Fast chat: David Hyde Pierce

David Hyde Pierce played snobbish Niles Crane on TV's "Frasier" for 11 years, was Emmy-nominated every season and won four times. But the 51-year-old Saratoga Springs native managed to avoid typecasting by returning to his first love, theater, where he won a best performance by a leading actor in a musical Tony for "Curtains."

Witty and down-to-earth, Pierce has carved out a nice career on the stage ("Spamalot"), doing movie voice-overs ("A Bug's Life") and taking on the occasional film role ("Hellboy," "Wet Hot American Summer"). In "The Perfect Host," opening Friday, he seems to be having the time of his life playing a very cultured serial killer. Lewis Beale caught up with the engaging performer during a break in rehearsals for a play he's directing.

You seem to be having a lot of fun channeling your inner serial killer in "The Perfect Host."

People have said to me for years. "You should play a serial killer." I don't know if that's an insult. It's such an incredibly rich, wonderful character, and that's what attracted me to the role. He's someone who starts out in the ballpark of Niles -- he's sophisticated, likes wine, throwing a dinner party -- so it gave me the chance in one movie to embrace that persona and depart from it.

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What was it about Niles Crane that made him such a memorable character?

He was so extreme in his superficial traits. So snobbish, it made it even easier to identify with him, because his basic human needs were the same as everyone. He wanted to love, he fell in love, he cared for his family. And because he was an odd little package, those kinds of situations seemed fresher, you could see them through new eyes.

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After so many years in one role, how did you manage to avoid typecasting?

I went back to the theater. Theater audiences are more flexible, they're used to seeing the same actor play different roles.

You grew up in Saratoga Springs, home to the famous racetrack. Are you into racing?

No. My family, in August , we lived a few blocks from the track, we would rent our house out to the editor of Sports Illustrated. We would have a vacation somewhere, getting out of town. We just wanted to go away on vacation, and this was a great way to do it. What I did do a lot, there's the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, where the Philadelphia Orchestra would play during the summer, and that led to my love of classical music, but also my love of performing.

You're currently directing "It Shoulda Been You," a musical comedy about a Jewish-Catholic marriage that will open this fall at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, N.J. The whole interest in a mixed-religion marriage seems a bit dated. Is it?

It's a show that's full of surprises. The marriage of those two cultures you find out is the least of the issues of the show. Everyone's displaced at a wedding. You're wearing clothes you never wear, seeing people you never see, the pressure is as high as it can be. It's a metaphor for what happens to us in life.

You've also been doing a lot of voice work over the years. What is it that you like about it?

You can be anything. It's your voice. The sky's the limit, in a way. That freedom, coupled with the challenge of expressing everything that needs to be expressed, just with your voice.

You married your life partner, Brian Hargrove, in California just days before Proposition 8, which banned gay marriages, went into effect. Prop 8 was struck down by the courts . Do you think the tide is turning against the people opposed to gay marriage?

I was in California, and had been married for two weeks when Prop 8 passed. I was absolutely stunned. My hope is that part of the effect of that passage is that a lot of people in this country looked at that law and said, "Is this really what we want to be?" Maybe that injustice was the seed for the rest of the country to take a good look at itself and say, "I can't look at my family members who are gay and lesbian, say I love you a lot, but so what?"