Like most father-daughter relationships, Kelsey Grammer hasn’t always been the greatest influence on his oldest daughter, Spencer Grammer. They’ve had a strained relationship from the start, but it appears they’re finally making amends after starring in a new Christmas movie, The 12 Days of Christmas Eve.
In the movie, which premieres on Lifetime on November 26th, Kelsey and Spencer play a father-daughter duo with a strained relationship. The father is always putting his work above what’s most important – family. The story isn’t based on their actual relationship, but it resembles their relationship in a lot of ways.
When Kelsey was pitching the idea for the movie, he couldn’t think of a better person to play his daughter than, well, his daughter. “I said, we’ll have to make sure she wants to, because you never know. We blow hot and cold like all fathers and daughters do,” said Kelsey in a recent interview with PEOPLE.
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Kelsey Grammer started losing sight of his family after he and his wife, Doreen Alderman, split in 1984. Their daughter, Spencer, was born in 1983 and was a ‘child of divorce,’ as Kelsey explained it. Around that same time, he earned the role of Dr. Frasier Crane in the hit television sitcom Cheers on NBC.
The new role required him to work 20-hour workdays, which resulted in him not being around for his family – ultimately straining his relationship with Spencer. While it was a role that set the tone for the rest of his career, it led to a lot of regrets as he lost sight of what was most important in life – his family.
Ironically, it was work that brought the two together again. “There’s definitely aspects of this movie that resonate with me personally,” said Spencer – crediting her father as a major influence in her career. Working with her father for the first time was a ‘healing’ experience and acted like a form of ‘therapy.’
“In [the movie], this father and daughter get to repair their relationship at some point. And the dad comes back to really, really figure out what the meaning of Christmas truly is. And honestly for me, for that month that we shot, it was incredibly fun and wonderful to spend time with my dad,” said Spencer to PEOPLE.
Kelsey Grammer Already Thinking About a Sequel With His Daughter
The 12 Days of Christmas Eve is a holiday movie that father-daughter duos all over the world will relate to – much like Kelsey Grammer and Spencer Grammer have. Even then, it was a role Spencer wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to do at first, especially since she’s currently finishing her graduate degree in directing.
Nonetheless, she spoke with her father a little more about the opportunity and the two eventually figured out a schedule that would work. After a month of filming, the father-daughter couldn’t be happier that it worked out the way it did – so much that Kelsey is already planning on pitching a sequel to the original.
The sequel would see Spencer’s character, who’s a single mom and hard-working surgeon, take on a similar role as her father did in the original. Over time, her character starts to neglect her family as she gives all her time, energy, and effort to work. A similar story, but told through a different set of lenses.
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“She’s terrific in the film. She’s a very talented woman and I’m very proud of her. I even got to say that on camera a couple of times, along with a few things I never got to tell her. So it all turned out really well,” said Kelsey Grammer – who wants people to know that people, and love, can be reborn if we allow it.
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