NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - The Drink with Kate Snow: Jeff Daniels

Episode Date: November 21, 2021

Jeff Daniels discusses how he defied his agents by starring in Dumb & Dumber opposite Jim Carrey. Jeff credits his tendency to risk failure as the driving force in his career. Jeff is now back on Broadway as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and starring in the Showtime series, American Rust. 

Hi everyone, this is Kate Snow. I'm so happy to share with you a conversation that I had with actor Jeff Daniels as part of my series The Drink. Jeff is of course known for so many iconic roles from Will McAvoy in The Newsroom to Harry Dunn in Dumb and Dumber. But did you know that his own agents tried to stop him from filming Dumb and Dumber? Really? Jeff says risking failure has always been a driving force throughout his career. He's now back on Broadway as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, also starring in the Showtime series American Rust. You can hear many more stories of success from top artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. You can find it all at NBCNews.com slash The Drink. Where does acting come in?

At what point did you go, maybe I want to do that? It's only recently that I've gone, I think I'm actually going to be an actor. We have a drink for you. Oh, my God. Look at this. Oh, wow. You asked for a cappuccino, right? Zoom, zoom.

There we go. There we go. I am so excited because this is the first drink in person that I've done in a year and a half. So cheers to that. Cheers to that, yeah. All right, so the drink is always about how you got to where you are. You're on Broadway again with To Kill a Mockingbird. You've got a show on Showtime right now, American Rust.

How did you become Jeff Daniels? It took 45 years. I never felt that I had kind of reached a plateau that I wanted to get to until Newsroom. That was, I'm going to say say 55, 56, something like that. I'm 66 now. And that's not how they draw it up in Starz school. It's not supposed to take that long. You're supposed to peak at about 35.

Right, right. And then go down. Yes. You haven't done that. And then it's plastic surgery so that you can still look like you did when you were in those action movies. And none of us believe you because it's all, you know. You don't look like you did when you're in those action movies. That's right. You don't look like you've done all that.

You don't look like you've done all that. No, no. I'm from the De Niro school. This is what I look like at 66. I hope it's good enough. If it's not, then at least I look real. So anyway, they put everything on me in newsroom. And I remember doing the Northwestern speech in that first episode. And they want to see if they've got a Will McAvoy and if they have a show.

I knew all of that was on the table. There is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. I remember this. And to succeed in moments like that, are you big enough for the moment? Can you hit the home run? Can you be in the zone to do zone? Can you get the hit in the ninth inning or not? I knew I had to hit it. And so you have to work three times harder than any other actor would have worked on that. You have to outwork everyone. That's what you've done your whole career. Yeah. And Newsroom

taught me that. You know, a lot of actors do, but a lot of actors go, I just don't quite know it yet. Uh-uh, you have to know it backwards, and that's work. You can be good, and you can settle for good, but if you want to be great, you have to outwork all those people who are okay with just being good. I want to go back in time a little bit, because you mentioned you're from Michigan. Please have some cappuccino. You're from Michigan. Everybody knows that. It's a big part of the show, the actual drinking.

Yes, it is. that's why it's called the drink um you're from michigan you grew up in michigan where does acting come in at what point did you go maybe i want to do that it's only recently that i've going i think i'm actually going to be an actor really it was always always something that you should do. You're really good at this. Who said that? First, it was a sixth grade choir teacher who, to kill a Friday afternoon, instead of singing whatever, let's just do skits. And she goes, Jeff, you're a politician who's giving a speech and your pants are falling down.

Go ahead. You know, I'm a sixth grader. Apparently, I turned it into five minutes. The class was cracking up. And the teacher said... She went to my parents, and she said, watch this one. There's something going on. And then she later did high school musicals.

Yeah. And as soon as I came through, she goes, Jeff! I go, oh, get in here. South Pacific auditions. And I kept succeeding enough to go to the next step. It almost sounds like you've always been waiting for someone to say you're not good enough. Sure. It's the business. Yeah. It's the business. You know, I remember talking to my agent going, what about such and such an actor? He might be good, but no, no, no, he's over.

I'm sorry. He's over. I mean, you could be over on Tuesday and just no one told you. That's one of the reasons that we moved back to Michigan was, well, when it's over, we'll already be home. I mean, it's that Midwestern thing of, I'll decide what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it. So you moved back to Michigan. You must've been what, in your 20s? Cappuccino's kicking in, by the way. Is it kicking in? Okay in okay good get your energy up that was a little bit dumb and dumber right there was it a little yeah how many people told you not to do the movie dumb and dumber the night before i flew out to actually get into wardrobe and stuff uh three agents got on the phone and said we're gonna stop this you're not gonna

do this movie you're a serious actor and that's the path we have you on I'm going well it's not going so well and I want to work with Jim Carrey and I can do comedy with all due respect Jeff he's gonna blow you off the screen these are your agents yeah and and they weren't you know weren't wrong. They were trying to protect me and they didn't know. But I did. I knew that I could bounce off Jim. Let Jim Carrey be Jim. Let him lead. He's going to do it anyway. And you want Jim Carrey to be Jim Carrey. And then, but let him jerk your leash. So you're on a half second delay. You're the follower. And so when Lloyd goes, Harry, you know, it's that half second. But I knew that, I said, thanks for the support, but I'm going to gamble. I'm going

to go. And it was a great career move and a great chance to work with a comedic genius, I might add. When I looked back at all your films, you've been all over the place. You've tried things. Are you trying things to push yourself? Are you trying? You're trying to fail. You're risking failure. You've got to risk something to get to the next level.

And whether it's walking out on particular Mockingbird with the ghost of Gregory Peck and taking that on. Standing next to a comedic genius like jim carrey gotta risk something now you're you're back on Broadway. You had this weird COVID shutdown, and now you're back doing it again. What did all of that feel like, shutting down and then coming back? Well, the pandemic thing, I turned 65 during the pandemic. It was like retirement, except there's no gold watch. They literally pull the plug and they go, thanks for coming. What a career. It's great. You're done. Did you think you would never come back? I was getting used to being retired. I kind

of loved being, you know, I mean, dodging sickness and the tragedy that the COVID thing. And you have your family close by. We were all bubbled up. So I kind of said, I could get get used to this so why'd you come back it's the role of a lifetime you're putting a lot of people back to work the country's different which means and it's true the audience is in a different place they're not coming in to see the beloved book with the happy ending for white people they They're very aware of January 6th, they're very aware of racism, they're very aware of white blindness, white privilege, all of that, in a way that they weren't before when we did it. And you can feel it. I still love the closing argument of Atticus Finch, standing on the front of the Schubert Theater stage, the Carnegie Hall of Broadway, and just going, I get to do this again. I get to talk to this audience

in a way that only Atticus Finch could, and they don't move. That doesn't happen in careers very often. American Rust is on Showtime. It's a remarkable show for you. What is this piece in your journey? This is when you know you've made it, in my opinion. Is it money? Is it fame? It's when your agent says, well, we could do this, we could do that, we could do that. What do you want to do? It was the first time I'd ever heard that. And I said, let's look at American Rush. Can we do a lightning round just real fast? Weirdest thing about you? Weirdest thing about me is that I,

weirdest thing about me, weirdest, the weirdest thing about me, I hate peanuts, but I love peanut butter. You've been married more than 40 years. Sounds right. What's the secret? Understanding that mansplaining is an actual disease and that the best treatment for it is to not speak

and to know that you're probably wrong, you just don't know it yet. Once you understand that concept, life gets a lot more enjoyable. I'm going to show that clip to my husband. I'm just telling you, it's a real... And she starts to cut me off and I'm going to show that clip to my husband. I'm just telling you, it's a real... She starts to cut me off and I'm like, I really just thought I was two sentences in. But she could see the novel

that was coming. Worst advice you ever got? Don't do Dumb and Dumber. Best advice you ever got? Best advice I ever got? My dad. Invest in yourself. Jeff Daniels, thank you so much. Thank you, Kate. It's been a pleasure to talk to you.