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Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.

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Speaker 1: Jeff Daniels is a genius of many genres, from a

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Speaker 1: selfish intellectual in terms of Endearment to Dumb and Dumber's

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Speaker 1: big hearted, small brained pet groomer Harry Dunn. Daniels has

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Speaker 1: had one of the most varied careers in Hollywood, or

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Speaker 1: in Central Michigan for that matter. He grew up in

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Speaker 1: rural Washingtonaw County, raised to take over the family would business.

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Speaker 1: His life changed when he was spotted in a summer

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Speaker 1: program by Marshall Mason of New York's Trailblazing Circle Repertory

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Speaker 1: Theater Company. Plucked from a life in lumber, he never

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Speaker 1: waited tables. Jeff Daniels was a working actor from the start,

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Speaker 1: even if it meant a few years of doing commercials

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Speaker 1: mashed potatoes. That's unusual, so I tried tater tots. Daniels

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Speaker 1: has always balanced stage and screen. He took on the

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Speaker 1: lead role in A. R. Gurney's The Golden Age on

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Speaker 1: Broadway the year after his Hollywood breakthrough. In James Brook's

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Speaker 1: Terms of Endearment, He's back on stage now. In his

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Speaker 1: brilliant reimagining of Atticas Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird,

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Speaker 1: for which he's been nominated for a Tony Broadways schedule

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Speaker 1: is brutal, and Daniels has been fighting a cold, but

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Speaker 1: he is firmly in the school of the show must

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Speaker 1: go on. When you're above the title, there's a responsibility

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Speaker 1: and an obligation with that. And especially with Atticus Finch

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Speaker 1: and mocking Bird, there are people who have bought tickets

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Speaker 1: three months ago, and I know the choy. I know,

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Speaker 1: I know what they do. I mean, if you're the

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Speaker 1: star of it and you can't be a hundred percent

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Speaker 1: and there might be Tony voters out there, you bag

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Speaker 1: it and you just let everybody know. And you just

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Speaker 1: got I'm not going to go out there less than

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Speaker 1: my best. And I've gone out there and I you know,

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Speaker 1: and this is this vocal thing. It was a mucous thing.

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Speaker 1: It was two weeks long, and there were there were shows.

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Speaker 1: I sounded like Bill Clinton in a close up. I

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Speaker 1: did the whole closing argument in a close up, and

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Speaker 1: and and I found a way to make it work

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Speaker 1: for them, and they forgive you. They can see that

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Speaker 1: you're struggling most of them go he went on versus

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Speaker 1: the understudy, which which is bad for the understudy. But

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Speaker 1: I've said the only way I'm not going on is

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Speaker 1: if I'm bleeding out. Well, first of all, thank you

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Speaker 1: for doing this on your one day off. Hardly heavy lifting.

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Speaker 1: But but as every call on that one day off

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Speaker 1: either you had ninety things to do or you did nothing.

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Speaker 1: You ran about a million guys have come to absolutely nothing. Nothing.

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Speaker 1: But what I'm what I want to begin by asking,

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Speaker 1: was what was the genesis of you in the play?

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Speaker 1: How did that start? In terms of you playing this part.

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Speaker 1: I had done news Room with Aaron Sarkin. I had

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Speaker 1: done the Jobs movie with and and it was similar

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Speaker 1: with then the news certain thing was a meeting with

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Speaker 1: Scott Rowden and Aaron, and by the end of the

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Speaker 1: breakfast meeting I had it. Um Jobs was Aaron turning

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Speaker 1: me and turning to me in the third season in

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Speaker 1: the Newsroom and going, look, I'm doing jobs. Do you

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Speaker 1: want to play John Scully? Sure you know, send of

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Speaker 1: the script when it's ready, But I was already you

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Speaker 1: know it with Aaron, I'm at It's the same thing

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Speaker 1: with Mockingbird. We were doing press for Jobs and uh.

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Speaker 1: Aaron and I were both there, and he just turned

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Speaker 1: to me and he said, Scott Bruden is finally after

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Speaker 1: years gotten the rights, and um, would you like to

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Speaker 1: play at it? His finch on Broadway? I should read

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Speaker 1: the book, was my response. But inside I was going,

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Speaker 1: what just happened? And how hard did you have to

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Speaker 1: think about that? I didn't blink. I'm too old to

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Speaker 1: worry about it. And and I and I've said, you know,

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Speaker 1: the last five years, ten years, maybe it's I'm not challenged,

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Speaker 1: then good night. I'm done, especially in the theater anywhere anywhere.

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Speaker 1: That's why I think Netflix and Amazon and Hulu and

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Speaker 1: all these were all the writers are going, Oh thank god.

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Speaker 1: Otherwise I'd be out. I'd be out. And so this

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Speaker 1: was immediately I knew it was a great challenge, and

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Speaker 1: it was Broadway, and it was Aaron back to Broadway

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Speaker 1: and Scott Ruden's world class producer. And I said, I'm in.

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Speaker 1: I'll figure out how to do it from now on.

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Speaker 1: And Gregory Peck and and everything that he accomplished with

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Speaker 1: the role, not only you know, the Oscar and all

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Speaker 1: of that, but also in people's mind hearts and minds.

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Speaker 1: I was ready to just take that on and figured

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Speaker 1: out a way to do it now. Sorkin, who I've

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Speaker 1: I did this movie Malice years ago that he wrote

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Speaker 1: in the early stages of his career when he was

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Speaker 1: doing a lot of writing for Castle Rock and uh,

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Speaker 1: and I was going to do another project that he

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Speaker 1: was involved with recently that fell apart. A few Good

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Speaker 1: Men live on TV for NBC everyone do it Live,

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Speaker 1: but that didn't happen. But I mean, he's known as

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Speaker 1: somebody who's very you know, very demanding. You know, he

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Speaker 1: likes everything. His way was Newsroom. The first time you

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Speaker 1: worked with him, met him at the meeting, and you know,

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Speaker 1: first day on the set was a day one. What

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Speaker 1: do you think someone like Sorkin, who, let's assume he

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Speaker 1: could pretty much have anybody he wants. What do you

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Speaker 1: the key season you? What does he wanted you for

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Speaker 1: these parts that you've played for him? You know, I

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Speaker 1: live in the Midwest, your knee deep in decency and

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Speaker 1: honesty and respect for other people and all that kind

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Speaker 1: of repressed kind of Protestant and um, yeah, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: maybe that that permeates me. I don't know what it

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Speaker 1: was about news Room. They did ask he and Scott asked.

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Speaker 1: He said, I've never seen you angry. So I told

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Speaker 1: a story where I ended up getting angry and I

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Speaker 1: banged the table in the four seasons, you know, breakfast

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Speaker 1: and people turned in look, and I had the part.

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Speaker 1: I also can handle his dialogue. So there's the whole

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Speaker 1: technical aspect of that. Was Sorking in the room during

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Speaker 1: the rehearsals much? Uh, yeah he was, he was around.

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Speaker 1: It's painful for the playwright. Um, but he deferred to

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Speaker 1: the director. Oh yeah, he had and he would they

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Speaker 1: would bring him in and uh. There were no sessions

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Speaker 1: with Scott Routen and bart Shire and Aaron. I think

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Speaker 1: every Saturday morning or Saturday mornings when I mean I

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Speaker 1: love to have been at with a documentary camera. Oh my, Scott,

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Speaker 1: eight in the morning. Yeah, there were there were, and

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Speaker 1: you we got rewrites November one, first preview, previews, December

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Speaker 1: opening and we had rewrites, Um, lots and lots of rewrites, restagings.

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Speaker 1: It was November was a tough month. Did you do

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Speaker 1: a lot of research did you feel you had to

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Speaker 1: do a lot of re search to play the partner? Now? Um,

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Speaker 1: I I read the book and then I read the

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Speaker 1: book again and highlighted the Atticus stuff and then put

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Speaker 1: it down and never looked at it again. And for

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Speaker 1: people who don't know, who haven't read the book, how

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Speaker 1: different is the book from the film? Um? She goes

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Speaker 1: all over the place in the book, and the film

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Speaker 1: is a lot more streamlined. Um, it's told. The movie

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Speaker 1: is told from the kid's point of view, looking up

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Speaker 1: at Atticus, the great white Savior, the white protagonist in

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Speaker 1: the civil rights movie. Yeah, you know, that was one

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Speaker 1: of the things that Aaron talked about. In the movie.

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Speaker 1: He loses the case to Tom Robinson and then as

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Speaker 1: he's packing up his briefcase, he goes out and the

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Speaker 1: colored pastor stands up and tells everyone to stand up.

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Speaker 1: Your father's passing. And you know, growing up, Aaron and said, oh,

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Speaker 1: what a what a scene, What a scene, what a scene.

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Speaker 1: But today, no, no, they wouldn't. Thanks for all for

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Speaker 1: trying really hard. And he's going to go to the

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Speaker 1: electric chair now. But thank you, thanks for trying. You're

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Speaker 1: one of the good whites. I wouldn't cut it. So

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Speaker 1: that's something you didn't miss. You everybody was of one mind.

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Speaker 1: Why were the play changes dramatically from the book and

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Speaker 1: the movie. I just was thinking before you got here,

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Speaker 1: we're trying to think of one of the things in

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Speaker 1: the movie that are not in the play. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: that's one of them. And then we go on what

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Speaker 1: would basically be the act three of a play, and

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Speaker 1: in in a lot of different directions, we take at it.

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Speaker 1: We basically slap Atticus around until he realizes that maybe

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Speaker 1: there isn't goodness in everyone, right. You know they say

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Speaker 1: the N word a lot in this play. I mean

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Speaker 1: they lay it out. Was there a lot of discussion

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Speaker 1: about that or no? Um? Not really? Uh, I mean

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Speaker 1: sure it was. There was some sensitivity training, you know,

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Speaker 1: in early rehearsals. But basically it's actors and this is

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Speaker 1: what may all. That's how she refers to him, is

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Speaker 1: how bob you over for is how the shaff hectit

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Speaker 1: refers to. It's common. So you know, as actors you

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Speaker 1: kind of slide into that, you know, and and when

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Speaker 1: you know, when you're on stage doing it, that's when

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Speaker 1: it's used. And that's the only time it's used. When

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Speaker 1: I did street Car, we said, you know, I'll begin

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Speaker 1: to do the play or we gonna do a revisionist version.

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Speaker 1: Of the play because I'm gonna smack my wife across

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Speaker 1: the face and within five minutes she's back in bed

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Speaker 1: with me. What are we gonna do? I'm gonna do that.

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Speaker 1: You know, we're not easy to play that. Now, we

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Speaker 1: get that too, We get we get a reaction from

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Speaker 1: from the audience today when certain parts of the play are,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of thrown out there, and it's it's

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Speaker 1: normal for four Alabama, but you can hear the reaction

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Speaker 1: a little bit sometimes. So if we are going to

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Speaker 1: go back in time a little bit, how come we

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Speaker 1: didn't take over the lumber company? What happened? It involved

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Speaker 1: caring about wood in a way that I wasn't capable of.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't wired that way, and god knows, my dad

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Speaker 1: tried for four summers. I drove truck in the yard.

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Speaker 1: Get there seven thirty in the morning, go till five thirty.

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Speaker 1: You're taken sixteen foot pieces of dry wall upstairs around corners,

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Speaker 1: and when they snap, you have to take it back

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Speaker 1: on the truck. You're driving around corners with two cement

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Speaker 1: block on the back of a flatbed. You're listening to

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Speaker 1: the Almond Brothers on your little am FM. You know,

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Speaker 1: seventies action version of a boom box. And you go

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Speaker 1: around and you see out of the side mirror two

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Speaker 1: hundred cement blocks rolling on a guy's lawn that you

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Speaker 1: had just taken the corner a little too hot. I

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Speaker 1: just didn't care. I just couldn't care. He put me

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Speaker 1: in algebra, he putting me in trigonometry. I would study

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Speaker 1: with him, we'd pull a d It's just what about

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Speaker 1: your brother? What's he like? What does he do? Your brother?

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Speaker 1: He runs them, He runs them, and he got quite well. Thanks.

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Speaker 1: He's more of a kind of a gambler. He's kind

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Speaker 1: of he understands money bar better than I do. Uh

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Speaker 1: And and it should be his, it should be fate.

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Speaker 1: Fate helped out my dad, so the lumber company continues

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Speaker 1: on despite my dad's efforts. It would have been it

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Speaker 1: just would have been one of those you're a dreamer.

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Speaker 1: I I don't. It's just my mom studied majored in

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Speaker 1: art at Eastern Michigan University. So that's where I get it.

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Speaker 1: It's that I got to create. I gotta create. You

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Speaker 1: can't the job. I can't. Once you start to understand

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Speaker 1: you're creating a character in a musical in a community

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Speaker 1: theater or college or whatever, and boom boom you start

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Speaker 1: to go down that road. It's like the sharks. You

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Speaker 1: gotta keep moving. Whether I'm doing acting or guitar or

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Speaker 1: writing a play for my theater company, I know that's

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Speaker 1: what I'm supposed to be doing and and luckily have

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Speaker 1: done it for decades. So when you get summoned where

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Speaker 1: you can describe it, to go to circle rap to

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Speaker 1: a program they have in the summer, that was your

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Speaker 1: first sojourn into that. Yeah, I had done musicals in

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Speaker 1: high school. I had done That's all they did that.

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Speaker 1: We had a summer theater program run by the same

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Speaker 1: high school director where we do more and more musicals.

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Speaker 1: I did Harold Hill, I did Fagan and Oliver. I

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Speaker 1: did t have you Unfiddler on the roof. O God,

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Speaker 1: I would have killed to see that. If only no no,

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Speaker 1: I was Big Julie and guys and dolls. Big Julie

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Speaker 1: walk out stand there with the arms crossed, legs spread big,

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Speaker 1: you know, guys in dolls, suit, got a fedora, got

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Speaker 1: a fake cigar, and then walk off stage. Intermission, the

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Speaker 1: director comes up and says, your zippers down to this day,

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Speaker 1: I'm triple checking that flying. So I went to Central

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Speaker 1: Michigan or University basically to do dramas. I kept being

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Speaker 1: told it, you're good, you should chase it. Okay, well,

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Speaker 1: let's go to Central. Because I didn't have the grades

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Speaker 1: to get into Michigan or Michigan State. I just and

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Speaker 1: a friend of mine was at Central and he needed

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Speaker 1: a roommate and I'd want some awards there. And then

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Speaker 1: I was in the library one day and I am had.

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Speaker 1: I was reading the CM Life Daily newspaper student paper

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Speaker 1: auditions at Eastern Michigan University downstate at Ipsilanti for play

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Speaker 1: rep Festival, and the kids from all over the state auditioning. Okay,

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Speaker 1: let's go see how I do. So I'll go there,

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Speaker 1: fail not get in. I got tickets to the Red

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Speaker 1: Wings that night anyway in Detroit, so I'll go to Detroit,

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Speaker 1: get drunk. It'll be great. And then I got called back,

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Speaker 1: and I remember one of the Central Michigan guys said, uh,

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Speaker 1: where are you going. I said, I got Red Wing tickets.

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Speaker 1: Well you were called back, yeah, but my roommates are waiting,

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Speaker 1: He goes, you idiot. You one of the directors is

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Speaker 1: from New York. His name is Marshall W. Mason. He's

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Speaker 1: out here, you're I came to find out doing a

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Speaker 1: favor for the guy who runs the theater department Eastern.

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Speaker 1: He used to go to college with a guy. The

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Speaker 1: guy said, come on out direct some college kids, pick

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Speaker 1: up a check. Marshall said, okay, you're called back for

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Speaker 1: the lead in his play. You're not going to a

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Speaker 1: hockey game, okay, went in auditioned. People would stand there

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Speaker 1: with the scripts, you know, very presentational. And then Marshall said, yes,

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Speaker 1: I'd just like to see one person, Jeff Daniels, come

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Speaker 1: on up and um you We pointed to the girl. Okay,

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Speaker 1: sitting two chairs three ft apart face each other, read

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Speaker 1: the scene, you know, close ups, and I, you know,

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Speaker 1: instinctively knew not to play it to a room of

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Speaker 1: a hundred kids, and just played it to her. She

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Speaker 1: played it to me and Marshall said thank you, said

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Speaker 1: we're done, and cast me in the lead in Tennessee

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Speaker 1: summer and small and Ipsilanti college kids. And and by

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Speaker 1: the time we were heading up to the first performance,

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Speaker 1: he took me out. I going take you out for

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Speaker 1: a second. Talk to you. I'm sure yeah. I mean

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Speaker 1: it's the New York director. And by this point I

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Speaker 1: knew um that he was the artistic director of Circle

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Speaker 1: Rep in New York City, where Lanford Wilson was, where

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Speaker 1: you know, we had done one of the four plays

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Speaker 1: was Hot to Baltimore, Tanya, but but it was that

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Speaker 1: legendary New American play place, and I was, oh, wow,

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Speaker 1: this guy's something. And he took me out and he said, basically,

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Speaker 1: you know what you should do with your life, don't you.

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Speaker 1: I said, well, you know, I'd like to be an actor.

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Speaker 1: He goes, you should come to New York and be

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Speaker 1: an apprentice the Circle Rep. I'm not promising you anything.

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Speaker 1: There are no obligations, nothing, but you you have the

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Speaker 1: talent to try. You decide. So I went home to

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Speaker 1: my lumber yard father and farmer housewife mother, but they

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Speaker 1: could see that there was something going on, and they

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Speaker 1: were told there was something going on. He turned to

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Speaker 1: my mom and looked at me and said you should go,

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Speaker 1: which meant no senior year at Central Michigan, getting the

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Speaker 1: car and go to New York. I did. And you

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Speaker 1: see how in your career you play what you're asked

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Speaker 1: to play. The young guy, the innocent guy. You play flap,

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Speaker 1: you play uh, you know the part where you're not

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Speaker 1: putting all the pieces together, you're not the sharpest guy

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Speaker 1: in the room, whatever, and then you turn around and

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Speaker 1: you're playing attic A S. Finch On. There's there's a

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Speaker 1: there's a way we moved toward a kind of integrity.

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Speaker 1: There's a kind of a I don't like the word gravitas.

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Speaker 1: I think that's but but there's an author of course,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of it was gravitas has been you

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Speaker 1: got you know, I remember some guy, I mean Maron

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Speaker 1: Maxwell for Gettysburg, just I gotta find out if you

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Speaker 1: got the balls the authority, and it was I really

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Speaker 1: studied Jack Lemon, I really studied Dick van Dyke. They

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Speaker 1: were early inspirations for me that pushed me towards the

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Speaker 1: guy who walks into the wall and now is you know,

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Speaker 1: dizzy and the guy who's was trying to figure out

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Speaker 1: things that not the hero, not the guy with the

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Speaker 1: square jaw standing there doing that. I was always that's

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Speaker 1: who influenced me, and so that's what I would attack

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Speaker 1: things with. Something wild is Jack Lemon and Dick Van

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Speaker 1: Dyke had a baby and it was called me, that's

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Speaker 1: what it is. And and and there's no gravitas in that,

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Speaker 1: you know, or at least what I interpreted from them,

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Speaker 1: and and ran with and I remember having those conversations

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Speaker 1: with agents and stuff, and you know, and then the

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Speaker 1: news room came along, which is probably the first one,

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Speaker 1: probably probably the first one where you were asked to play.

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Speaker 1: I mean there were others, you know, maybe certainly Gettysburg

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Speaker 1: the guy came to have that kind of steel. Um.

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Speaker 1: When it was definitely it took it. It was I

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Speaker 1: was comfortably in the flawed hero. It goes all the

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Speaker 1: way back to Flap, the flawed character, which is what

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Speaker 1: all we played off Broadway. Nobody played a rock square

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Speaker 1: jaw tom cruise hero. You know that you would kick

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Speaker 1: that auto offer. So one of the first times you

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Speaker 1: made was with me Losh in Ragtime. Did you have

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Speaker 1: much of a relationship with him at all? He was

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Speaker 1: very nice to me. It was my first movie. Must

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Speaker 1: have been scared to death. Um Um. The only direction

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Speaker 1: he gave me was you move your mouth. You're moving

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Speaker 1: your mouth. You when you're not talking on a speaking

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Speaker 1: moving the mouth. Don't move your mouth. That that was it.

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Speaker 1: And it was you know nerves. It was lip movement,

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Speaker 1: it was you know, smirking. I don't know what I

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Speaker 1: was doing. It was just a nervous twitch or something.

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Speaker 1: That was cool because it was to watch me Losh

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Speaker 1: get the performance out of Cagney in his early eighties.

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Speaker 1: He didn't want to do it. Woody two movies with

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Speaker 1: Woody didn't talk much to you, like when I worked

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Speaker 1: with him. No, no, what he no talking well? Good

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Speaker 1: to hear personally it was now there was and you

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Speaker 1: were told that going in. Don't try to be his friend,

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Speaker 1: don't try to tell jokes, don't try to make him laugh.

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Speaker 1: Don't you just do your job. Got it? And you know,

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Speaker 1: and you get the script which no one can see,

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Speaker 1: and you realize you're playing two leading roles in a

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Speaker 1: Woody out My god, Okay, everything I've ever learned, please

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Speaker 1: let me remember now go. There was one thing though,

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Speaker 1: on Purple Rows. They hired me so quickly. Michael Keaton

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Speaker 1: had been doing it, and I mutually agreed to not

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Speaker 1: do it anymore, is what I was told. So fine.

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Speaker 1: I came in auditioned, got it on a Thursday, was

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Speaker 1: shooting on a Monday, fully prepared to be fired in

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Speaker 1: a month wasn't, wasn't wasn't wasn't. Two months in with

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Speaker 1: a month ago. Now we're in. Now they can't fire me.

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Speaker 1: We do a sing where I'm singing a song in

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Speaker 1: a music shop with me. No one had asked if

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Speaker 1: I could sing. Jeffrey Curlin cost him director designer. Came

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Speaker 1: back to the dressing room before we were going to

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Speaker 1: shoot the scene or even rehearse it that morning, he goes,

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Speaker 1: by the way, can you can you sing? You can sit?

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Speaker 1: And I'm going they don't know, they don't know. So

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Speaker 1: I went out in the rehearsal and I couldn't find

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Speaker 1: the note ki of A. I'm in B flat, I'm

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Speaker 1: in E flat again. I'm gonna get fired. Michael Keaton

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Speaker 1: was a better singer than you. By this point, they're

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Speaker 1: going no. By this point it was like he can't

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Speaker 1: the guy you can't sing? Okay, well lips think it?

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Speaker 1: What what he's over there going? I'm Alabama'm Alabami bam

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Speaker 1: bam bound bound Where is it there? It is? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Thanks once more, please once more? And then you know,

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Speaker 1: once they had sweated enough, having made me sweat for

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Speaker 1: three months. Now I'm Judy Garland now you're bing Crosby.

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Speaker 1: I'm bing Crosby. Yeah. Well, the the thing with him

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Speaker 1: when I did I did Blue Jasmine. I had a

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Speaker 1: small part in Blue Jasmine. And we're doing a scene

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Speaker 1: that he later cut from the film where Kate Blanchet

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Speaker 1: and I are in the kitchen, a big, big fancy

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Speaker 1: kitchen of of an estate on Long Island, and uh,

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Speaker 1: he says to me, and he wanted me to add

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Speaker 1: lib something he said, you know, say to huh, you know,

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Speaker 1: perhaps you should go back to that doctor, go see

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Speaker 1: that doctor that she had been seeing, you know before. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, just say some name and I go Dr

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Speaker 1: Fetterman and he went, nothing funny. And so when you're

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Speaker 1: with him, it's the church and state. It's funny or

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Speaker 1: it's ain't funny. Drama not funny, not funny. He didn't

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Speaker 1: want anything funny. I mean, Kate Blanchett smokes a cigarette

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Speaker 1: or I don't even know if she smoked, but that's

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Speaker 1: what my memory tached down to. Espresso comes in and

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Speaker 1: we have a fight, a physical fight, and he says

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Speaker 1: kind of goes, I'm really sorry, but you know he's

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Speaker 1: supposed to be at your wits end. He's supposed to

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Speaker 1: becoming a pot and I'm just not seeing it. Take two,

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Speaker 1: both a couple of espressos. But she's clawing at me.

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Speaker 1: I'm throwing around the couch for having a physical fight.

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Speaker 1: I'm really sorry, darling, but I'm just not getting it.

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Speaker 1: You're really supposed to be Look, you're going out of

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Speaker 1: your mind here. And he made her do it again

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Speaker 1: and again. She's like nine times, and by the ninth

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Speaker 1: and tenth time, you know, we needed a straight jacket

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Speaker 1: for her. She was so septemp and she won the Oscar.

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Speaker 1: You know, she won the Oscar for Best Actors. They

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Speaker 1: are the good ones are merciless. The good ones are merciless.

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Speaker 1: They really are. What about Brooks? Uh madman, genius, in

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Speaker 1: love with the next idea, in love with writing. He

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Speaker 1: thinks like no one else thinks. He was one of

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Speaker 1: the great writing minds I've ever met. Yeah, that that

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Speaker 1: I remember just being wowed by him. Uh that brilliance

403
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Speaker 1: which went all over the place, I mean, and sometimes

404
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Speaker 1: in a crazy way. And then he comes back and

405
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Speaker 1: it's only Jim Brooks would think of this, do that.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of big personalities on that film. Here

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Speaker 1: was he how good was he at marshaling all those

408
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Speaker 1: people on the set or didn't even bother trying? Um?

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Speaker 1: I think he did the absolute best he could in

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Speaker 1: a situation where you had two titans, one at the

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Speaker 1: peak of her career Deborah Winger and surely who still

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Speaker 1: had it going on but was further down the road

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Speaker 1: and was you know, it was about whose movie it

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Speaker 1: was gonna be. I mean, this is all stuff as

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Speaker 1: an off Broadway actor in one of his first movies.

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Speaker 1: And just shut up and listen. Who gets the close up?

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Speaker 1: You know when they put that tape measure in the

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Speaker 1: old days on the close up on you and it's

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Speaker 1: four ft eight inches and then turn around on her

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Speaker 1: and it's three ft six even thought about the girls

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Speaker 1: knew those things, you know. But I think also with

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Speaker 1: Deborah Merciless, she was not going to do some gauzy

423
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:02,560
Speaker 1: mother daughter relationship. It was gonna be love hate and

424
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:07,120
Speaker 1: her style of working is that, Um, if that has

425
00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:11,080
Speaker 1: to occur off camera as well, then that's what we'll do. Yeah,

426
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: I do too. She Shame a Mockingbird a couple of

427
00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:16,199
Speaker 1: months ago, Very very nice of her. And she's not

428
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 1: the only one who does that. I mean She was

429
00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:20,800
Speaker 1: the first one that I was confronted with with who

430
00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:24,240
Speaker 1: used that approach. I've since been around some other people

431
00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:28,080
Speaker 1: who will do something in the first week of a

432
00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:34,680
Speaker 1: twelve week shoot to jar our relationship without giving names,

433
00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:38,200
Speaker 1: for example, how do you jar the relationship you surprise

434
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:42,600
Speaker 1: them with? And this happened to me my first day

435
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:45,120
Speaker 1: on the set. They've been shooting for two months already,

436
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:49,679
Speaker 1: and this other actor we have an adversarial relationship in

437
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:53,320
Speaker 1: the movie, and we were doing a big group photo

438
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:56,560
Speaker 1: and I put my hand on his shoulder and said,

439
00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 1: how you doing. You don't ever touch me again, and

440
00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:01,240
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blank blank. I mean, just in front

441
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:05,640
Speaker 1: of about ten people first day. What was his problem?

442
00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:10,920
Speaker 1: He's method, he's got he had some missues. But but

443
00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 1: I was also it was I'd read that he was

444
00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:17,720
Speaker 1: a method and all that, so I so I didn't

445
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:20,840
Speaker 1: know which it was. He's either got anger issues or both,

446
00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:23,960
Speaker 1: or or it's you know, and I a method asshole,

447
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:28,160
Speaker 1: but that's the relationship in the movie. And I said,

448
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 1: you know, done, good, thanks for the help. I said

449
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 1: it was just a joke and walked past him. Didn't

450
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:36,359
Speaker 1: speak to him for two months on the set in

451
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:39,760
Speaker 1: the makeup trailer, I'm walking down towards hair. You need

452
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:43,320
Speaker 1: to move, you know, just walking towards him. And he

453
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:45,000
Speaker 1: would go out the other door and then come around

454
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,080
Speaker 1: the other door and go into the makeup je I

455
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,360
Speaker 1: used it, and so did he. And if that's if

456
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:51,879
Speaker 1: that's if that's the rule on this movie, that's the

457
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,880
Speaker 1: rule I've had the opposite with Nichols. Nicholas was so

458
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:59,439
Speaker 1: kind to me. He was so kind to me. And

459
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:01,960
Speaker 1: really the scenes, he he loved them and seemed to

460
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:05,399
Speaker 1: take time with them. What was your experience with him?

461
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 1: Another genius? Uh, it was a scene with Meryl and

462
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:11,760
Speaker 1: and and and Mike, you know, like as he should those.

463
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 1: It was Meryl's movie in Jack's movie was called Hartmurk

464
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 1: and so I was supporting in it and that that,

465
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:20,480
Speaker 1: and so he was He was very kind, very respectful,

466
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 1: and but it was about Meryl, and I knew it

467
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 1: was about Meryl. And don't don't don't I have a question.

468
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 1: You don't have a question, No, you don't. Um uh So,

469
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:32,480
Speaker 1: but to be around him and just to listen to him,

470
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 1: work with Meryl in a two shot and try this,

471
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:40,160
Speaker 1: try that, try that, and it's the same thing that

472
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:44,320
Speaker 1: that Jonathan Demi had, that Jim Brooks had, and would

473
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:46,760
Speaker 1: he has that that you would you you only they

474
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:50,280
Speaker 1: would think to do that. Only the great directors think

475
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 1: of that thing. You've thought of everything, and then they

476
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:55,760
Speaker 1: think of something and go try this, and you wouldn't

477
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 1: have thought of that. And that's the one that's the choice.

478
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:02,159
Speaker 1: Nichols was like that. And to see Mike and Meryl

479
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:08,160
Speaker 1: try things and miss swing and miss. What an education?

480
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:09,919
Speaker 1: The great gift do you mentioned? What do? What do

481
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 1: you learned? Supporting Wills? The great gift you get is

482
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:14,360
Speaker 1: what you just said, is to observe, to watch other

483
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 1: people observe, learn how to behave on camera and off

484
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:22,360
Speaker 1: and time get it into and if you can get

485
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,879
Speaker 1: it in one even better. And the two shot with

486
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:28,199
Speaker 1: Meryl and heartburn, when we're both on the couch and

487
00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:30,600
Speaker 1: she can't figure out what to do and it's Mike

488
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 1: is not working and Mike's going, I know it isn't

489
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:34,679
Speaker 1: and what it is and it's six and at seven

490
00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 1: and you're sweating bullets because you know the two shot

491
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,199
Speaker 1: we're gonna use. The take we're gonna use is the

492
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 1: one where she's great. So you've got to be great

493
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:47,240
Speaker 1: eight times, she's got to be great once. This is

494
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:53,879
Speaker 1: film acting class, folks. Jeff Daniels says there are both

495
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:59,199
Speaker 1: challenges and opportunities in playing second fiddle. Besides Heartburn, he

496
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:03,359
Speaker 1: also took us porting role in The Hours, starring Julianne

497
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: Moore as a miserable housewife and mother. I spoke to

498
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:11,080
Speaker 1: more about her own very different experience of motherhood. We

499
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: have an incredibly tolerant business toward women with children. I

500
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:17,960
Speaker 1: have to say thank goodness for the movie business. I

501
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 1: remember my son was when I was doing Psycho. As

502
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, my son was nine months old

503
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 1: and I was still getting used to having a baby,

504
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 1: and he was always with me and stuff, and he

505
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:28,919
Speaker 1: was hysterical in the trailer One day and I was

506
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:30,719
Speaker 1: nursing him and trying to him to calm down. They

507
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 1: knocked the trailer door and they said, you know, we

508
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:40,480
Speaker 1: need you. And I was like, come, and this adorable

509
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:44,600
Speaker 1: p a said, no, worries, man, take your time, and

510
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 1: I was like, holy cow, I'm the luckiest woman in

511
00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 1: the world. The rest of that interview at Here's the

512
00:28:50,120 --> 00:29:04,200
Speaker 1: Thing dot Org more Jeff Daniel's Coming up. This is

513
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. Jeff

514
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 1: Daniels and I both worked on The Looming Tower, Alex

515
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 1: Gibney's series about the lead up to nine eleven. Each

516
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:19,440
Speaker 1: episode had a different director, something Daniel said he was

517
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:22,400
Speaker 1: used to. I think I learned it on Newsroom because

518
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 1: I knew there was a revolving door of directors. Five

519
00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: words or less. If you can't tell me what you

520
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 1: want in the next stake and five words less, stay

521
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: in the chair, don't come near me, because I'll do it.

522
00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:38,200
Speaker 1: I've been a supporting actor. I know how to direct myself.

523
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:40,240
Speaker 1: I'm gonna come in with some choices that I think

524
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 1: this might be what it is, and you might want

525
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:43,840
Speaker 1: to see those. I'm not gonna talk about him. I

526
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 1: don't talk about them. Well five words or less and

527
00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:49,160
Speaker 1: they did that, And I'll do anything you want. You

528
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 1: want me to get angry on take four just to

529
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 1: see who knows. Absolutely all you'll hear from me is okay. Oh,

530
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:57,240
Speaker 1: don't ever say to me. Give me one that I

531
00:29:57,280 --> 00:29:58,680
Speaker 1: don't want to do, just so I can have it.

532
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 1: And then I said, well, what have you? You? Is it?

533
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, there are directors I've worked

534
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:04,720
Speaker 1: with who I would do. I would acquiesce if Wood

535
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:06,200
Speaker 1: he tell me, I would do whatever would he asked me.

536
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: I do whatever Marty asked me. But there are directors

537
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 1: who they haven't earned that. And I'm like you, you know,

538
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 1: I want you to have what you want. I want

539
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 1: to get it. I want to get your part on

540
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 1: Newsroom and Looming Tower and God, listen all that tuff.

541
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:22,200
Speaker 1: I come in ready. I come in prepared. So usually

542
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 1: if I've done my homework and and prepped it and

543
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:29,520
Speaker 1: all that, it's kind of what it should be in

544
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: the first one or two or three, and so then

545
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 1: it's just a matter. And I want to usually get

546
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,160
Speaker 1: is do you want to do another one? No, I'm done.

547
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:42,680
Speaker 1: I'm done. And the best ones are that takes that

548
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:45,920
Speaker 1: you don't remember what you just did, where it's you

549
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 1: chasing impulses. I don't. I really don't try to freeze it.

550
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:54,160
Speaker 1: I really don't try to. Even mocking bird Is moves

551
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,800
Speaker 1: around and bart Share the director has given me some

552
00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 1: little latitude on that. Um uh, don't deviate from the

553
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 1: story or the direction, but stay in the lane. But

554
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:06,240
Speaker 1: you can weave around a little bit and I do.

555
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:09,240
Speaker 1: And that's film one is different than two, is different

556
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 1: than three, than different than four. That comes from not

557
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:16,440
Speaker 1: being in the editing room. How do I control that?

558
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: I've seen stars go yeah, yah, yeah, I need to

559
00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 1: see I need to see the cut. I need to

560
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 1: see all right, I know I'm not sure. Video playback, playback,

561
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:28,480
Speaker 1: good god. I remember doing a movie and she the star,

562
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:32,360
Speaker 1: you know again. I'm was brought in to help make

563
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 1: her better, and um, take one and then she goes

564
00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 1: to playback and it's three minutes and take two, and

565
00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:42,480
Speaker 1: then she goes to playback and it wasn't going well anyway.

566
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:44,239
Speaker 1: And she came back. She was, why didn't you go

567
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:50,240
Speaker 1: to watch playback? I said, we don't have playback on Broadways.

568
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 1: I love playback, and we're flipping a car. But it's

569
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:57,960
Speaker 1: between and and editor. They're all going to decide it's

570
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:00,040
Speaker 1: not gonna be where we think it is. Any of

571
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 1: gourney Weaver told me that great lesson the movie you

572
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 1: have in your head is not going to be the

573
00:32:06,560 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 1: movie that you see. And the sooner you learn that,

574
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:13,400
Speaker 1: the easier this career will be. Um the Farrelly Brothers

575
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:21,200
Speaker 1: and he won the OUs exactly exactly. There either is

576
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,560
Speaker 1: a god or there isn't. I don't know what that means.

577
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 1: You're going, you guys are Harry and Lloyd. You're Harry

578
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 1: and Lloyd. I would work with him again tomorrow. Sure,

579
00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 1: their energy, Pete and Bobby's energy on a side. It's

580
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 1: just it's just a great day on a great day

581
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:38,200
Speaker 1: at work when you go with them. In number two,

582
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 1: I walk into my trailer and all of a sudden

583
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 1: there's Bill Murray sitting in my trailer. Bill, how are you? Yeah, yeah,

584
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 1: I'm coming in here to do a cameo. Are you hey?

585
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 1: We're sharing a dressing room? Yeah, yeah, Well now he

586
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:51,040
Speaker 1: would just being nice. And then he went over and

587
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 1: but we went in and it's it's Harry and Lloyd

588
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 1: back in their apartment and the worm farm and all

589
00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:58,720
Speaker 1: of that. But the kitchen has now been turned into

590
00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:01,320
Speaker 1: a meth lab, and there's Bill Murray and a has

591
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 1: met suit. You can't see him. Great came the cameos,

592
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:09,960
Speaker 1: going to get de Niro for a cameo and letting

593
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:12,120
Speaker 1: him play a dead guy on the sidewalk with his

594
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 1: face down on the sidewalk. That's what the Fairly Brothers

595
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 1: were doing. Now you moved back to Michigan, you had

596
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:21,560
Speaker 1: a two year old, and what was the thinking? Where

597
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 1: were you at career wise? Then? I didn't want fame.

598
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 1: I didn't want stardom. I was scared. What do you

599
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 1: mean by that? That demands an explanation. I wasn't comfortable

600
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:42,920
Speaker 1: in situations with a lot of famous people making career moves.

601
00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:47,360
Speaker 1: At a party, I couldn't schmooze. I was the guy

602
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 1: against the wall. Just put me in the audition room

603
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,840
Speaker 1: and I'll beat you. But I can't do fame you.

604
00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:57,200
Speaker 1: I can't out fame. I can't. I can't do this.

605
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 1: So now I get to quit or I I think

606
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:08,319
Speaker 1: I just realized that if that's what it takes, then

607
00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:10,440
Speaker 1: I'm going to go back to the lumber company. But

608
00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:13,879
Speaker 1: that's that's essential. So at the time you move back,

609
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:17,200
Speaker 1: what had you just made and what was the impact

610
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,400
Speaker 1: you just shot? What I had just shot? Uh and

611
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,960
Speaker 1: probably been released. The Purple Rosa Cairo in terms of

612
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:30,239
Speaker 1: endearment was out. Maybe Marie was sissy space, right, So

613
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:34,640
Speaker 1: you want to streak movies that we're making your career, Yeah,

614
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 1: movies that were making your career. And like although many

615
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:42,320
Speaker 1: people myself included, have that failure is much more familiar

616
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:45,280
Speaker 1: to me than success. So when everything is going really,

617
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 1: really well is when especially you sit there and go,

618
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 1: I don't think I really really want this. I didn't

619
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 1: want the start. Um, I didn't want to fame. I

620
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:54,799
Speaker 1: wanted to be a really good actor. That's all I

621
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 1: wanted to be. I knew that was I later learned

622
00:34:57,239 --> 00:35:00,239
Speaker 1: that's all I could control. I can't control all this

623
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 1: other thing. I have a wife, I have a two

624
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,880
Speaker 1: year old boy. What'd your wife say? She's from Michigan.

625
00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:09,760
Speaker 1: Both of our families are back there in this little town.

626
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:13,600
Speaker 1: We had gone back the previous three summers leading up

627
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:17,399
Speaker 1: to the move back. We went back for a month

628
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:20,120
Speaker 1: in the summer. The next summer, went back from Memorial

629
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 1: Day to Labor Day. The third summer, I was there

630
00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 1: mid April Patrick's almost Halloween October. I said, we just

631
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:31,840
Speaker 1: spent six months in Michigan. And I answered the phone

632
00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:33,880
Speaker 1: and occasionally I got in an airplane, went to New

633
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:37,319
Speaker 1: York and met somebody, Um, why do I have to

634
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:40,000
Speaker 1: live in New York where I can afford the apartment?

635
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:41,880
Speaker 1: And m M, what did your wife think about what

636
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 1: you were doing she's your wife who you've been with.

637
00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:48,600
Speaker 1: Either one of us knew she supported you. Yeah. And

638
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:53,279
Speaker 1: and more importantly, the agents supported me to ask you that.

639
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:55,399
Speaker 1: The agents said, you want to what I said, Yeah,

640
00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 1: I want to move to Michigan and just do the

641
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:01,720
Speaker 1: movie career out of there. Now you can't, okay, okay,

642
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:03,960
Speaker 1: you know I wasn't you know, I wasn't like, you know,

643
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:06,200
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise on the cover of news Week. But there

644
00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:09,319
Speaker 1: were offers. They said, if you're willing to get on

645
00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:11,640
Speaker 1: an airplane at your own expense from Detroit to l

646
00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:14,239
Speaker 1: A just to do meetings and we can couch him

647
00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:19,000
Speaker 1: in a week, then okay, live wherever you want. I said, okay, deal.

648
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:23,400
Speaker 1: And early on, for about three years, they came my way.

649
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,400
Speaker 1: To have movie people sitting on my little boat on

650
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 1: this little lake, you know, driving around trying to talk

651
00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:32,440
Speaker 1: me into doing a movie. Was like wow. I remember

652
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:39,280
Speaker 1: getting a FedEx from Woody Allen script for radio days. Wow. Wow.

653
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 1: Yours is a very dramatic version of this, which is

654
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:46,200
Speaker 1: there's people who they self immolate. People will ask me

655
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 1: about commerce versus the artistic, and I'll say movie started

656
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:52,799
Speaker 1: missing for everybody. But a lot of people. Then they

657
00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: stay in l A and they stay there where someone's

658
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:57,600
Speaker 1: walking up, pulling your pants down, sticking a thermometer if

659
00:36:57,600 --> 00:36:59,319
Speaker 1: you're asked, and taking your temperature of a fifteam and

660
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:01,040
Speaker 1: say how hot you are or not, which is why

661
00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:03,200
Speaker 1: I don't want to live there, why I don't want

662
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 1: to live there, And I just can't handle you know that.

663
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:08,799
Speaker 1: And then the l A drives me insane that way.

664
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,799
Speaker 1: But but but the actually happens, by the way, I've

665
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:14,000
Speaker 1: got video footage to prove it. But but my point

666
00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:17,759
Speaker 1: is for you, when you decided that you wanted that change,

667
00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:21,480
Speaker 1: you didn't want to chase that thing, and you move

668
00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:25,120
Speaker 1: and you're still there. You still live there. I do.

669
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:27,480
Speaker 1: We have a wonderful apartment here in New York. But

670
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:30,400
Speaker 1: that's it. That's that's that's the two of them, the

671
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:34,160
Speaker 1: families back there, what are your kids? Didn't trust it.

672
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:37,680
Speaker 1: I didn't trust Hollywood. I didn't trust the movie career.

673
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:40,959
Speaker 1: I had three four great movies there, movies that were

674
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:45,920
Speaker 1: you know, of importance and um, but I didn't trust

675
00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:48,320
Speaker 1: that it would last. You know, Goodman, I've read somewhere

676
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:51,320
Speaker 1: John Goodman said the limo that you're riding in tonight

677
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:54,239
Speaker 1: is rented. You know somebody else's ass is going to

678
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:57,520
Speaker 1: be in it tomorrow. And I always you know it

679
00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:00,480
Speaker 1: was all so temporary. Well, I mean, I said this

680
00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,120
Speaker 1: in this book I wrote I started making movies in

681
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:05,440
Speaker 1: eighty six, because I go through the eighties, I'm getting

682
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:07,440
Speaker 1: to be four or five years sober. All of it

683
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,080
Speaker 1: has the width of like of getting high. It's another high.

684
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:13,560
Speaker 1: I'm chasing, very intoxicating. Look at social media. Now, look

685
00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 1: at the YouTube stars. Now, look at all the people.

686
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:19,800
Speaker 1: You can just see them chasing, and see them wanting, wanting, wanting, wanting,

687
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:22,800
Speaker 1: and you learn as you grow older. I'm off and asked,

688
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:26,279
Speaker 1: when did you know that you made it? One of

689
00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:30,000
Speaker 1: my answers is it's when you're at the Golden Globes

690
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:35,279
Speaker 1: for Purple Rows and Michael J. Fox is up for

691
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:37,640
Speaker 1: Back to the Future and you're both up in the

692
00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 1: same category, and I don't want to be there. I'm

693
00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:43,239
Speaker 1: I got the guard up. I just I'm like, this

694
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:45,080
Speaker 1: is the last place I want to be. I want

695
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:48,880
Speaker 1: to be. This is everything I don't want um And

696
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:52,279
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there and Michael J. Fox and there's a

697
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 1: few stars that have done this walked across and said, Hi, Michael,

698
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:58,839
Speaker 1: nice to meet you. Oh yeah, nice to meet you. Goes.

699
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:02,719
Speaker 1: I said, you're you're what back to the future. How

700
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 1: great for you? And he goes, I'm the star, but

701
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:11,080
Speaker 1: you're the actor, you know, And that's not on a billboard,

702
00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:14,040
Speaker 1: That's not something you're gonna see, you know, uh in

703
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:16,600
Speaker 1: the star school book of how what what you mad?

704
00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:19,840
Speaker 1: How what making it is? And Michael's a terrific actor.

705
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,719
Speaker 1: And but but for him to say something like that,

706
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:28,640
Speaker 1: you know, that mattered, and then it, you know, went away,

707
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:32,080
Speaker 1: And then I just scrambed. When did it go away?

708
00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:36,319
Speaker 1: In your mind? I made a bunch of movies no

709
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:40,440
Speaker 1: one saw for the dough No no scool as you

710
00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:44,720
Speaker 1: believed in and not even you know, later on Squid

711
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: in the Whales, things like that, This would Love Hurts

712
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 1: with Bud York and nice Comedy that Bent went belly

713
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 1: up checking out with David Leland. Joe Westerhouse wrote the

714
00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:58,000
Speaker 1: first draft of it, and you know, nine great Little Independent.

715
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:01,239
Speaker 1: I fell in love with independent movies and they didn't

716
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:04,880
Speaker 1: make any money. And so then I had to scramble,

717
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 1: and I said, I need to do a movie that

718
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:11,720
Speaker 1: someone sees and we got a rachnophobia. Frank Marshall directed.

719
00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:14,960
Speaker 1: It was his first directing thing. Uh. You know, the

720
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:16,880
Speaker 1: studio didn't think it would do much, and then it

721
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:18,920
Speaker 1: tested great and they said it's gonna make a hundred

722
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:22,839
Speaker 1: million and then huh you and John right Goodman. Yeah,

723
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:25,880
Speaker 1: John was in it, and um he brought star power

724
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:28,399
Speaker 1: to it and uh and then it ended up making

725
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,680
Speaker 1: about eighty million, and you know it was like enough

726
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:33,239
Speaker 1: back then, it was enough to like get back in.

727
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:38,440
Speaker 1: But then I was still scrambling, and uh, I got Gettysburg,

728
00:40:38,920 --> 00:40:41,520
Speaker 1: which was really just a four hour to night TV

729
00:40:41,719 --> 00:40:47,359
Speaker 1: thing Ron Maxwell. But then it was I need to

730
00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:50,880
Speaker 1: shake this up. And that's when I went out and

731
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 1: I auditioned for about three movies, one of which was

732
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:58,000
Speaker 1: Dumb and Dumber, which made two fifty million dollars. Yeah,

733
00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 1: something like that. I'm to felt good. That was the

734
00:41:01,719 --> 00:41:06,920
Speaker 1: transition from going through an airport from who are you

735
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:11,920
Speaker 1: to Jeff Daniels. Suddenly they knew my name. And when

736
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:14,680
Speaker 1: you came back to do the sequel to that, which

737
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 1: was how many years later, I think it was twenty.

738
00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 1: Whose idea was that we were like, how did the

739
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:24,160
Speaker 1: sequel I did come up twenty years later and they

740
00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 1: get the two of you to do it, well, you

741
00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:28,680
Speaker 1: have a lot going on. They get Jim to do it.

742
00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:33,680
Speaker 1: I'm like, call me when you're ready. So I love

743
00:41:33,760 --> 00:41:37,600
Speaker 1: the Fairlies. I love Jim. So with me, it was just, uh,

744
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 1: we were doing Newsroom I think second season, and uh,

745
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:45,400
Speaker 1: all of a sudden is real and it's comment. Now

746
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 1: we're doing deals and it's like, okay, and we're gonna

747
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:50,759
Speaker 1: shoot it this summer or in the fall. Whenever it

748
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:53,880
Speaker 1: was gonna shoot. I'm going, I'm all in. This is great,

749
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:59,880
Speaker 1: this is great. I won the Emmy, the surprise win surprise.

750
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 1: Why why do you say that? Up against you had

751
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:06,920
Speaker 1: Spacey and House of Cards, you had Damian Lewis and Homeland,

752
00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:10,920
Speaker 1: you had Brian in uh breaking bad? Who am I

753
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:15,239
Speaker 1: forgetting Jon Hamm Madman and they cancel each other out.

754
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:20,839
Speaker 1: I don't know. But Newsroom and HBO said, just be glad,

755
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 1: you're going just just be really, you know, enjoy the

756
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:25,840
Speaker 1: fact that you get to go sitting in the balcony.

757
00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:29,560
Speaker 1: You got a nice seat. Enjoy the seat because you

758
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:32,239
Speaker 1: know Candelfoeni not until the third year did he win.

759
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:35,799
Speaker 1: So just it's your first year. Just don't get your hopes.

760
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:38,480
Speaker 1: I've got it, got it, and the winner is yeah,

761
00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 1: and did you want it? On a Sunday night, was

762
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:48,080
Speaker 1: on a plane Monday morning for Atlanta and was dressed

763
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:51,560
Speaker 1: as Harry Dunn in Dumb and Dumber Tuesday morning, day

764
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:55,320
Speaker 1: one of shooting. That's this business. Yeah. Do you feel

765
00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:58,840
Speaker 1: that in some sense everything you've done and the choices

766
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:00,359
Speaker 1: you made and the things you didn't do have led

767
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:03,760
Speaker 1: to where you are now with this play? Yeah? Everything,

768
00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:06,400
Speaker 1: it's the role of Atticus Finch is the role of

769
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:11,279
Speaker 1: a lifetime. And in order to pull off everything that

770
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:16,400
Speaker 1: the entire team pulled off, including me at least, having

771
00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:21,240
Speaker 1: someone at a version of Atticus Finch that isn't beneath

772
00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:24,360
Speaker 1: Gregory Pecks, doesn't stand next to him. That's all I

773
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:31,239
Speaker 1: ask um, everything you've ever learned, all the stage technique

774
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 1: that's taken decades to learn, when to how to pull

775
00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:38,080
Speaker 1: an audience in, when to push him away, the timing,

776
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:43,239
Speaker 1: how to read different audiences or you're listening tonight, got it? Quiet? Right?

777
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:46,400
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pull you in even further. It varies, it changes,

778
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:49,000
Speaker 1: and the other actors watch. You know, there and they

779
00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 1: go with me, you know, and this it can only

780
00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:56,680
Speaker 1: come from having done this for decades decades. What's the

781
00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:01,239
Speaker 1: toughest part of the play for you acting wise? What's

782
00:44:01,239 --> 00:44:02,839
Speaker 1: the part of the player where you think, I really

783
00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:07,400
Speaker 1: gotta find something here. There are a series of scenes

784
00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:10,640
Speaker 1: that start with the closing argument that become this kind

785
00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:15,880
Speaker 1: of um tumble down the hill towards the bottom for Atticus,

786
00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 1: where he finally gives up and says, yes, I know

787
00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:22,520
Speaker 1: you're all right and I'm wrong. So that's a tumble,

788
00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:24,840
Speaker 1: but it's it's the part of the play I enjoy

789
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:27,800
Speaker 1: the most because I don't know what I'm gonna find.

790
00:44:28,239 --> 00:44:32,640
Speaker 1: The closing argument is different every night. Every night. It's

791
00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:39,480
Speaker 1: been wildly ferocious, it's been quiet. I chase impulses inside it,

792
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 1: and that's when that's when acting is fun. That's between

793
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:46,359
Speaker 1: action and cut. You are you. It's pulling you this way,

794
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:47,640
Speaker 1: and you go, and you chase it, and you go

795
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:49,759
Speaker 1: and you go. Now you're with Tom Robinson. Now you're

796
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:51,879
Speaker 1: turning to the other lawyer and you're chewing him out.

797
00:44:52,040 --> 00:44:54,080
Speaker 1: Maybe you might want to think about what you're doing

798
00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:56,400
Speaker 1: for a living, because this isn't a shame on you

799
00:44:57,120 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 1: you know, and then you talk to the audience and

800
00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:02,360
Speaker 1: you you know, and it's it's alive. It's a line

801
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:07,640
Speaker 1: almost six months into the run and it's still that way.

802
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:11,239
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated to see if it sustains for the year

803
00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:16,200
Speaker 1: that I'm in this. I'm so appreciative of what the

804
00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:22,560
Speaker 1: opportunity I've got. Everybody wanted this part. Everybody, they made

805
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:26,560
Speaker 1: phone calls everybody. How great that you could do it

806
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:28,800
Speaker 1: for a year. That's amazing, that's right, old school do

807
00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:31,280
Speaker 1: it for a year. Yeah, it's Atticus finch Haw Fonda

808
00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:33,920
Speaker 1: did Mr. Roberts for a year. Lee Jacob did Death

809
00:45:33,960 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 1: of a Salesman. I think for over. I mean, that's

810
00:45:35,719 --> 00:45:37,560
Speaker 1: what the old guys used to do. And I've done

811
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:40,239
Speaker 1: those eighteen weekers, you know, which is that's terrific. But

812
00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:43,440
Speaker 1: this one kind of demanded that you stay in it

813
00:45:43,719 --> 00:45:46,920
Speaker 1: at least, you know, seven months to get to the

814
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 1: because you know there's going to be a drive for

815
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:54,360
Speaker 1: the Tony's uh. And so now you're seven months and

816
00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:58,480
Speaker 1: the Mockingbird Summer Family Show. Yeah, if it wins Best

817
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:01,200
Speaker 1: Play and then I can okay, all right, summer in

818
00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:03,520
Speaker 1: New York, why not? But in all your nine months,

819
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:05,200
Speaker 1: and let's not let's make it a year and see

820
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:07,560
Speaker 1: if you can do it, see if you can sustain

821
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:10,600
Speaker 1: it and keep it alive without veering all over the

822
00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:14,640
Speaker 1: road in months six, seven, eight nine. I'm interested to

823
00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:17,200
Speaker 1: see that there is there something you need to do physically,

824
00:46:17,239 --> 00:46:19,640
Speaker 1: are you there's some kind of regimen you're doing. You're

825
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:22,319
Speaker 1: on your feet the whole goddamn think it's almost three hours. Well,

826
00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:24,560
Speaker 1: there's that. That's so, there's the half hour walk. You

827
00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:26,880
Speaker 1: don't need to do. It is an endurance test, and

828
00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:30,480
Speaker 1: so that means you have to treat it like an athlete.

829
00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:33,359
Speaker 1: You have to not train so much physically. But your

830
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 1: voice needs to be able to last eight weeks eight

831
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:38,640
Speaker 1: shows a week, So how do we do that? And

832
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:40,799
Speaker 1: you work with the vocal thing and you have learned

833
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:42,480
Speaker 1: how to throw it up in nasally and all that

834
00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:47,359
Speaker 1: like singers do. Even though we're miked. Um, you eat right,

835
00:46:47,680 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 1: I don't go out. I don't drink. I'm trying. I'm

836
00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:54,200
Speaker 1: worried about September and October. You never go to dinner

837
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:57,319
Speaker 1: after the show, No, you don't. I go home, go home,

838
00:46:57,440 --> 00:47:01,880
Speaker 1: that's it. I go home. It's the obligean. I can't.

839
00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:04,160
Speaker 1: I'm I'm glad. I don't drink. I don't come in

840
00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 1: hungover and try to get you know, and get through it.

841
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:09,440
Speaker 1: You know. And they're paying how much a ticket? Well,

842
00:47:09,480 --> 00:47:11,880
Speaker 1: what do I care? A lot? Yeah, a lot. And

843
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:15,279
Speaker 1: and you know, we do student matinees. We've done a

844
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:19,120
Speaker 1: couple of them where it's four hundred kids and that

845
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:22,920
Speaker 1: it's a whole different show. They listen, they're great. Um

846
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:25,239
Speaker 1: they you know when I have a fight scene with

847
00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:28,520
Speaker 1: Bob Yule later on and I grabbed him by the hair. Um,

848
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:36,399
Speaker 1: it's thirty seconds of whoa, whoa, oh oh oh kick.

849
00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 1: That's a big change from the med. Yeah, and it's

850
00:47:39,880 --> 00:47:42,520
Speaker 1: but they're into it. But there was also the student

851
00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:44,840
Speaker 1: I don't have to do those. I can call in,

852
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:48,239
Speaker 1: Let Tom do it, let the understudy do give me

853
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:51,000
Speaker 1: a chance to do it. But I do the student matinees.

854
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:52,840
Speaker 1: And part of the reason I do it is not

855
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:56,880
Speaker 1: just for the kids, but the teachers. My daughter is

856
00:47:56,920 --> 00:48:02,360
Speaker 1: a public school teacher, and those teachers are bringing these kids.

857
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:07,719
Speaker 1: They can't afford a Broadway ticket, and this is their

858
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:10,920
Speaker 1: chance to see Mockingbird. On a Thursday at one o'clock,

859
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:13,759
Speaker 1: at a student to forget it rock and roll? Who

860
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:16,719
Speaker 1: can you know? Everybody be quiet for a little bit, audience,

861
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:20,200
Speaker 1: and you do it for them. They're never going to

862
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:23,840
Speaker 1: forget it. No, young people, they take them to the theater,

863
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:26,200
Speaker 1: they never forget it. I'm the first place I saw

864
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:28,520
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. I'll never forget it. And

865
00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:31,120
Speaker 1: these kids in the last third of the play, they're

866
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:33,440
Speaker 1: right with us, right with us, so they're listening. It's

867
00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:35,399
Speaker 1: pretty cool. I did street Car on Broadway, and I'm

868
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:37,319
Speaker 1: in my room and I never thought about Brando, never,

869
00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 1: And then Opening night comes at the mid my room

870
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:42,600
Speaker 1: and I go, what the fuck have I done? And

871
00:48:42,719 --> 00:48:46,759
Speaker 1: Greg Mosha walks in and says, Marlon Brando is three

872
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:50,239
Speaker 1: hundred pounds and he's in the house up on Muholland Drive,

873
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:52,600
Speaker 1: and he's not coming down here to do street Car

874
00:48:52,719 --> 00:48:55,719
Speaker 1: on Broadway tonight. Because if this audience that pay these

875
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:57,839
Speaker 1: tickets wants to see street Car on Broadway and see

876
00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:01,320
Speaker 1: have Live, it's you you're at now, and for a

877
00:49:01,360 --> 00:49:03,839
Speaker 1: whole generation of people, You're going to be at kas Finch,

878
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 1: which is kind of a cool thing. How do you

879
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:09,399
Speaker 1: feel about that? Honored? I really am, Thank you I'm

880
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:15,920
Speaker 1: honored to that means I pulled it off with his fresh, subtle,

881
00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:21,200
Speaker 1: and emotionally grounded performance. Jeff Daniels does indeed pull it off.

882
00:49:21,719 --> 00:49:25,560
Speaker 1: Do you hear that, Tony Voters, I'm Alec Baldwin and

883
00:49:25,719 --> 00:50:00,719
Speaker 1: you're listening to Here's the Thing, M two