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--Morning! So, we have a very long and hectic, yet exciting and hopefully
interesting, day today. Today's gonna be a press day, so I have three interviews.
First I'm gonna go to New York Live on NBC. That is a solo interview, and it's
actually my first time being interviewed live on television.
Then, I'm gonna go
downtown, meet up with Celia and Gbenga. We're gonna go to WNYC, All of It
with Alison Stewart, who is a wonderful, wonderful host.
And then we, Celia and I are then going to go across town to the AOL Build
Series and do another interview. So, I hope you find it interesting. I hope I'm
not too nervous! And, yeah. Let's go! Let's start this day!
All right. Here we are.
Rockefeller Center. I'm gonna go in.
Wish I had brought a jacket.
I'm really cold.
Okay. I'm in the green room, getting ready to do this interview. And look what's
here. Makes me feel like a special person. They know my name.
--Okay. So, the interview is done. Now I'm downtown. I'm going to WNYC.
I'm excited about this one because I get to do it with Gbenga and Celia and Will,
and it's a little bit ... I'm less scared. It's scary to do it by yourself, but but
I did it! And now for the radio!
Look at this wonderful view. Wonderful view WNYC.
Look at these back yards!
Wouldn't it be nice to have a backyard like that?
Gbenga
would you like a backyard like that?
--I have a backyard and it's not as nice as that.
--What are you gonna do about that?
--Save up money, all this great Broadway
money, to do my backyard. [whispers] No it's not.
--I was going to say,
you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna hang out on Pinterest and watch other
people's backyards. --You just lurking on
Pinterest all the time? --Yes, yes.
I wish I could have that. I wish I could have that. I'll never have that.
[laughs]
--Do you have your um are your chairs... Do you have a lot of your
own chairs in your own house?
--We just just moved some. They were there and
then just move the bunch to a storage in Brooklyn, but I've got a couple
pieces at the house.
--Got it.
--Yes. Don't break in!
--Do you want to let
Broadway.com know what the website is?
--So, yes please check us out. Enitan Vintage
E-N-I-T-A-N vintage.com. It's
It's my vintage antique antique and
vintage furniture line that I design re-reimagine these really cool pieces have
been collected from all over. Check us out. You can check out the New York Times
Style magazine section from last week. It was awesome.
It's really beautiful, and
look who it is!
--Oh my god. What a stunner!
--There goes my girl!
--Just watching her she doesn't even know she's on camera.
--She walks around like she's on camera. --Gosh she look good!
--Like a painted who-ore [laughs]
--All right! We just finished.
I thought that was really nice.
--She's so smart. --Yeah, Alison Stewart
extraordinary. Now...
--We also got to see Thomas Sadoski and Daveed Diggs in the waiting room.
--God, swoon times 2. --Correct
--So, now, we are going to AOL Build. We're gonna walk across town, and
then do that interview.
--Yeah.
See you there!
--What I like about Build is Build has a very fun green room.
Fiona Shaw is on right now.
There is liquor,
Tazo tea..
Wonderful, sensible decor...
With a sensible Celia.
--Okay, last interview done. It's been
a long day. And the workday hasn't even started!
Okay, so now I'm
gonna go home,
I'm gonna walk my dog,
gonna take a nap, and then go to the
theater and hope that I don't die while walking around these streets
looking at a camera!
Thanks for joining me today!
Tune into our What's the Dill coming at you in three, two, one!
--Look who it is.
It's Jeff Daniels. For What's the Dill segment...
Jeff Daniels, what's the dill
with living in Michigan?
--Umm, well,
Kathleen my wife is from there. I'm from
there. It was 1986, and we were getting ready to... I was doing Lemon Sky at Second
Stage, and my rent was going up. It was 750 a month.
--For how big of an apartment?
--One-bedroom, 82nd/ Columbus. And I just didn't think I could afford to stay in
New York anymore. I had a two year old boy, more work coming, and we just decided to
go home. I didn't think the career would last. I thought I'd be done.
--But this was
after Terms of Endearment, Purple Rose of Cairo...
--Didn't trust it. Yeah. --Did you
ever live in Hollywood?
--No. Couldn't do it. I lived in New York for about ten years
before we moved back, and now we've got an apartment here again.
--Do you feel like living in Michigan affected your career in any way?
--Yes, yes.
it it almost ruined it. --Do you think so?
--Oh, god, yeah. --Why?
--Well, well, it
didn't ruin it, but it was it definitely out of sight out of mind a little bit,
and I had to get on airplanes and fly to LA for a meeting, you know? But also with
Purple Rose and Terms of Endearment, there were people flying to Michigan to see me
which lasted about five years. --And things were more on your terms?
--Yeah, and then then things weren't you know
going as well. And suddenly, they weren't
coming to Michigan anymore. And so I had to go to LA and audition for a bunch of
movies in one week, and one of them was Dumb and Dumber.
--And you feel like that
kind of changed, that raised the bar in a different way?
--Yeah, Dumb and Dumber
changed my life. It really did. --Changed a lot of
people's lives. --It done changed a lot of ... It
that movie speaks to a lot of people.
--Yes. But, but what do you feel like it changed?
It made you more put you in a mainstream way that you
weren't before? --Dumb and Dumberer, and
and it's interesting to be around a lot
of actors in Mockingbird who are at different stages of their career. They're
all really, really good people. You're all really good.
--Thank God. --All of you, all of you.
What changed for me was... I would go through an airport on the way to a movie
or something, and after Dumb and Dumber— before Dumb
and Dumber, it was, What's your name?
--Oh, they're like, I think I know you.
--What's your name? Are you from Ohio. It was that.
And then after Dumb and Dumber was,
Jeff Daniels.
--Interesting. --Mhmm
--And you were in Terms of Endearment. You were in a Woody Allen film, and
--Well, Dumb and Dumber was seen by you know zillions.
The others were seen well and highly you know recognized films but Dumb and
Dumber was was seen by everyone.
--So, you then started --When I say everyone,
--You mean everyone.
--Yeah.
So, then you started a theater company
--I did. --When did you start that?
--I was uh 86, we moved back, about 89 --Oh!
--1989, I was bored,
creatively I was bored. We enjoyed living there. It was great for
the kids. It was you know we understood how to raise kids in Michigan because we
both came up you know grew up there, and sent them to the public school that we
both went to. But creatively, I missed all those things at the Broadway— you know a
Broadway play can do or a movie set can do or... And so I said, Why don't I buy a
building and see if I can't create like a circle rep, which is what I started
out off-Broadway back in the 70s. Why don't I create a theater that has
new plays written by Michigan playwrights? And where are they? Where
are these actors? Where are the playwrights? The directors, designers... And over the
first 10 years, we would gather these people, teach them what I knew, encourage
them, get them writing, get them directing, and get them acting. So, about year
10, we kind of knew what we were doing. Maybe a little before that. And then
about year 15, we really were on a stride where we could we knew how to develop
new work, which is a lot, you know, it's a lot... You don't just do staged readings,
which I think is a cop-out for a lot of theaters. Let's do a staged reading at
your play and then give you some notes and then we're not going to do your...You
got to produce these people. And so, we produce your play. We make sure it's
ready and we beat the playwright up to get it ready,
but then we're going to produce this one because we want to produce your next
four, which means you're gonna keep writing. --So they have a home.
---They have a creative home. The actors have a creative
home, the designers, directors. It's their
Broadway.
--Do you act in these plays?
--Not yet, no. --It's been 28 years and I
haven't acted yet. --But you've written some?
--Yeah. I've written...I'm working on
number 18. --18?
--Mmhmm. --You've written 18 plays?
--17. --Right you're working on one.
--I'm working on 18.
--What about directing? -- I directed two. Two?
Yeah, I directed two. I hated it. I can't stand
directing. --Why?
--I don't care what color your shirt is.
--It's blue.
--I don't care. [laughs]
--You come to me and you go, Should it be blue or red? I
don't care. I just don't care. --Then why is that
--Why am I thinking about I
don't care what you think. Just think something and say it, would you?
--So, why is
it writing that that you like?
--I get to play parts I'm not right for, is one
thing. --Because you are pretending to be
that person while you're writing it? --Yeah,
I'm... There's the black couple. I wrote a play called Flint, about the
water. And there's a black couple and a white couple, and you know,
--You're all of them. --White
working-class and black working class, and I'm in their kitchen. And it's fun. I
like it's like you get to the part of the fun about acting is it's really just
adult make-believe, pretend. That's really all it is. And so as a writer you get to
pretend and make-believe even more. I like that. I like, I can write funny. I
know how to make people laugh. I know how
to write so that people are laughing so
hard they're crying, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing to watch.
--You've made me cry many times.
--Have I?
--Many times. Riddle me this: --Hmm
--So, now you're in New York. You're
gonna be here till November, till --November 3rd at 6 p.m.
--You have the flight back already?
Do you miss Michigan?
--I miss my family, but my kids are all in their 30s and
late 20s,
and they're coming to New York. They're coming here.
So, there's that.
The theatre company is designed to run without me. Has been since you know
28 years ago. I knew I'd be gone a lot. So, you know, I like New York City a lot. I
like Michigan, and all of that, but I'm very happy here. I have no, Oh, I got to
get back! I go, Come see me. I'm here. And they do! You know, when
the kids were younger, I I had to gun back. I had to do a lot of Friday night
red eyes from LA, and then be superdad on Saturday, Saturday night, Sunday. Sunday at
5, you're flying back to LA and you're on a set Monday morning.
That's when they're junior high, high school.
--Do you think having your stay here, because this
is the longest you've been in New York for such an extended period of time in a
while?
--In a while. Carnage, God of Carnage, we ran... We rehearsed January ran
March through July, took a month off, and then September through Thanksgiving. So,
that was the longest stretch. That was, whatever that was, seven months with a
break. --Right.
--And no this is as we filmed this right now.
--Where are we? Are we almost at six --Six
months, almost six months into it with six months to go.
And it's fine! I still enjoy
it. I'm really interested to see —I mean, guys, I don't know about you.
What's the longest
run you've ever done?
--This will be it.
I think the longest... --Really?
--After nine months of Spring
Awakening, I left. --Nine, so you've done nine months
-- I've done nine months. But there was
a, I think there was a break. I actually don't remember because it was so long
ago. --Were you out of your mind
--I was 18, so I was out of my mind for
so many other reasons. --You were happy to be there.
-- I was just living in New York, etc, etc. This is a
very different, this is a different mind game.
--Is it? Why? --Yeah, because you know I'm
a grown adult and I have a process and a craft, and it's the idea of keeping it
fresh and alive... --Can you sustain it?
--Yeah, it's about sustainability. And and and to keep it
organic.
--Can you go to a Broadway show and see when they're not there.
--Yeah, yeah. --Doesn't that annoy you?
--Yeah! Especially in the long run. --And it's easy
to fall into that, too, --Yeah
--And that's what, you know, we're all doing a great job of...
And I think the whole key is listening. --I think the audience is helpful, too
--Audiences help
but being in a hit...
is a big hell of a... --Yeah, the audience is really receptive
and they're very different every night, so I think that kind of keeps us keeps
us on our toes. --Yeah.
-- I can't imagine doing it for
longer. That's a lot. That's a lot. --Well, there there are people as you know,
friends of yours probably, that that are in their second year of Evan Hansen and
things like that, right? --Right, yeah.
--Those people are... I don't know the actress'
name. I should.
I went to see Evan Hansen, I think it was last May when we
were in workshop, and she, the understudy went on. Platt wasn't there, and he
understudy was like just knock-down great.
--Yeah. --But
the his mother, the actress had played his mother...
Uhh. --Rachel Bay Jones?
--Sounds right. That's Evan Hansen's mother.
The one who plays the other mother is
--Blonde?
--We're talking about Rachel Bay Jones.
--Yeah. -- Rachel then it was Rachel. She
was loaded up, and I think she was in her second year of doing that show.
--I don't know how long she stayed,
--But she, there was no, was I say, Whatever she's doing months and
months and months and months and months into this run,
on a Tuesday night. That. She was fully invested, fully committed. I said
That is what we should all be shooting for. --That's what we're striving to do.
--It's hard. It's eight shows a week, and we got, you know, our job is to make
it look like it's happening for the first time for them. We don't care
whether it's not for you. We just don't care. We need... It's us. We're paying
money. We made the effort to get here. Should have your, you should throw your
best at it. And you know, go rest later. So, that's kind of it. I also think there's
an obligation to, especially with Mockingbird. --Yeah
It's so important to
people. --Oh my god. It's... you gotta
you have an obligation. You have a
responsibility to throw it, throw everything you got at it every night. And
and we do, and that's what's really encouraging, even at six months. Going, Wow.
It's still alive. You know, when it gets rolling, when somebody throws a look at
you that's different, and that's what happens a lot. Boom! You grab onto it.
--It sparks, yeah. --And you go.
--Yeah, it's true. That's well put.
--Yeah. --One last question,
when this is over,
how long will it be do you think til you return to the stage?
Cuz you're doing a year.
That's really, that's really commendable.
--I'm doing a year. --Yeah.
--I guess time will tell. --And
I'm doing Atticus Finch. And we're a huge hit. And it's Atticus
--You mean nothing will compare? -- I,
how do you top this?
--Yeah.
--How do you.. You know, and I'm not 18 like you are.
--I'm not 18 anymore.
--I'm older, so this might be it.
--You think this is your swan song? -- I don't know!
I don't know. It might be. --Patti LuPone has said that many times.
--Has she really? --Yeah.
She keeps coming back. --She does.
--Maybe you're the male Patti LuPone.
--I'd take that. --All right. Bye guys.
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