, often unconsciously.
    • Quote:
      "The night before I read the script for Jesus Revolution, I was...wondering what was next for me. And I said, you know, I just want to do something that means something, that has some meaning. And the next morning, that script came..." — Kelsey Grammer (04:13)
    • Grammer, while not overtly evangelistic, says he “would never deny Christ.”

• Portraying Messy, Real Lives (05:39 – 06:49)

  • The story of Jesus Revolution and The Christmas Ring are both rooted in real, often messy human experiences, which Grammer feels are central to the message of redemption.
    • Quote:
      "Well, that's what Jesus is for, you know, that's why he came along...the world was a mess...and God chose to send a baby to save the world...the beauty of a new life, of a redemptive life is such a gift." — Kelsey Grammer (05:54)

• Seeking Redemption in Stories (06:49 – 07:10)

  • Grammer appreciates narratives that embrace redemption—a recurring theme in both his personal life and professional work.

---

On Range, Complexity, and Authenticity in Acting

• Portraying Good and Evil (07:10 – 08:44)
  • Grammer discusses taking on a variety of roles, from morally upright to more sinister characters, stressing the importance of authenticity and inhabiting the full range of human experience.
    • Quote:
      "I'm supposed to, as an actor, play everything that comes to at me that, you know, is part of the human experience...We loan the truth of what we know about experience to the characters so that they sound authentic." — Kelsey Grammer (07:27)
    • He draws parallels even between superhero films and faith: “We just did another Avengers...I play Beast again...that's about faith...we’re saving each other...that’s the Jesus story, isn’t it?”

---

The Hollywood Landscape and Faith-Based Films

• Hollywood’s Shift Towards Faith Content (09:16 – 10:26)

  • Grammer observes that Hollywood is recognizing the demand for faith- and values-oriented stories, not just for artistic but also for commercial reasons.
    • Quote:
      "There’s...some diehards here, they’re sticklers for, you know, they just don't like religion...But there are others who are, and that's great...Most of the people in America actually still really like God, Jesus and all that sort of stuff." — Kelsey Grammer (09:29)

• Enduring American Values (09:29 – 10:26)

  • He notes the prevalence of “corny values” like community and aspiration, advocating for societal, not governmental, responsibility in upholding them.

---

Future Projects and Upcoming Roles

• Upcoming Work (10:47 – 11:55)
  • Grammer has a diverse slate ahead:
    • Next week: filming a shyster role in a “very negative” character.
    • Upcoming film: Turbulence—a wild hot air balloon adventure.
    • Another role: battling sharks (“I haven’t fought a shark before, so I’m gonna do that one”).
    • Forthcoming: Claws—involves a mountain lion on a rampage.
    • Quote:
      "Everything they throw at me, I'm going to take it on." — Kelsey Grammer (11:51)

---

Notable Quotes

• On never denying his faith:
  "I'm a believer and I don't go around proselytizing or speaking the born again lingo very well. But I would never deny Christ. I would never deny him."
  — Kelsey Grammer (04:38)

• On living out the Jesus story:
  "Let’s face it, you know, we're saving each other. We're fighting the good fight. It's against impossible odds, and triumph comes to them. You know, that's the Jesus story, isn’t it?"
  — Kelsey Grammer (08:26)

• On playing all kinds of roles:
  "We loan the truth of what we know about experience to the characters so that they sound authentic, that they seem real, that they seem like, oh, I believe that's possible."
  — Kelsey Grammer (07:36)

---

Memorable Moments and Timestamps

• Saluting veterans in film: (02:37 – 03:13)
• Divine timing in Jesus Revolution role: (04:13 – 04:45)
• Exploring redemption and messiness: (05:54 – 06:49)
• Hollywood’s changing attitude to faith: (09:29 – 10:26)
• Preview of Grammer’s eclectic upcoming projects: (10:47 – 11:55)

---

Tone and Atmosphere

The conversation is warm, earnest, and inviting, with a balance of serious reflection and lighthearted charm. Grammer comes across as humble yet passionate about his craft and beliefs, while the hosts offer thoughtful questions and genuine appreciation for his openness.

---

Useful for Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode provides deep insights into Kelsey Grammer’s philosophy of acting, his personal faith journey, the real-life inspiration behind his latest film, and the evolving space for redemptive, value-driven stories in American entertainment. The discussion goes beyond entertainment, offering reflections on authenticity, hope, and the continued relevance of faith and morality both onscreen and off.

Transcript

[Netflix Sponsor]

This episode is brought to you by Netflix. New Players, New Games, New Rules Squid Game the Challenge returns for a gripping second season. 456 contestants from all walks of life competing in the ultimate test of strategy, alliances and endurance for a life changing prize of $4.56 million. With stakes this high, why make friends when you can make millions? Catch up on the latest episodes now playing only on Netflix.

[Daily Wire Announcer]

Since rising to fame in the beloved series Cheers and its hit spinoff Frasier, Kelsey Grammer has continued to take on big roles at a frenetic pace. Along with racking up awards over the years, the actor has set himself apart as a Hollywood star who's fearless about sharing his Christian faith.

[John Bickley]

In this episode, we sit down with the decorated actor to discuss his new film, the Christmas Ring, the role military veterans played in its making, and the way his faith in Christ has shaped his career. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. This is a weekend edition of Morning Wire.

[ZipRecruiter Sponsor]

What if you could actually find what you're looking for instead of wandering around like an idiot? Parking spots that don't require a prayer. Gifts that don't scream last minute panic. Jeans that fit without trying on 17 pairs. While you may never instantly find these things, if you're hiring, you can find qualified candidates right away time and time again with ZipRecruiter. And today you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com wire ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology cuts through the noise and connects you with top candidates fast. It's the kind of efficiency that changes how you think about recruiting. And it's working. ZipRecruiter has earned its spot as the number one rated hiring site on G2, trusted by businesses that need to build great teams without wasting time on platforms that overcomplicate the process. Want to know right away how many qualified candidates are in your area? Look no further than ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And right now you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com wire again, that's ZipRecruiter.com ZipRecruiter the smartest way to Hire.

[John Bickley]

Joining us now to discuss his new film the Christmas Ring, written by Christian author Karen Kingsbury, is Kelsey Grammer. Kelsey, first of all, we're all big fans of you. Thank you so much for joining us.

[Kelsey Grammer]

Sure, man. It's a pleasure.

[John Bickley]

So we wanted to talk to you about, well, A number of things. But first, your new film, which is a very relevant wrinkle to it. We just celebrated Veterans Day this week, and the Christmas Ring actually involved, at one point, about a hundred actual veterans and service members.

[Georgia Howe]

Can you tell us about that?

[Kelsey Grammer]

Yeah, they inhabited the film, at least in one of the big scenes, with some veterans and some active duty members as well, and retired and reservists. But it was just an opportunity to salute the troops. The whole story is sort of based upon a World War II D day dropping behind enemy lines. It commemorates their sacrifice a little bit and the continuing sacrifice of service members. And so that being around on Veterans Day was important to the filmmakers.

[John Bickley]

I know that, and I understand that.

[Georgia Howe]

Gary Sinise and his foundation played a role in finding some of those veterans to populate the film.

[Kelsey Grammer]

Oh, I didn't know about. I didn't really know about that because Gary and I are pretty. Pretty good friends. And he actually checked in with me. What do you think of this movie? And I said, well, it's a nice story, you know, so I hope I helped, you know, facilitate some of that. But, yeah, I think it went pretty well. And, you know, we didn't reinvent the wheel or anything, but it's a nice story about, you know, redemption and love and forgiveness, about Jesus. So it's a nice movie.

[John Bickley]

Yeah, I wanted to ask you exactly about that. In fact, the role of faith in this film. The author of the book that it's based on is Karen Kingsbury. She's a Christian author. You've recently starred in Jesus Revolution, a powerful film. You played the role of Chuck Smith, the founder of Calvary Chapel, where actually he used to go to church. In fact, how important is it to you to play roles that you feel align with, or at least sort of have some sort of relationship to your religious perspective?

[Kelsey Grammer]

Yeah, well, I don't actually go about trying to play them too much, actually. The night before I read the script for Jesus Revolution, I was sitting there in a kind of a quiet reverie and a little bit lonely and, you know, wondering what was next for me. And I said, you know, I just want to do something that means something, that has some meaning. And the next morning, that script came and, okay, I guess this is it. And I called my agent, and about two hours, I said, yeah, I'm gonna do this movie. It was. It was important to me. But what was funny was it didn't really kind of resonate for my life until I was doing an interview. I think it was Kelly or, you know, down The East Coast. And somebody talked about, you know, well, what's your feeling about Jesus and all that. And I said, well, you know what, the truth is, I'm a believer and I don't go around proselytizing or speaking the born again lingo very well. But I would never deny Christ. I would never deny him. And so that brought me into the fold, I guess, of the sort of faith based film production world. I don't do just those movies, but I'm quite happy that this role came up. And I thought, well, yeah, I like this guy. He seems like an interesting fellow and has a nice turnaround in the movie and opens up his heart again. That's always. That's always a good lesson.

[John Bickley]

Yeah.

[Georgia Howe]

And your portrayal of Chuck Smith was.

[John Bickley]

First of all, really terrific.

[Georgia Howe]

It clearly grounded the film. It's the heart of the film. This is a very complicated story. It's not straightforward. The lives of the real people that.

[John Bickley]

It'S based on were messy.

[Georgia Howe]

They lived messy lives.

[Kelsey Grammer]

Well, that's what Jesus is for, you know, that's why he came along. There's a good. I work with these guys, Operation Restored Warrior. They talk about the world Jesus was born into. The world was a mess, filled with, you know, infanticide, killing babies, all kinds of just horrific stuff. Roman rule was not the greatest thing in the world. A lot of violence. And God chose to send a baby to save the world, a baby that would need other people to save him. It was pretty fascinating. And I always loved that idea that into this mayhem, the beauty of a new life, of a redemptive life is such a gift. And we get to watch it every year at Christmas. We get to see the same story told again and again. And it's our story.

[Georgia Howe]

And it's a story that never gets old, does it? You've talked openly in the past about the role faith in general has played for you and how important it is. And I think you touched on it there. This hope for the beauty of a new life in redemption and that ultimately that brings people together. Do you look for at least an element of that in terms of the projects you get involved with?

[Kelsey Grammer]

Well, you know what, I'm about to go play a role where the guy's a kind of a shyster sort of not evangelist, but what you would call a fanatic who turns out to be kind of a very negative kind of guy. But that's what they say, you know, I mean, the devil can quote chapter and verse. You know, these elements exist. And so I'm just, I just Believe I'm supposed to, as an actor, play everything that comes to at me that, you know, is part of the human experience. And I mean, like, I played Macbeth years ago. They. Macbeth is a very dark character to play. I'm used to walking around going, like, maybe I better say a prayer every time before I play them or something else. But we are designed to play these roles because we have a kind of an understanding that makes us. People can believe we inhabit those roles. They accept us in different roles. And so we loan what I like to call. We loan the truth of what we know about experience to the characters so that they sound authentic, that they seem real, that they seem like, oh, I believe that's possible. And that's. So I do everything. I mean, and I'm doing. We just did another Avengers. I play Beast again in the Avengers movie. And that's about faith, too, in a lot of ways. I mean, let's face it, you know, we're saving each other. We're fighting the good fight. It's against impossible odds, and triumph comes to them. You know, that's the Jesus story, isn't it?

[John Bickley]

Indeed. And like you said, as long as a character and a story are grounded in reality, to me, the truth always leads to the higher truth, to Christ. So a film can be dark but still have a moral grounding. And like you're saying, you're playing a role which maybe points people toward the consequences of sin. That in itself is a faith message.

[Kelsey Grammer]

Right. And it's not. It's not necessarily the victory. You know, the victory doesn't live necessarily in that evil. So, I mean, it's, you know, it's a funny world out there. It's. We navigate the best we can.

[John Bickley]

Right. Well, it's messy. Now, obviously, you've played a lot of roles. The landscape has changed for Hollywood in so many ways in recent decades. How have you seen that dynamic playing out in terms of your career?

[Kelsey Grammer]

Yeah, well, listen, there's. There's some diehards here, they're sticklers for, you know, they just don't like religion. They're not going to go for it. They're not going to be part of it. But there are others who are, and that's. That's great. I just think Hollywood finally realized that, you know, there's money out there for. For these kind of movies as well. You know, most. Most of the people in America actually still really like God, Jesus and all that sort of stuff and like one another. And they want their kids to ride in the neighborhood, ride their Bikes in neighborhoods where they're safe. They, you know, these are corny values, but still, there they are. And that's part of America and a place where you can aspire to do something and nobody says to you, you can't do it, or the only way you're going to be able to do it is if the government gives you some money for it. No, we do this. People do this. I always believe that social programs were society's business and not the government's anyway. So that's, you know, who I am. But we have an obligation to one another, and our government can actually fulfill it for us.

[John Bickley]

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. We've been documenting on this show what looks to be a trend in entertainment. Like, there's more of a space for faith focused films lately. And I do think, like you're saying, actually capitalism can end up promoting for its own purposes, you know, a lot of good things that people really do want to see this stuff. There's a real hunger for it.

[Kelsey Grammer]

Yeah.

[John Bickley]

So what's coming next for you? You've got this shyster role coming. What else is on the horizon for you?

[Kelsey Grammer]

Well, I'm planning that next. I'm going to go shoot that next week. About. We've got one in the can that's coming out pretty soon called turbulence, which is really, really fun. A day trip on a hot air balloon over the Alps is short circuited by a nutty woman. That's okay.

[John Bickley]

Yeah, it happens.

[Kelsey Grammer]

And I don't do so well. Somewhere around the middle of the film, we pitch my guy off the basket. There's another one coming up. When I'm gonna fight. I'm gonna be fighting some sharks, and there's just fun stuff I get a chance to do. I haven't fought a shark before, so I'm gonna do that one.

[John Bickley]

Just don't jump a shark. Whatever you do.

[Kelsey Grammer]

Yeah, exactly. And I. Oh, I've got another one coming up in Malibu where I'm gonna. I'm gonna shoot for a week. It's called Claws, where a mountain lion's gone a little crazy and killing some people I end up fighting.

[John Bickley]

All right, so you fight gravity sharks and a mountain lion.

[Kelsey Grammer]

Everything you can. Yeah, everything together. Everything they throw at me, I'm going to take it on.

[John Bickley]

Sounds like a lot of fun. So things not slowing down for you at all? Even with the holidays here coming up?

[Georgia Howe]

Kelsey, thank you so much for talking with us. Just a total joy and great luck with the upcoming projects.

[Kelsey Grammer]

Thanks, man. Good to see you It's a pleasure.

[Georgia Howe]

That was Kelsey Grammer talking about his.

[John Bickley]

New film the Christmas Ring.

[Georgia Howe]

And this has been a weekend edition of Morning Wire.

[Daily Wire Announcer]

There are now fewer than 2,000 Daily Wire Lifetime memberships remaining.

[John Bickley]

Turns out having all access benefits for life with no renewals is something everyone wants.

[Daily Wire Announcer]

If you still want one, here are your options. You could buy one while they're still.

[John Bickley]

Available, or you could win ours.

[Daily Wire Announcer]

That's right. We have our very own lifetime membership we're going to give away and it's really easy to enter your name.

[John Bickley]

To win, all you gotta do is download the free Daily Wire app in the App Store, open it and tap follow under our picture. That's it, you're entered.

[Daily Wire Announcer]

And who knows, we could be calling you to give you our personal lifetime membership.

[John Bickley]

Before any of that happens, you need to download the Daily Wire plus app.

[Georgia Howe]

And follow us inside it now to enter to win.

[John Bickley]

Good luck.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Hey, Ryan Reynolds here wishing you a very happy half off holiday because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited. To be clear, that's half price, not half the service. Mint is still premium unlimited wireless for a great price. So that means a half day.

[Daily Wire Announcer]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Give it a [e-mail] Switch up from.

[Netflix Sponsor]

Payment of $45 for three month plan.

[Kelsey Grammer]

Equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of network busy taxes and fees extra Cementmobile.

[John Bickley]

Com.