In "Because of Winn-Dixie," Daniels plays a preacher and the father of Opal (Robb), a lonely child who befriends a goofy-looking dog that becomes her best-friend. Daniels, who took the role because he wanted to work with director Wayne Wang, describes the film as being about the "power of communication and universal feelings of love."
INTERVIEW WITH JEFF DANIELS ('Preacher'):
When it comes to working with kids and dogs…
I'm the guy to call. Look at the resume. I have kids of my own. I have dogs. Actually there is a way to do it. There is a way to kind of be ready for anything…
First of all, AnnaSophia was - it's her first film, I think, and she was a little pro, which was a bonus. You never really expect whether she'll even know lines, whether after two hours of the day, she's tired and wants to go home. That never happened over the three and a half months or whatever we shot. So that's a bonus. But you're just ready for anything, what they may or may not know as far as experience or the craft. You help steer them. And with the animals, it's just improv. You just go with whatever and then they say, “Cut,” and they either don't use it or the happy little accident finds its way into the film. So you kind of embrace it instead of fight it.
Did you take a secular approach to this character? He’s seem to be not a ‘preacher’ character but a character who happens to be a preacher.
Yeah, and I think that was a smart choice not only of Kate [DiCamillo] in the book but also the screenplay and [director] Wayne Wang. It's not about a certain religion. We don't get very specific about it. It's more about a character who happens to be a preacher who is going through some issues of his own, which are revealed later in the film. I think this family film has more depth than some family films try and reach for.
The movie captures a real sense of culture in this Louisiana community.
It exists down there. There's a lot of religion. There's just a different feel in the South that I think Wayne captures real well, not only in how he pulled the performances off, but also in the look. While it's set in Florida, we shot in Napoleonville and Donaldson, Louisiana, these two…one-spotlight towns. And while there was a lot of production design, a lot of the stuff was right there. There was some effort early on to polish it up and make it a little nicer to look at, and Wayne really fought for the look that he achieved. And I think it helps the film.
Were you surprised at how faithful the movie was to the book?
I think what helped that was I got the script, read the script, got the [book], read the book. That was the order. I think what helped the fact that we stayed as close to it was that it was so regarded. It won awards. And as directors, actors, filmmakers, you know the story already works and it's a great luxury going into the project. There are so many projects that you go into hoping the story works, and here comes a new third act and that kind of thing. But we already knew that before we shot any film, so I think they were very smart to stay with that same story and same kind of dramatic structure. I think that was a good move.
Which was the easier breed to deal with, this one or the Dalmations?
Well, they were trained by the same guy, Mark Forbes, I think, at Birds and Animals [Unlimited]. Same trainers for Dalmatians were the same guys at “Winn-Dixie.” But the “Winn-Dixie” dogs are inherently a little smarter, whatever kind of dogs they are. But the Dalmations, I think, are known to be less smart and hyper. And I know he worked for nearly six months on the Dalmations. He had to really kind of get them to do what they were supposed to do. I think there was less of that with these dogs.
When Mark Forbes did interviews for “101 Dalmations,” the first thing he said was that he didn’t want the film to encourage families to buy Dalmations.
That was very smart of him to say. I did Letterman and Dave said, "A pet for everyone, are they?" And I said, "Not a pet for anyone" after six months of Dalmations.
What kind of dogs do you have at home?
I have two Australian shepherds, herders. They herd. They herd my wife. She can't go anywhere in the house and they're right with her. And a Chow/Shepherd that somebody about 10-12 years ago — I live out in the country — they just brought him out in the country and kept going, so we took him in. Great dog.
Has a pet ever brought you out of sadness, out of a funk?
(Laughing) I don't know. Maybe not completely… Fred is my Chow/Shepherd and you can certainly sit down with Fred and Fred doesn't care about what just happened on the phone. That helps. If you can give yourself over to Fred, Fred will help you. It's less about Fred, and more about me. But Fred is there if I need him. He's a very cheap shrink.
