Frasier: How Playing Eve Changed Jess Salgueiro
The "Frasier" revival on Paramount+ deals in heavy doses of turn-of-the-century sitcom nostalgia, but it brings aboard quite a bit of fresh talent to glue everything together. Among the newcomers to the franchise is "The Boys" cast member Jess Salgueiro, who plays a close friend of Freddy Crane (Jack Cutmore-Scott) named Eve. "Frasier" is far from Salgueiro's first rodeo, with the actor having an impressive list of credits full of major names like "The Expanse," "Orphan Black," and "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters." Nonetheless, her experience working on the classic series' reboot changed her perspective and approach to acting in a major way.
In an interview with the Toronto Star, Salgueiro revealed that she had some apprehension about joining the cast of a sitcom. "I did not expect to like doing a sitcom as much as I liked doing a sitcom," she explained. "I was probably a bit of a snob about multi-cam (shows) before I did it. I think I thought that the actors were just kind of doing a shtick or, you know, not really acting. I was kind of like, this isn't elevated enough."
Despite Salgueiro's opinions going into the project, it only took a short bit of filming "Frasier" to blow the actor's preconceived notions out of the water. "After my first episode, I was like, 'That's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life,'" she said. Through that experience, Salgueiro's perspective on acting in sitcoms completely flipped.
Live studio performance was tough and rewarding for Salgueiro
Jess Salgueiro changed her opinion on sitcoms after she found that acting on "Frasier" was unexpectedly challenging. In particular, the actor pointed to the fact that the show is filmed before a live studio audience as a learning curve for her. "I don't think of myself as a comedian and I had to go make people laugh," she told the Toronto Star. "The audience is right there. You're getting the feedback immediately, right? If you don't make them laugh, you feel it. The silence is painful. So that pressure alone was what made it really hard."
Salgueiro spoke further about the live taping of "Frasier" episodes in an interview with The Morning Show, in which she described it as similar to performing a small, under-rehearsed play every week. Despite the feeling of intimidation that comes with such an undertaking, she learned to harness the audience's presence. "When you're doing a comedy like that, you do need the feedback from the audience," she said. You need to know if you're going in the right direction, especially when you're building a character. You'll be like, 'Oh, they like it when I'm a bit sassy. Okay, noted.'"
What was also helpful for Salgueiro was the fact that the live audience was enthusiastic about the project. "A lot of the audience members were big fans of the original, so they were cheering us on," she explained. "The energy was high. It was really fun."