YouSaid · the spoken record

Jeff Daniels

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76

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2020-09-24

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2020-09-24

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1

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Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

1. “More people speak up, Comey rule, things I might do, things I might say. If it helps sway some people are going, you know what, they kind of lost me with Sarah Palin, to be honest. Yeah, remember that. Remember Sarah Palin? You got to do better. And you got to look at the country, not just a party. Get off your Republican ass and start thinking about the United States of America.”

   2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “If something I might say to someone or the Comey rule might inform them a little bit more than they were informed in October of 2016, then we will have done a good thing, despite all the hate watching. You know, that's the thing that I think back, you look back to October 2016 I don't like Hillary, so I'll vote for Trump. My taxes will get cut. That's a good thing. And he's going to have 10 guys around him that are going to stop him from doing something stupid or crazy or dangerous. So, you know, I'm good. I'm good. I'm okay with Trump. Well, those 10 guys are gone. And the Russians are coming again. And those same people that made the decision to kind of vote that way are taken a hard look at it. And I think”

   2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “What you find out when you come back to Michigan for the pandemic Is that it's not New York or LA? You've got to be careful when you start to spout off your political viewpoints because you're going to find that friend of yours for 40 years is going to vote for Trump. And then they're going to walk by and they're going to have the trump t-shirt on. And you're just going, yeah, we're a swing state. That's for sure. They're all here. And the flip side of that. And so you. Part of it, and I think the Call Me rule will at least help inform some people. I hope I can't deal with the people on the right and the people on the left are going to do what they're going to do for Biden and all of that. It's the people in the middle.”

   2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “Sure, absolutely not concerned about it. It will be. It just will be. That's the world we live in. That's the country we live in now. Neither right or you're left. There's no in-between. I'd like to think there's an in-between. I'd like to think there's 20% of the country that's still there, that there are Republicans out there who can't stand Trump, who can't stand the loss of decency and civility and respect and belief in the rule of law and things like that. I'd like to think there are Republicans or what used to be Republicans are still out there. Maybe they'll watch it and learn something and go, you know what? Maybe it's okay to vote for Biden. Get this country back at least pointed in the right direction. And maybe the Republican Party can come back as something better than it was.”

   2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “In his mind, that they were not tainted or compromised, but he was less so. And that became part of why he did what he did. It certainly wasn't a slam donk and an easy decision, that's for sure.”

   2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “And there's a flaw. Which for the actor is great, that's gold. He's not perfect. He's a human being, terrific. And with Sally, she worked for Loretta, and Loretta had been on the plane with the Clintons, and he just felt that”

   2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “And it wasn't going to be an impression. Gary Oldman and Churchill and Charlie's Thayron and Bombshell are two great examples of brilliant performances with a lot of externals, a lot of ornaments on the tree, prosthetics and hair and a cane and a cigar. There's a lot to work with there. Jim, not so much. And so I knew that we couldn't completely alter my face to look like Jim. We certainly put a hairpiece on. Billion decided soon on that we're just gonna try to show you what he's thinking. You're watching it. You've seen Jim Comey so much that you know it's not Jim Comey. So why try to pretend it is? It's Jeff, but inside Jeff is Jim Comey thinking his way through these scenes. And that was our goal, to suggest him, not to impersonate him.”

   2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “Yeah, but you have to hit delete. It helped having just done Attica's finch with the ghost of Gregory Peck hanging over me. I knew what working, at least with an icon, you know, trying to find my way in in front of an icon, living Accept it, you know that eventually someday he's going to walk up to you having seen it and he's either going to like it or he's not going to like it. That soon becomes irrelevant. You're not doing it to make Jim Comey like it. You're doing it for an audience. It's just another role. Whether he's living or dead, it's just another role. And your job is to execute that role, the good and the bad. And so it fast became not important.”

   2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “No, I was doing mockingbird all the way until November. The years run. I had emailed him in September, October said, if you're coming to New York, you know, you know where to find me. But I wasn't going to chase him. I had the book. I had the audiobook of Jim reading it. I had YouTube. Even the Colbert show, you know, you could see Jim's sense of humor. I had enough. And Billy Ray, the writer and director and I, and Billy was a great, I mean, I just leaned on Billy because he knew the subject matter and knew Jim far better than I would ever. And I just, you know, if I didn't get an invitation down to Virginia to sit at his table and watch him meet dinner, I wasn't going to impose him. I didn't need it. Going into any character, I had plenty.”

   2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “And that you can't just toss the Constitution aside or cherry pick it. You can't do the same with truth, with facts. And that was Jim. That was Jim's North Star. And when you put an apolitical public servant, which is what I discovered he was, despite the fact that he was a Republican, everything gets pushed to the side, left and right. If you're coming at me politically on this, that can affect it. That's irrelevant. Is it the rule of law? Is it right? Is it true? Is it justice? And does it protect the integrity of the FBI? Those were that he was guided by that. And I can see where people would go, yeah, but Jim, you know, and there's one character in the movie says, you know, Jim thought being right would save him.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “Oh, you want to know what the hell he was thinking? This is what he was thinking. This is what he was up against. These are the facts on if you choose this way or this way, rock and a hard place. Which one do you do? And the film lays out what he was thinking. You may not agree. You may hate him even more. I don't really care. But at least I learned a lot about what Jim was up against. He'd been accused of being self-righteous and a boy scout and his moral rectitude was bigger than yours. And you study the guy and he believes in this stuff. He believes in the rule of law. He believes it's sacred. He believes truth, justice, the department of justice, the institutions that make America not Russia. He believes in all that stuff and he believes that it is bigger than we are.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “If I did, they weren't strong enough to blame him for everything. I certainly could have been, what the hell is he doing when in October 2016 when the FBI reopened the Hillary email investigation for the 30,000 emails? The hell is he thinking? and didn't really think about it. I certainly watched him in front of the Senate, watched him be vilified, crucified by some. And then when I got the script,”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “I didn't know how to do it. I looked at it as a role. I loved the controversy. I love that he was equally hated by both sides of the aisle depending on the day of the week. That didn't bother me at all. A dramatic character. He was between a rock and a hard place several times, and that's interesting. That's just basic storytelling.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “And we don't like being told what to do by someone from supposedly because of the fact that you live on either coast, you know better. No, you don't. Well, that's what I would do. I would tell them, talk to the 20% in the middle.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “Find a way to reach them, quit telling them they're stupid, quit telling them they don't know anything. You know, they do. They know that they got to put food on the table and keep their job. And that becomes the survival, that week-to-week survival that so many in the middle of the country have to do, whether they're on a farm or in a company or wherever they are, teachers, for God's sakes, teachers. What's important to them? And then explain to them why Biden might be better than Trump, you know, or explain about decency or just, would you have Trump running your farm? Would you have him running your plumbing outfit that you have your eight employees? Would you like it if you, you know, come on, you know, just, you got to talk to them. You can't tell them to eat their asparagus and not leave the table until they do, just like you, because you know best. That's not going to cut it. Our bullshit detector.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “I would tell everybody to quit pounding people over the head. I know you're angry. I'm angry. You're outraged. So am I. This election is going to come down to, again, if they're there, the 20% in the middle, not the 40 on the left and the 40 on the right. They're gone. They're going to do what they're going to do. It's that 20% in the middle. Find a way to talk to them.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Whatever we're supposed to be based on your stereotype of what we're supposed to be for you, then great. I can't help you. All I can do is try to inform you. If you don't like my opinion, change the channel.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “I think it's okay to speak up. And knowing that I'm not trying to change your vote, I'm just trying to get you to listen to another point of view. If you don't like me because I'm a Hollywood liberal, then you don't know where I live. You know, I'm just somebody that doesn't like what's going on whenever he sees Trump on television opening his mouth. I'm tired of the lies, aren't you? I happen to be an actor, but so what? I could be a plumber, I could be running a lumber company. I'd still be railing against the fact that the guy has no sense of decency, civility, respect for anyone other than himself. I'd still be saying that whether I was an actor or a plumber or running a lumber company. But if you don't like it because I'm an actor and you're going to tie me into all the other people that are, you know.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “Yeah, I've always been torn on the value of celebrities stepping forward to tell you who to vote for in whatever election. I've never wanted, I've never given to political campaigns. I don't like the fact that money is in politics and that decisions are made based on donors and things like that. So I've always kind of held back and I think there is value in it. If you happen to be, in my case, from the state that is going to be in play come November, I can certainly see, and I've grown up in the Midwest thinking and being told that because I'm not from the coasts, I'm not as enlightened. I'm not as smart. I'm flyover, you know, all that stuff. And many of us here resent that. But then when you move back here and you're an actor who's famous and you're being asked opinions about politics,”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “I get it. Okay, I get it. It's your country, but you damn well better vote. You damn well better get your friends to vote because I think I take it. Go run, your 30s, your 40s, your 50s, you got the energy, you got the ambition. Go protest the guys that aren't doing what you want. Go run for office. Get involved. November 3rd is D-Day. I hope it happens. I have great faith that a lot of this will end up showing up at the voting booth. I think one of the things that I think people forget is the million women's march was the day after the inauguration of Trump. They're still out there, probably an even bigger numbers than ever four years later. You got to vote. You gotta vote, you gotta vote.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “In so many ways, yeah, and it all boils down to November 3rd. I mean, if you want to see progress in Black Lives Matter, then Biden needs to be the next president. I mean, it's just, that's it. If he's not... Hang on. You know, I mean, I'm worried about this country in November, December, and January, to be honest, regardless of who wins. But the first step. Is saving a democracy so that the future of this country, which is not you and me, by the way. We're two old white guys. I mean, that ship is sail”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “The black people have to be below the white guy. The white guy can't be at the bottom, not in America. And I think that speaks a lot to what is going on now, is that a lot of these people all they have to hang on to is the whiteness of their skin. And that's what they're fighting for. And that's 400 years old.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “We were prepared for anything. I was ready to come in and stand in front of the TV cameras and go, what's your problem? But It was the truth. It was like that closing argument of Kill a Mockingbird. It was a right hook to everyone sitting in those seats. We had a lot of people from Flint come down. And we're in tears. The talkbacks afterwards. Auto workers, line workers who'd lost their jobs because the car companies had moved everybody out. The jobs were gone and they were just, it was like looking at their life. And the white character was written fairly. He was a white. Know line worker who was the foreman of the black guy that he was with. It was two, it was a white couple and a black couple. And basically it boiled down to no one can be below the white guy.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “Flynn, and it was everyone thought it was going to be in movie stars slamming the Republican governor. It wasn't. It was me looking at systemic racism in the city of Flint and why the water was a catalyst for that happening to expose that, as Carol Anderson writes, white rage versus black advancement. We put that play up three years before George Floyd, you know?”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “Dream of moments like that. I had it every night for a year, and it was throwing a right hook to the chin of white America, again, which is what people like Isabel Wilkerson. Done with her bookcased. It's an awakening. And it's not just George Floyd. We got a lot of people that are George Floyd and they're all socially woke. And that's terrific. Welcome. Glad you're here. Where were you with Trayvon Martin? Where were you when Dylan Roof shot up the black church? Where were you with Charlottesville? Where were you with Michael Brown and Ferguson, Missouri? After Michael Brown was shot, I wrote a play called Flint in our Little White Town, White Theater Company.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “Those ideals and even take some of his beliefs that there's goodness in everyone, even Bob Ewell. And Aaron goes not so much. I'm afraid that's not true, Atticus. And we had to send Atticus through that chamber of horrors all the way to a closing argument, where you stand on the stage at the Schubert Theater. In front of 14 predominantly white faces. And they don't move. There was something different about the play than the book than the movie. You watch the movie, you read the book, you feel the play. And I would stand there eight times a week for a year. And lay into that and turn to the audience in the last third of that closing argument and lay into them like they were the jury. Shame on you for letting this happen. I mean, but in Aaron's words. They didn't move. You could feel the stillness. You could feel the silence. Actors.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “Atticus was the guy on his porch, and Bob Ewell would walk by and go, I wanted to know what Atticus saw on his porch in 1934, Alabama as a small town lawyer raising kids. That's all I wanted to know. That was page one for me and Aaron. And Bob Ewell will walk by and said, you come into the lynching Thursday? We got a couple of them. Missed the one last Tuesday. We ain't seeing you there, Atticus. You might want to step around behind the supermarket on Thursday. Do what you're going to do, Bob. Atticus would never go. He was like those people in the middle today. I'm not involved. I'm not going to Aaron's play, we see Atticus become Atticus. We see him.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Who was in charge of land service agreements, foreclosures, just basic lawyering, trying to raise two kids without a mother with the help of Calpurnia? That's who he was. That's all he was. He stayed on his porch. He didn't get involved. And as I did the research on Jim Crow South and the devastation of that and the horridness of that. And if you really want to read about it, Isabel Wilkerson's caste lays it out even better.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “Yeah, played by Celia Keenan Bulger was in her late 20s looking back at what happened when she was eight. And so she could look back. And that allowed Aaron to take the point of view away from an eight-year-old girl. It's now a 28-year-old girl. But an eight-year-old girl looking up at Gregory Peck like he's on Mount Rushmore from the first minute of the film on. And the book's the same way. And that's fine. That's the point of view. And the one who changes in that story is Scout. She loses her innocence. The play Aaron Atticus Finch, a small town lawyer.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “The idealism that Sarkin clings to, it's the hope, it's the optimism, it's the belief in the rule of law and institutions and that the Constitution matters and we can't futs with that, all of that, all of that at a time when truth isn't truth, according to Giuliani, that there are alternative facts according to Kelly Ann Conway. And don't believe what you see and hear from Trump. I mean, here we are. Everybody go back and read George Orwell. We're there. Aaron was calling us on him. He's not the only one.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “I slid into him, but I was one of those people who later, after they had seen the show, came to me and said, you know, I saw it and I saw that Northwestern speech. And it's how I feel and it's how I think, but I couldn't have said it better. He articulated what I'm feeling so much better than I could have said it. I felt like one of those people when I got to say those words.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “And you go, no, we aren't the greatest country in the world. Maybe if we deal with systemic racism, maybe then we can call ourselves that, but I'm sure there'll be a few other things. But no, we're far from it. Aaron was on to something even back then.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “Yeah, we're real good at telling everybody how great we are. We're real good at that. I think he was on to something then. I think he's more on to something now with that speech. The best part of the speech is the second half where Will McAvoy says, we aren't the greatest country in the world for the reasons I've just said. And you can argue those if you want. I'm more concerned about the fact that we could be the greatest country in the world. Here's how we do that. We stop belittling education. We start treating people who don't look like us with respect on and on and on and on and on and on. He is completely on point even back then so that you get to know the fall of 2020.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “Yeah, it was not in the original script. It was just something they referred to with the first five pages that Will had done. And Aaron determined near the shooting of that episode, we need to see what happened. So he wrote that speech about two weeks before we shot it. And I went over it and over and over it because it was not a simple learn. And I was able to get on top of it, which is what you want. And on Broadway, I say it takes 100 performances to get on top of the script so that you can dance on top of it and not lose your way or forget a line. A hundred performances. And so that's what you're trying to do with the reps to learn it and learn it and learn it and learn it before the one day you get to do it.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “So that was great. And then it was, I had such respect for him as a writer, having written myself, it allowed me to understand better what he was trying to say and how he was trying to say it in a way that didn't look like formula or didn't smell like writing, you know. My job was to get on top of that and know what he was trying to do and roll it word for word the way he had written no improvs. Don't add a word don't subtract a word. That's the rule going in, which is the theater. That's what we did with Lanford. No big deal. So that was the rule. And I said, on it, you memorize Aaron Sorkin word for word. As a friend of mine said, he said, who had worked with him, he said, wait till you see what you get to say. And that northwestern speech.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “Told a story about sometime when I'd gotten anger at somebody and slammed the table and the eggs and the orange juice bounced and people turned their heads at the four seasons restaurant going and going, okay, all right, okay, got it. Talk about the co star. I said, well, you know, I'd love to do it. No, no, no, you got it.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “And that's a whole different thing than some script that's been cobbled together by four screenwriters and a junior executive with notes. It's a whole different deal. It's the singular voice of one writer. So they came and we were trying to do something on television with another network and it didn't work out. And so I just, they said, well, there's this thing at HBL called Newsroom Aaron Sorkin, Scott Rude, and I said, how do I get it? And I had to go meet him at a hotel in New York, which I did, and Scott was there. And the only question was whether I could get angry enough. He'd never seen me angry. He had seen God a carnage, which is a play I'd done on Broadway with Jim Gandalfini and Marshaarden and Hope Davis. But I, you know, and I got angry in that a little bit, but not like McAvoy needed to get angry. And so I was kind of tipped to that. And so I went to the breakfast meeting.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “They're all three in that room when you're watching that scene. And I like that. So when you watch a West Wing or you get the newsroom script, you know that you're going to be riding a horse called Aaron Sorkin. But you're going to be on a horse. You're going to be on secretariat. So hang on.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “Yeah, I had been a fan of Aaron since Westwing. I told him, I said, I watched West Wing to watch the writing. And again, coming from Lanford Wilson, I want to know that it's been written. I don't want to see a bunch of actors improv. I love when it's written. In New York, I would watch Preston Sturgis movies, knowing that Preston Sturgis. Had had his hands on every word of it. Same thing with Sorkin. And one of his guys is Patty Chaevsky, a network. You see William Holden in the room with Faye Dunaway, and there's a third person there, and it's Patty Chaevsky.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “Well, yeah, sometimes we've had some people go on, Matt and Brian Lesher, a couple guys that are doing well out in LA, really well as writers and actors. We've had other people come through the apprentice program and go on to be artistic directors of local theater companies, you know, whatever they learned from us. They took with them. But that's kind of, we've had people go to New York after being with us and not make it, not have it, not be able to withstand the rejection and the... It was seven years before I got terms of endearment. Seven years is a long time in New York City. Certainly before the pandemic with the rents and everything It's tough. I mean, I lived in one room in 23rd Street and 7th, and my rent went from 225 a month to 250, so I had to move to Staten Island because I couldn't afford”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “Turn them from amateurs into professionals based on the things people like Merrill Street taught me. I'm going to teach them to you. And if that 21-year-old kid is in that room, he or she is going to get more than I ever did. There's the give back. And then in the process, it became, well, maybe I could write plays too, because I'd love to do what Lanford does. And I could write funny. So I started leading with comedies. And then after 30 years and 18 plays, I'm a playwright of sorts. So the personal side was that the other side was let's give back to that kid I used to be.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “I had been in Michigan for about three years, was creatively bored. I was playing a lot of golf, a little bit of guitar, but basically that whole energy you get on a movie set or in the theater, all that creativity that's going around, I missed it. And also, I used to be a 21-year-old kid walking around that town with some talent and not a clue as to what to do with it or how to refine it. So initially it was, let me build, let me buy a building in town Let me see what's out there. Who's out there? Doesn't matter, everybody. Come on in. I need all the actors and playwrights and directors. And there weren't that many. And I had to take this rag.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “Take two, take three, take four. Jack doesn't quite know it. He's working on the lines. He can't remember that, or now it gets it, now he doesn't. Five takes. And it's like seeing Jack Nicholson bad or not on top of it yet. Take six. There it is. Take seven. There it is. And something eight, nine, ten, six to ten. were, wow. And Jim Brooks turned to me and said, which one do I use? And it was just such a lesson in rehearsing on film and using instincts and impulses in front of the camera. That I just said, that's what's different than the stage. In the stage, we would have rehearsed that scene for six weeks, done 45 previews, and then brought in the cameras.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “I walked away going, I just learned a master class in film acting. Nicholson, when I watched Nicholson, Jim Brooks let me come in and see the dailies for Jack. He wouldn't let me see mine, which was a great, that's fine, no problem. Still haven't looked at dailies. Watch Jack Nicholson and Shirley McLean do the scene in the kitchen where Jack talks about being one of six astronauts.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “Merrill Best moment to moment actor we've got. When you're in a scene with her, This happened in the hours. That thing you planned to do on the third line or you take the book and you toss it off and you look at it and then you come back to her and then she's waiting for you. As if, are you done doing that Because a man froze. Every take was a little bit different. She would match, she would pick up the glasses when she was supposed to pick up the glasses so it would cut in editing. But every one of those takes had a little different spin on it. It was a curveball instead of a slider. Now it's a fastball. And you had to listen and react.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “So I just didn't want that. And if the career went away, I gave it my best shot. Now I can work at the lumber company and I'll be happy. I'll be okay. But it kept going. And now I think also it was trying to, whatever I had as a kid, that natural ability I don't want to lose that. I don't want to go somewhere and become someone else. I want to hang on to whoever that person is that had that, that still has that Just add on all that technique and experience and wisdom that you've learned from people who were better than you on top of that. And it seemed to me that getting away from it, getting out of LA or away from New York would help me hang on to that. And I think it's worked.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “That's how quick it can happen. So I just said, let's go back home. Our families are there, and I'll just be the guy that goes everywhere. You guys stay in one place. Let's raise the kids like we were raised. We understand how to do that. We can afford to do that. And that's what we did. But I think it was also, I didn't want to be a star. I had no interest in that. I just wanted to be a good actor between action and cut. I don't want anything else. I didn't care about any of that. I just didn't care. It was all false to me. And a lot of that comes from Circle Rep and Marshall and Lanford. Lanford was famous, at least for me, for saying you're going to do movies? Movies are Bupkis. I mean, he just... And so, as a young 20 something that sticks with you.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “And I also was fatalistic about the career. I just didn't think it would last. And so when it's over, when you get the call that the agent's going, and I've heard my agent said this once about another actor, I said, you know, we were casting something. I said, what about so-and-so? And he goes, no, no, he's over. And you went, oh,”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “At the time it was 1986, it had been 10 years in New York City. We had a one bedroom apartment on 82nd in Columbus. All you heard were the horror stories about Schools, and you got to get them into a private school, and it's going to cost a lot of money. And we had a two year old boy, and we wanted to have a couple more kids. And we had been coming back to Michigan for the summers in between movies or whatever, and May to August turned into April to October pretty quickly. And we just said, you know, we can be here if we want. Well, there's an airport in Detroit.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “I knew her in high school. Yeah, I played basketball with her brothers. I didn't hook up with her till I was in New York. But yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Kathleen and I were in school together. She's four years younger and we were in some of those musicals together. She was in the chorus. I was, you know, Cornelius Hackle and Hello Dolly. I knew of her, but it wasn't until a couple of years in New York that I went back home and there she was. Fell in love.”

    2020-09-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 406 — Jeff Daniels · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source