Jeff Daniels has played diverse, memorable characters throughout his career, and sometimes he wonders what conversations his characters like Harry Dunne of “Dumb and Dumber” and Will McAvoy of “The Newsroom” might have with each other.
“One day I would love to invite all the characters over to my house for dinner,” he joked to Peter Travers. “I want to be the fly on the wall and hear the conversation.”
Daniels' latest project, “The Looming Tower,” is based on Lawrence Wright’s Pulitzer prize winning book, “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11/.” He plays John O’Neill, the protagonist in the eight-part Hulu series.
The series focuses on the clash between the FBI and CIA in the events leading up to 9/11 through the eyes of O’Neill, a confrontational and abrasive FBI agent who suspected that an Afghanistan-based mujahid named Osama bin Laden was going to attack the United States in some capacity.
'Unreal' star Constance Zimmer on the new season, how she got into acting from gymnastics and playing strong women Steve Buscemi on his role in the new satirical comedy 'The Death of Stalin' 'American Crime Story' star Darren Criss on playing serial killer Andrew Cunanan“He was brilliant in his own way. He was obsessed with bin Laden,” said Daniels. “His partner said his true love was the FBI.”
Daniels said the complexity of O’Neill attracted him to the character. O’Neill, indefatigable FBI agent, clashes with the CIA over the then-alleged bin Laden threat, and the spy agency refuses to take him seriously.
Even though the events take place in the late 1990s, Daniels said the continued goal of the two organizations and current political climate make the show relevant.
“It’s such a disgrace what he has done to the people of this country,” Daniels said referring to President Trump. “What he has done to the respect, decency, civility, class, integrity, credibility, accountability, responsibility – you can wipe all those off the table. Those don’t exist inside this White House.”
Daniels explained how his complex characters have allowed him to take risks.
“I was brought up in New York theater where the play you’re going to do next has nothing to do with the one you just did,” he said. “That’s why you do a 'Dumb and Dumber,' to completely throw everything in the air. Risk failure in a two-shot with a comedic genius like Jim Carrey, you hold your own and the next thing you know is you have got incredible range.”
Jumping between characters, he said, was mind trick he sharpened over the years.
“You don’t need to bring everything you have learned at your beck and call in the back of your mind and go, remember when you did that? You remember all that but you simplify it, you think how he would think around the lines and all that stuff. Once you start thinking like him, everything just kind of happens,” he said.
Daniels admitted that online streaming sites have become game changers to TV actors like himself.
“That’s where the actors are going. And stars, star vehicles, that’s a different orbit. And I was never in that,” he said. “I stood next to guys who ran it but I was never part of that. I was always just an actor and then suddenly Netflix calls.”
Daniels, who will be playing the iconic role of Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin’s Broadway show based on “To Kill a Mockingbird” later this year, also said that the prospect of shooting an entire novel was too good to give up. “I would never get that role in movies,” he said.
Watch the full interview with Daniels and Travers in the video above.
Download the all new "Popcorn With Peter Travers" podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Tunein, Google Play Music and Stitcher.