Jane Leeves

Jane Leeves: I'm the highest paid English actress ever, apparently.

Jane Leeves: They go "Daphne, we love her, she's so sweet." She's a great calling card because she's such a nice person and so likable that people relate to her and immediately embrace me.

Jane Leeves: I read for them one day, then Kelsey Grammer 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.'

Jane Leeves: (talking about how she knows everything about her character, Daphne Moon) It's true. I have quite an extensive background of her. In 1982 she was at beauty school. It hasn't been talked about in the scripts, but I know she tried her hand at many things. For Daphne, its always been about talking care of people and helping them feel better. She has 8 brothers and comes from a working class background. The little house she grew up in was just like the one in My Left Foot, with four in a bed. She had to contribute to the running of the household by bringing home what she made and giving a bit for Mum.

Jane Leeves: It was a very small town in the middle of the country side. Everybody knew each other, you felt safe there, you didn't have to lock doors.

Jane Leeves: I have a standard British accent and Daphne has a Mancunian accent, since she's from Manchester. It's like the difference between a traditional American accent and a southern accent. A Mancunian accent is more working class. I'm so used to slipping in and out of it but sometimes my accent has gotten us into trouble on the scripts because the words don't come out the way the writers envisaged. For instance, I was supposed to tell a joke once that ended in the word Duck, but with the accent it didn't sound funny so they changed it to elephant.

Jane Leeves: Makes us nervous but we have been assured by the wonderful writers that have left us that they would never leave us unless we were in good hands. And I know that we are. These are writers that are taking over that have been with us for while now.

Jane: I let my apartment in London go and I sold everything. I literally had $1000 and a suitcase when I got on the plane. The next day I enrolled in my first acting class. We had some great people, Jim Carrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Molly Ringwald. It was very inspirational.

Jane Leeves: I wish I were more like Daphne--she's so comfortable with who she is.

Jane Leeves: I knew I would never be strong enough to be a soloist. And I wasn't going to be stuck in the back with all the other swans.

Jane Leeves: (after Frasier ended) I'm taking a huge step away from Daphne, and maybe that will work for me.

Jane Leeves: (on the network giving Frasier a good time slot) This has given us a tremendous boost, and it's sort of a really exciting thing to come back to. You know, it's not just we're doing Frasier on Tuesday. We're getting the Thursday time slot.

Jane Leeves: I used to see Jim Carrey in comedy clubs and tell him "This isn't going to get you anywhere. What you're good at is that nice Jimmy Stewart stuff." Thank God he never listened.

Jane Leeves: I hate to see ultra thinness glamorized. Just because a woman is anorexic-looking doesn't mean she's a role model of any kind.

Jane Leeves: People are always commenting on how tall I am. They say I don't look that tall on television, for some reason. but I'm near 5 foot 10 inches.