Jeff Daniels, Once Ready To Leave Show Business, Has Found His Groove

After Dumber and Dumber To finished filming in 2014, Jeff Daniels told co-star Jim Carrey, “I’m done.”

He was ready to leave show business.

But Carrey told him, “You can’t stop man. You can’t, you’re creative, you’re going to create something, you’ve got to keep creating.”

“That’s what we do!” Carrey added.

Netflix offers a modern-day version of the Tom Wolf novel A Man in Full, about the fall of an Atlanta real estate mogul. It's out today, May 2! https://t.co/J9Wa1JVSrg
— Atlanta Journal-Constitution (@ajc) May 2, 2024

Finding His Groove

These days, when Daniels is not working in film, he is writing songs and plays for his Michigan hometown’s Purple Rose Theatre Company.

During a Zoom interview, Daniels said, “It’s what keeps me going. It keeps me alive. It’s what I’m supposed to do. It’s helped me between the phone calls for the acting jobs. Because you can go insane staring at that phone. They’ll call you when they need you.”

“And so I’ve always battled whatever depression or fear might come of never working again by working on other things that don’t require Hollywood to need me,” Daniels continued.

Daniels is already a Hollywood legend, performing in movies like Terms of Endearment and Something Wild.

As Indiewire noted:

“Daniels has found his groove as an older star who carries both gravitas and danger. He broke out in his fifties with a push from Aaron Sorkin, who cast him as a word-spewing, womanizing, angry, Machiavellian network anchor with an ethical streak in HBO’s Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning series ‘The Newsroom” (2012-2014). Daniels hasn’t looked back.

Television, home of strong adult writing, has proved a powerful ally. After ‘Newsroom,’ Daniels earned a second Emmy as a one-armed western villain in Scott Frank’s ‘Godless’ (Netflix). He played two flawed FBI heroes, John O’Neill on ‘The Looming Tower’ (Hulu) and James Comey in ‘Comey Rule’ (Showtime), as well as a Pennsylvania chief of police in Dan Futterman’s ‘American Rust’ (Showtime).”

Wow. That’s a lot.

Many speculate that Daniels could earn himself a third Emmy for his portrayal of megalomaniacal Atlanta real estate mogul Charlie Croker in David E. Kelley’s entertaining six-part Netflix adaptation of A Man in Full, based on the Tom Wolfe novel.

Daniels says his character and the story fit today.

“It’s relevant,” said Daniels. “It sure is. Charlie Croker is not the only one who tries to convince people that he’s worth more than he really is. David E. Kelly did a good job of updating it so we could fall into that relevancy, whether it’s Trump or any number of guys who’ve overextended themselves and think that every meeting is just going to be a refinancing meeting and then lunch. And then Bill Camp goes, ‘You owe us $800 million by Tuesday, we’re calling the note.’”