You’re only as good as your next performance

I’ve been at this for almost 40 years. To risk failure by going further is the reason you keep going.
— Jeff Daniels

Studio 360
03.06.16

Jeff Daniels Is a Great Jerk
Interview
Thursday, March 03, 2016

If you’ve seen any of his movies, you know that Jeff Daniels is great at playing a particular kind of jerk — the almost-likable kind. From “Terms of Endearment,” to “The Squid and the Whale,” Daniels has a knack for those deeply flawed guys who make terrible mistakes, but somehow convince you that deep down they’re just wounded.

The same is true — and then some — of his role in the play “Blackbird,” currently on Broadway. Daniels plays a man who, at age 40, had sex with his 12-year-old neighbor. Fifteen years later, after Daniels’ character has served time in prison and started over with a new name, the woman, played by Michelle Williams, tracks him down at his office. The play covers what happens over the next couple of hours.

Kurt Andersen: You played this part almost a decade ago off-Broadway. I can’t imagine wanting to play a pedophile once, but here you are doing it again. How come?

Jeff Daniels: It ain’t a Disney movie, I know that. I had thrown what I thought was everything I had at it before, and I remember Dustin Hoffman came to see it. He came backstage, and he was very complimentary, but he looked at me and said, “You underplayed it didn’t you?” That’s his way of saying there’s more there. [When producer] Scott Rudin called nine years later and said, “Let’s take it to Broadway,” that was my first thought. Despicable as what this character had done, and what you have to go through to become him — I hadn’t gone all the way. I’ve been at this almost 40 years. To maybe learn something new, to fail, to risk failure by going further — that’s the reason you keep going.

Some of your finest performances are some version of a jerk — not necessarily villains, but they are definitely non-heroic.

They’re characters with flaws, kind of like us. Some of the squeaky clean heroes that you might see in a lot of movies — as soon as they have a flaw they redeem themselves, and these guys don’t. They live with them, and I just find that interesting.

In your career, do you have a sense of, “I’m famous. I can go anywhere, do anything”?

I’m famous, so that answers everything? No. It is fleeting. It doesn’t last long. You’re only as good as your next performance, that’s why I came back to “Blackbird.” You’ve got to keep challenging yourself, especially now. You’re famous for — forget 15 minutes — 15 seconds, and if you’re not doing something to sustain it so you can continue working, you’re going to look up and 10 years ago was the last good thing you did.