“The thing about getting older is you know more, and you’ve seen more. Unlike athletes, whose bodies slow down— for actors it’s an accumulation. You come out of every show you do, hopefully, a better actor. You applied everything that you’ve ever learned, whether you consciously know it or not, into this scene. And especially if the writing’s good. If the writing is good, you have to be able to call that up and use it to now take you into a place you’ve never been before.”
-Jeff Daniels, episode 366 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Actor Jeff Daniels is always writing. Plays, songs, a script or two. Even in interviews you get the sense the Michigan native is trying to relay the stories of his life in a way he’d find compelling as a reader, or listener. Bystander — as a viewer.
He joins us this week around the latest chapter of his crime series American Rust (12:30), reprising his role as Police Chief Del Harris. It’s a performance inspired by his midwestern upbringing in Chelsea, Michigan (16:06) and the formative teachings of theater director Marshall W. Mason (21:20). Then, Daniels reflects on his arrival to New York City in 1976 (24:06), performing in Lanford Wilson’s play Fifth of July (27:20), and his early on-screen roles in Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild (31:10), Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo (34:20), and Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale (44:20).
On the back-half, we walk through his years making The Newsroom (51:48), working with screenwriter (and then playwright) Aaron Sorkin (53:20), and how the two of them reimagined Atticus Finch and To Kill a Mockingbird for both Broadway (59:49) and what he calls “a country at a crossroads” (1:05:33). To close, we sit with the utility of good writing in this fraught era (1:10:30), and a musical tribute to his late father, Robert (1:15:32).
For questions, comments, or to join our mailing list, reach me at sf@talkeasypod.com.
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Show-notes:
- Watch the latest chapter of American Rust: Broken Justice on Prime Video.
- Stream his new series A Man in Full on Netflix May 2nd.
- Listen to Jeff’s audio memoir Alive and Well Enough on Audible.
- See his film work in Terms of Endearment, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Something Wild, Dumb and Dumber, Speed, and The Squid and the Whale.
- See his TV work in The Newsroom, Godless, The Looming Tower, and The Comey Rule.
- Learn about Jeff’s Purple Rose Theatre Company.
- Hear him perform his song Grandfather’s Hat.
- For more talks, hear our conversations with Michelle Williams, Oscar Isaac, Sam Waterston, Alison Pill, Dev Patel, and Tom Hanks.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi.
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