Ted Danson Was Very 'Uncomfortable' Playing Sam On Cheers
When you hear many actors talk, they often speak about wanting to play roles vastly different from who they are as people. Acting can be something of an escape that can challenge their everyday lives. However, when you usually hear about parts like this, they tend to exist in the extreme. Sometimes they involve playing a real-life person, or they're playing some fantastical creation in a genre piece. Rarely do you hear this kind of talk when they are just playing, like, a regular dude. Parts like those tend to go to people fairly similar to the characters they play who can imbue those regular folks with some kind of innate charisma within the actor.
Ted Danson's signature role of Sam Malone on the long-running hit sitcom "Cheers" would, on its face, appear to be this situation. He is an actor who exudes boundless charm and has excellent repartee with all of his fellow actors. I do not doubt that many people just naturally assumed Danson to be exactly like Sam. They thought he was packed with perfect comebacks, was an active listener to people's problems, probably played baseball growing up, and — most importantly — was extremely confident when it came to romancing women.
As it happens, Danson's actual personality was about as far away from Sam Malone as Daniel Day-Lewis' is from Daniel Plainview. Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme, but the point is that Danson initially struggled quite a bit connecting to Sam when he first took on the role because of how different he is from the character.
Not used to being a ladies' man
If you are looking at the character of Sam on paper, you would think of him being this unrepentant cad, just a big ol' ball of slime looking to hit on women. Plenty of guys go through life that way, but Ted Danson was not one of those people. Making someone like that appealing to millions of people for over 20 weeks every year can be an incredibly challenge. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter back in 2018, writer/producer Ken Levine spoke about how Danson could infuse a character that he held very little in common with a side of himself that made Sam who he was:
"Ted felt very uncomfortable at first playing Sam because he wasn't a lothario in real life. But he brought a quality to Sam that he himself possesses: kindness and humanity. That went a long way toward the audience embracing Sam."
Danson eventually came to understand Sam and instinctively knew what material was right for the character. Fellow writer/producer Rob Long added, "If something felt weird to him, he'd look at you and make a hand gesture suggesting it felt weird ... If he couldn't make it work, then it didn't work." Bill Steinkeller echoes the sentiment with how Danson communicated with the writers, saying, "He trusts you and if he's got a problem, he tells you."
Criminally, Ted Danson only won two Emmys for his performance on "Cheers" across its 11 seasons, despite being the engine that drove that show to its success. He may not have been entirely comfortable playing Sam Malone, but nobody else could have created this character, where his lothario nature acted as a shield for his own vulnerability. It's a beautifully honest and deeply hilarious piece of performance.