Editor’s Note- From time to time, we’ll post interesting interviews from our vault of nearly 150 episodes. This one is of particular interest as it was on the brink of the entertainment industry reopening after the second surge of Covid 19, and Actor/Producer/Musician Jeff Daniels took some time talk about the impact of that. Click Here if you would like to hear the podcast.
Richard Helppie
Welcome to the Common Bridge. We've got a great guest today. You'll recognize him-- actor, writer, playwright, singer, and a really great icon of our times in Jeff Daniels. Jeff, I really appreciate you being here and spending some time I know you're really busy these days.(Jeff: I am. But it's it's, happy to do this.) Great. Today we want to talk about the arts and specifically the performing arts. We've missed them, I've missed them. It's the biggest thing during the pandemic, besides being apart from family and friends. It just kind of feels like the soul was ripped out of our society. We couldn't go to a play, we couldn't see live music, we couldn't go see a film with other people. And I just thought about how audiences might be reacting to that and the artists themselves and that came to a screeching halt. And so today on the Common Bridge, our guest Jeff is unquestionably qualified to talk about this. Now, Jeff, I think you've been in about 80 feature films. I hear your voice doing voiceovers in various places. You've been nominated for a Tony Award on Broadway for "God's of Carnage," you've won an Emmy for your work at "Network." And what our audience might not know is that you're also an exceptional playwright. You've authored scripts, you've written musicals, you tour with your guitar and you sing. And by the way, audience, this is an actor that can sing and tell great stories. And he actually has stories about actors that cannot sing and they're quite entertaining. And most recently, you've won critical acclaim for your performance as Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird," and, of course, the founder of the renowned Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, Michigan. So Jeff, again, welcome. I know our audience knows a lot about you from the professional side, your public work, but you've also been a great booster for your hometown, and you've gotten involved with other causes. And you're very strong with your personal relationships, long-term friendships and such. Anything you'd like to share with our audience before we dive into what we're going to talk about today in terms of Performing Arts.
Jeff Daniels
No, you covered it. That was like "This is Your Life" with Ralph Edwards. That was good. That was pretty much everything. Yeah.
Richard Helppie
So you've been busy. So you've been you've been working. And that's good.
Jeff Daniels
I am working. I am working. And I think one of the things back to your earlier comment about the arts and audience's reaction to not having them. There's also those of us who are in the arts, who have spent our lives in the arts. They pulled the plug. And as my agent said, when the pandemic hit, he goes, "now I know how to get you to stop working. Throw a pandemic." And over the year, and it was a year, certainly away from acting, that now that I'm back in it, and we've been shooting this series for Showtime called "American Rust," we've been shooting it since March 1, and we're you know, this is June. So we're four months in, seven weeks to go. I forgot that I missed it. Or I realized that I missed it. And why do I miss it? I mean, I could retire. I, you know, I've had a good run and you know and going in at the pandemic, I was thinking, boy, I'd love to be finished with this go out with Atticus Finch. You know, Ted Williams hits a home run gets in the dugout goes to his car, do that. But I think the thing that's common between what the audience-- I have a feeling will return to because they miss it and what the artists will return to because they miss it, is that when you do great art, whether it's a song, a book, a movie, a play, whatever it might be, you're more than you. I've always said you know when I'm, when I become Atticus when I become Harry Dunne in "Dumb and Dumber," when I become Frank Griffin in "Godless," I'm more than just me. And I think that's what happens when people get inside a theater-- in my case, like with "To Kill a Mockingbird" and they shut the doors behind them. And they are transported and it's great art that does that. You can stand... I remember shooting... no I was doing some press in Paris, and I went to The Leuvre. I gotta go to The Leuvre. I've never been there. Gotta say it, got to do it. And I stood in front of "The Mona Lisa," which is not big. I mean, it's like this. (guestures) It's not. It's not, you think... it's not. And you just get pulled in. And the smile and the half smile and the look in the eyes and the way that it, that the painting was captured. What it does is it pulls us out up into something else. And we experience life more fully. That's what the arts can do. You don't have to do the arts. But I think you're less than you could be if you kind of gave yourself over to art that is well done and takes you beyond your insignificant self, which is what it comes down to. I think, I think the arts gives us significance, understanding, and it's like, it's like getting wings. We can't fly, but when you stand in front of great art, or you experience great art, yes, you can. It gives you wings.
Richard Helppie
Indeed, and I understand what you're saying about "The Mona Lisa," and "The David," clearly things that leave you speechless. Left me speechless. And I think you enjoy a reputation of being really well prepared for your roles. And I've had the pleasure on the occasion to see you perform a number of times. And when you were doing "Blackbird," that to me was so extraordinary. I don't want to see it again, by the way. Because, that was very powerful. And I think they're bringing it back, with a different cast. But it's that kind of range, where, when I see you perform, you're into that character. And "To Kill a Mockingbird" was a great rewrite of this very, very powerful book and play about our time. And it has so much relevance to today, and the treatment based on what a person of one color might say versus what a person of another color might be saying. And I think the way that the writers worked it, was extraordinary. And you and the cast members deserve all the accolades that you're receiving. Now, you ended your run with "To Kill a Mockingbird." True?
Jeff Daniels
Yes, I ended it once. Yes.
Richard Helppie
Is there something that you can share with us or it's news to come?
Jeff Daniels
No, it's been announced. It was announced, I believe last week. So it's new. And it wasn't for sure. But, it got done. And there are a bunch of reasons to go back. One I didn't feel I had to. I had done it for a year. Eight shows a week for a year, I didn't miss a show, I was Cal Ripken, Jr.-- 415 shows, never missed. Which is I mean, there are people who did that. There were two other cast members in "To Kill a Mockingbird" who also didn't miss. It's a long haul. It's a slog. It's a marathon. And I just wanted to-- I had a feeling that might be the last one. And television, you know premium cable, "Prestige Dramas," is what they're calling it, is calling me and they're calling me a lot and I really enjoy working in front of the camera. So I didn't, I didn't artistically need to go back. I had done it every way I could think of, goodnight. But with the pandemic, with Broadway shutting down --being a part of the reopening, if we can get the show up to what I remember it being, which is a lot of work, because you're going to have some of the members of the cast who are from the original production, some who are not, a few that are new, and we only have four weeks so I don't want to put up the show again and have it be creaky, not as good, so that was an issue. I was able to get Celia Keenan-Bolger back as Scout-- I would not do it without her. She's essential. It's a two- headed monster--"To Kill a Mockingbird" is not just Atticus -- and Celia won the Tony Award for it, so I had to have her. So the producers made that happen. Now, it's also what Atticus Finch means today in today's America post- George Floyd. Post all the wokeness. Also being aware now of white privilege, white blindness. You know, an African-American friend of mine, Thornetta Davis, who, we did a song together called "I Am America." And Thornetta, you know, I was talking about the Statue of Liberty. And she says, "Yeah, we only see the back of that." (Rich interjects "Oh, boy.") "Yeah, it's pointed towards Europe, Ireland, England, France, Germany, not pointed towards Africa. And we'd been there for 200 years when they erected it, or 100 years now. 200 years. 200 years of slaves." And so I was like, that was just, it's just perspective. When you're brought up in a small town, that's white, that's what you know. That doesn't mean you're a racist. But that does mean you have to you, you know, that there's a whole other side to American history. And certainly the original sin of the Founding Fathers is now at a crossroads, I think. So what can my going back as Atticus Finch do to help that and as long as there's systemic racism out there, or that white people who need to "come to Jesus" on this, then it's relevant. And as I went through the script-- I was going through it yesterday-- and (long pause) and it's and what Harper (Lee) wrote, what Aaron (Sorkin) wrote, it still resonates. It may be 1934, Maycomb, Alabama. But you know when the judge talks about Boo Radley--(Oh, we're not going to pin the murder on him. Everybody thinks he's a gang member. Everyone thinks he's a father-- stabbed his father was scissors. He's going to end up in a mental facility.) And what's that get us? You know? And you look at that going, Oh, yeah, that's social media. That's cancel culture. They're gonna cancel Boo Radley. Got to blame somebody. So I think it's gonna resonate even more. The other thing is that I didn't think that we could ever match-- whether it's going back to Atticus or some other Broadway play-- that I would ever match the electricity I felt nearly every night doing that show. Certainly leading up to opening it was electric. You were the toast of the town. You were the number one show on Broadway. You were "it" for a year. You can't top that. You got the critics, you got the audiences, you got the the dignitaries coming backstage-- Robert De Niro sitting in my dressing room-- that's not gonna happen again, to that level. So go out with a homerun. But now with the pandemic, and post everything racially that we've been going through, I'm interested to see what that audience is, you know, they've talked about it's the Roaring 20's all over again, 100 years later. I think we're going to find out. The audiences could be so ready for this. And so ready, as you were saying earlier, for any kind of live human connection, which I think is what the arts can do when you shut the doors and you go. That I think it could be a great three months. So I said, Yes.
Richard Helppie
I'm happy that you did do that. I had occasion to travel to New York and see the show, as you know, my wife and I enjoy Broadway. And I thought it was great. And if you don't mind me telling my audience the happenstance that, did not know it, but a woman who taught my children in school, English and who taught the book for over 30 years, saw the show and we -- she just happened to be there at the same time. And she raved about it and said it was very true.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Common Bridge to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.