Grover Leaving Sesame Street for More Serious Roles

Posted by Cynical Sarah on August 2, 2007

After more than 20 years on Sesame Street, Grover has decided to move on to explore new roles. His first challenge after working in children’s programming will be a complete 180 degree change as he takes on a guest role on CSI: Miami.

“It’s a fairly small role, but it’s a start to getting away from what I’ve been for years now,” Grover said.

He’ll be the personal assistant to a corrupt defence lawyer in Miami. Grover didn’t want to give away too much of the plot for the episode, but he said he does have a lengthy scene with David Carusso as he’s being questioned about his boss’s activities.

“After being so immersed in a character, it felt really good to stretch my wings again in the acting world,” Grover said. “One of the biggest challenges was getting away from things I was used to doing like the wild arm flailing and the over-emphasized facial expressions.”

There were some mishaps during filming, but Grover worked through them. At one point, he started spelling out some of the words in his dialogue.

“The cast and crew were very patient with me, though,” Grover said. “David even gave me some pointers on good facial expressions to end scenes with. It’s too bad all mine were indoor scenes, because sunglasses seem to be integral in a lot of his methods.”

Carusso said he enjoyed working with Grover as well.

“He brought a certain … perkiness … to the cast. Even though we film in bright Miami, there are times when the plot and the cast can get very dark,” Carusso said. “Grover made us all smile, even when we were doing take 50 of what should have been a simple scene.”

There’s no word yet on whether Grover’s character may come up in future CSI: Miami episodes. In the meantime, he’s turned down offers to do guest voice work on The Simpsons and some other cartoons because he’s trying to avoid falling back into children’s shows.

He is working on a deal for a role on Scrubs, though.

“Comedy would be a good fit for me as well,” he said. “What I’ve learned with my acting will work well for an adult comedy role. I think the more serious roles will keep coming too once the CSI episode airs.”
Some of his “dream” jobs are roles on Law & Order or perhaps Criminal Minds.

“I hear Mandy Patenkin is leaving Criminal Minds,” Grover said. “I’d love to be the new team member to join the cast in his place this season.”

Filed Under: Satire - Comments: Be the First to Comment

Tags: humor, Satire, television

top