Asner brings 'FDR' to Niceville stage

Ed Asner knows he doesn’t resemble Franklin Delano Roosevelt much by way of looks.

“For one thing, he was a very handsome man and I’m not,” Asner said in a telephone interview last week.

But the veteran stage and screen actor best known for his role as newsman Lou Grant, says he tries to approximate the sound of the 32nd president of the United States as closely as he can during his one-man show, “FDR.”

“The nicest comment I’ve received was from a woman who said at the beginning of the show, she heard Roosevelt and by the end of the show, she saw him,” Asner said.

Asner will bring his national tour of “FDR” to the Mattie Kelly Arts Center at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6.

Tickets are $30 each. There is a group discount of $5 off per ticket for groups of 10 or more tickets. To purchase tickets, go to the center’s online box office at mattiekellyartscenter.org or call 729-6000.

“FDR” is based on Dore Schary’s Broadway hit “Sunrise at Campobello” and explores the life of one of America’s best-loved presidents and the events and decisions that shaped a nation. The play follows the president as he reflects on his years in office (1933-1945), from inauguration to the challenges of World War II.

Asner, who turned 80 in November, has been performing “FDR” throughout the country since last fall. It is the first time he has done a show alone.

“I’d never done a one-man show before,” he said. “After I got over the shock of realizing that no one else was coming out on stage to help me, I learned that I could do it.”

Asner said the show has given him a chance to add to his knowledge “as I go along” of the Democratic president in whom he’s had a lifelong interest.

“He’s the greatest president I’ve ever known,” Asner said. “He saved the country.

“Most importantly to me, he stuck out his chest and said, ‘Bring ’em on.’ He was a man of great action.”

Known for his outspoken political views, Asner said, “What you call a Democrat today is a pale image of a Democrat in the ’30s and ’40s. Today, they take one step forward, become intimidated and take two steps back.”

Asner is also impressed with Roosevelt’s use of media.

“He held a thousand press conferences while in office,” Asner said. “And, yet, the press never saw him in a wheelchair. He manipulated photo-ops so they wouldn’t.”

Asner has received seven Emmy awards (“Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Lou Grant”) and 16 nominations, five Golden Globe Awards, and is a member of the TV Academy Hall of Fame.

He is the voice of Carl Fredricksen in Disney Pixar’s animated movie “Up,” which just won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film and which is considered an Oscar contender as well.

“I certainly think it deserved it,” Asner said of the Golden Globe win.

Asner’s New York City Theatre credits include “Ivanov,” “The Tempest,” “Face of a Hero,” “King Henry V” and “Born Yesterday.”

Additional television work includes his Emmy Award-winning role as Captain Davies in the mini-series “Roots.”

“I’d like everyone to know that I’m still alive. I’m in good health, thank God. Above all, I’d like the show to inspire the audience to want what we had then in terms of leadership for our country,” Asner said.

“FDR” runs about 1 hour 25 minutes including one intermission.