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Fred Savage: Child star-turned-director returns to acting in ‘The Grinder’

He looks almost as boyish as when he played Kevin Arnold on “The Wonder Years,” but Fred Savage is now 39, a married father of three, and three decades into a TV and movie career that has kept him steadily employed as an actor and director.
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October 7, 2015

He looks almost as boyish as when he played Kevin Arnold on “The Wonder Years,” but Fred Savage is now 39, a married father of three, and three decades into a TV and movie career that has kept him steadily employed as an actor and director. Working mostly behind the scenes in the last 10 years, directing series such as “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Modern Family” and “2 Broke Girls” while doing animation voiceovers, Savage unexpectedly finds himself back in front of the camera this season in Fox’s comedy “The Grinder.” 

Sent the script by executive producer and friend Nick Stoller, Savage was surprised to learn he wasn’t wanted as a director. The job: playing attorney Stewart Sanderson, whose older brother, Dean (Rob Lowe), returns home to Idaho and thinks he can join the family law firm without passing the bar just because he’s played a legal eagle on TV. Dean’s faux expertise proves to be invaluable, much to Stewart’s bewildered exasperation.

“Stewart feels like he’s the only sane person in a world that’s gone mad,” Savage said of the character, who he describes as a good attorney, but who has always lived in his flashier brother’s shadow. “I don’t see the Dean-Stewart relationship as sibling rivalry. They want what’s best for one another. They’re not out to compete with each other at all. But they each see something that they envy in each other. They need to learn to appreciate the things that they have and value the things they see in each other.”

Savage wasn’t planning to go back to acting and didn’t think he missed it. “But once I started working with Rob and the cast on the pilot, I really enjoyed it. Once I found my sea legs, I realized there was a part of me that did miss it,” he said. 

Although he has put directing on hold and won’t direct any “Grinder” episodes, at least for a while, in order to “focus on and enjoy the experience” of being on camera, he does intend to return to it. “Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a director. Achieving that meant the world to me, and I very much want to keep that going,” he said. 

Born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, Savage attended the Brentwood School and went on to earn a B.A. from Stanford in 1999. His youth was drama-free, at least off screen. “I was in a normal school. I had regular friends who are still my close friends today. I was able to have a lot of normal childhood experiences, and on top of that I got to do this whole other [acting] thing that was so fantastic,” he said.

Savage grew up in a home where education, family, Jewish culture and tradition were “an incredibly important part of my upbringing and contributes to who I am today,” he said. “I was bar mitzvah and have wonderful memories from that. We observed all the major holidays. My mom always made a fantastic break-the-fast.” 

He and his wife, Jennifer, childhood sweethearts who married in 2004, are the parents of Oliver, 9, Lily, 7, and Auggie, nearly 3. They recently joined a Los Angeles-area synagogue to begin their children’s Jewish education. “It was important to us to raise our kids with a strong Jewish identity and send them to Hebrew school,” he said. 

Not surprisingly, the two older Savage children are regular set visitors and are showing an interest in show business. “My son loves comedy — he’s funny and loves to make people laugh. My daughter is a natural performer. She loves dancing and singing, and her personality is so gregarious,” he said. Having had positive experiences as a child actor and no regrets about starting so young, “I feel that if they were interested, I would absolutely support them. I would feel very comfortable. It’s something I know about.” 

Savage’s younger siblings, Ben and Kala, followed him into acting; Ben starred in “Boy Meets World” as a teenager and now plays the same character in the follow-up series, “Girl Meets World,” as an adult. According to Fred, who has directed his brother several times, they have never been competitive. “We have been good at carving our own paths and it’s worked out well. Ben does the things that he loves and appeal to him, and I do the same. We support each other and cheer each other on.”

Savage said he is still often recognized from “The Wonder Years,” which launched his career and earned him two Emmy nominations, and he remembers those days fondly. “I feel good that I’ve had a lot of exciting opportunities that have come along. I can look back and feel good about everything. Some projects maybe didn’t turn out so well or seem to be missteps, but they all led me to here, and I feel great about where I am,” he said. “I feel most proud that I’ve been able to sustain a career in this business for as long as I have.” 

The goals he sets for the future “are less for me and more for my family,” Savage said. “I want my kids to be happy and healthy and go to school and have friends and go to college, fall in love and have families of their own. It’s all about them — anything I do professionally will help me help them be happy.”

“The Grinder” airs at 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays on Fox.

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