David Hyde Pierce will be your host

Pierce,who is best known for portraying Dr Niles Crane on the sitcom Frasier,channels a darker version of the unabashed snob in the movie.

In the new thriller The Perfect Host,actor David Hyde Pierce,held at knifepoint,delivers one of the more sublimely ridiculous movie lines in recent memory: You cant kill me. Im having a dinner party.

Pierce,who is best known for portraying Dr Niles Crane on the sitcom Frasier,channels a darker version of the unabashed snob in the movie. After a bank robber on the run interrupts a meticulously planned dinner party at his Los Angeles home,Pierces character turns the tables and becomes a host out of a nightmare. The Perfect Host presents the dinner party as tense and emotionally fraught. Offering his opinion on why Hollywood often equates dinner parties with high drama,Pierce said: Usually theres alcohol and cutlery. So youre kind of asking for it. The actor in an interview talks about The Perfect Host and his own travails in entertaining.

Did you enjoy playing Niles Crane with an edge?

It was nice because the character when you first see him is similar enough to the character I played on Frasier that theres an extra twist for people. Hes a different guy,but definitely cut from same cloth. Hes hosting a fancy dinner party and seems fairly sophisticated. The movie starts,and they think: Oh,great. We know this guy. This will be fun. The fun part is that you actually find out all that information is wrong

Is the films intent to satirise the upper-middle-class love of dinner parties?

I think theres definitely the contrast between the sophistication of the meal and the derangement of the host. That may be true of most dinner parties. That may not be satire.

Why do so many films have dinner party scenes? Are they inherently dramatic?

When you think about it,throwing a dinner party is a very theatrical act for most of us. My apartment is a mess until people are coming over for dinner,and thensuddenly. People walk in the door,and of course they think this is how you live all the time. Now maybe other people do live that way all the time. Maybe its just me. But even if its not particularly upscale,there is a little bit of presentation that goes on in any dinner party.

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Your character displays graciousness toward his guests,mixed with thinly veiled contempt when they arrive late.

Again,its that theatrical metaphor that youre sort of putting on a show. Just like if youre on stage and audience members arrive lateyes,you want a full house,but youre still annoyed they didnt show up on time. That may be the same thing for having a big dinner party as well.

What are the keys to being a good host 8211; aside from not torturing any of the guests,as your character does in the film?

A great host genuinely is at ease in the midst of a party. STEVEN KURUTZ