Yes,Jeff Danielsalways understands the assignment.
It ran three months and then I stayed an extra month.
I mean, Hollywood, might as well audition, right?
Jeff Daniels.Everett Collection; Melissa Moseley/HBO; Matthias Clamer/SHOWTIME
And I gotHawaii Five-O.
So that’s nine days in Hawaii with my wife of four months and it’s Jack Lord.
So yes, I’m in.
CBS
I was a guest criminal, a high school kid… the plot was so weak.
But I got to work a little bit with Jack Lord and I learned how important hair is.
Everything else was a helmet.
Jeff Daniels and Debra Winger in ‘Terms of Endearment’.Everett Collection
I’m going, “Hair.
Remember to confirm about your hair.”
AndTerms of Endearmenthappened partly because Flap Horton was a very unlikeable role.
Jeff Daniels and Keanu Reeves in ‘Speed’.Everett Collection
We need likable roles to brand you.'
Well, I didn’t care about that.
I was an off-Broadway actor and very inexpensive.
Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in ‘Dumb and Dumber’.Everett Collection
So I was in.
She was Julia Roberts before Julia Roberts.
And you’re also there.
Everett Collection
That’s what it felt like."
“Speedwas, ‘Get me a job.’
And then they said, ‘Hang on, there’s a new draft coming, you die later.’
Melissa Moseley/HBO
I said, ‘How much later?’
He goes, ‘About page 88.’
‘I’m in.’
Francois Duhamel/Universal Pictures
I was lucky they did another draft.”
“I really wanted to doDumb and Dumber.
I needed a job.
Ursula Coyote/Netflix
But when I auditioned forDumb and Dumber, I said, ‘I can do this.
I know how to do this.’
There was hesitancy from the agents about working with Jim because he’s such a solo performer.
As one agent said, ‘He’s going to wipe you off the screen.’
Unless they cut those scenes that Jim’s not in, I’m going to score.'
“And then I smartly learned how to work with Jim so that Jim could be Jim.
We want Jim to be Jim Carrey, but it’s not a competition.
I instantly became the follower.
Lloyd Christmas is going to lead the way.
Come on, Harry.
Let him pull you like a puppy on a leash.'
And then we were good, and you get to play off Jim.
He really is a comedic genius.
“I wasn’t doing the kind of projects I wanted to do.
I had to take some risks and chase some things that were out to other people.
I said, ‘By the way, that’s funny.
[Flipping pages] That’s funny.
That’s really funny.’
And on and on and on, 10, 12 things.
He goes, ‘You’re the first actor that has found the humor in this.’
I think that’s why I got it.
Then I met Noah’s father, that helped.
That’s not the school that I went to.”
“That was about the time that I was feeling less than challenged.
I was going to quit before that happened.
HBO was going at the time, Showtime was going, that was about it for cable.
And Jim said, ‘I got David Chase, get yourself a good writer.’
I was lucky that when I made myself available Sorkin wanted me and I am now officially challenged.
But, as one of them said, ‘Wait until you see what you get to say.’
“Aaron is not shy about his politics, and, for me, they’re easy to wear.
Now Trump can call from his bed and why?
Because the eyeballs will be on the first 10 minutes ofMeet the Press.
So they lead with him, and they shouldn’t have.
Sorkin was going, ‘Don’t do that.
Don’t let them on.’
But we do because we got to get to the next commercial.
I said, ‘I’d love to.’
That was the audition.
Actually, the audition was three seasons ofNewsroom.
Yes, I would.'
And two years from that day when he asked me, we opened.
But it’s a creative relationship that is very reminiscent of the theater.
The writer says, ‘I know he can do this.
I’ve never seen him do this, but I’m going to write him to that.'”
“I had done a movie 15 years earlier with Scott Frank calledThe Lookoutand I just loved him.
He sent me the script and he was a cerebral bad guy.
He was a guy who needed to ride into a town that was full of psychiatrists.
Once you get how he thinks, then that’s where the fun is.
That makes up for having to learn for three months how to ride a horse.
Anybody who’s ever, ‘I’ve always wanted to do a Western,’ have you?
First rule, learn how to ride.
I talked about it in the Emmy speech.
I got thrown off, broke my wrist, and it’s still broken.
That’s the wrist I used tohold up the Emmy.That made it okay.”
And then post-Newsroom, post-Godless, post-Looming Tower, and post-Mockingbird, I was able to.
“Huh.American Rust.”
I went to Dan Futterman, he said, ‘I love it, let me do it.’
It really is a roll of the dice, both for Danny and me.
You’re not doing an independent movie that no one’s going to see.
And that’s a good thing, people actually seeing what you do.
I like that.Newsroomwas a series.
We went three years, that was enough for Aaron, enough for me.
American Rustis hopefully a series, we’ll see.
You get more to do; you live in the guy longer.
And then within two hours, you fall back into it.
So I like coming back to that same guy.
If that’s what happens withAmerican Rust, I don’t mind it.”
American Rustpremieres Sunday on Showtime.
