Actor Jeff Daniels is always writing. Plays, songs, a script or two. Even in interviews you get the sense the Michigan native is trying to relay the stories of his life in a way he’d find compelling as a reader, or listener. Bystander — as a viewer.
He joins us this week around the latest chapter of his crime series American Rust (12:30), reprising his role as Police Chief Del Harris. It’s a performance inspired by his midwestern upbringing in Chelsea, Michigan (16:06) and the formative teachings of theater director Marshall W. Mason (21:20). Then, Daniels reflects on his arrival to New York City in 1976 (24:06), performing in Lanford Wilson’s play Fifth of July (27:20), and his early on-screen roles in Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild (31:10), Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo (34:20), and Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale (44:20).
On the back-half, we walk through his years making The Newsroom (51:48), working with screenwriter (and then playwright) Aaron Sorkin (53:20), and how the two of them reimagined Atticus Finch and To Kill a Mockingbird for both Broadway (59:49) and what he calls “a country at a crossroads” (1:05:33). To close, we sit with the utility of good writing in this fraught era (1:10:30), and a musical tribute to his late father, Robert (1:15:32).
For questions, comments, or to join our mailing list, reach me at sf@talkeasypod.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oscar Nominations with Wesley Morris (The New York Times)
Dan Levy (‘Schitt’s Creek’) Goes His Own Way
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s New Hollywood Framework
Actor Michelle Williams Works from a ‘Place of Peace’
Talk Easy’s 2023 Mixtape
Bradley Cooper as ‘Maestro’ from The New Yorker Radio Hour
The New Yorker Editor David Remnick: 'There's No Time to Despair'
The Transformations of Actor Willem Dafoe
Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa Fights for the Protection of Journalists
Actor and Director Benny Safdie Does It All
The Futurist Vision of Actor and Filmmaker Brit Marling
The Ziwe Interview
Marina Abramović Creates Art from Pain
The Rise and Fall of Crypto Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried (with Writer Michael Lewis)
Singer-Songwriter Weyes Blood Gives Us ‘Something to Believe’
A Human Conversation with Writer George Saunders
Author and Critic Hua Hsu (The New Yorker) ‘Stays True’
The Transformations of Novelist Zadie Smith
Writer Sandra Cisneros Finds the Poetry of the World
Legend David Byrne (‘Stop Making Sense’) is Still Burning Down the House
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL