How’s it feel to have these nicely contrasting films coming out?
It's been an interesting two months. They all kind of coincidentally landed at the same time. “The Five People You Meet In Heaven,” I was happy to do that. Mitch Albom is a friend. That seemed to be received well. “Imaginary Heroes” was a chance to work with Sigourney [Weaver] in a really difficult role. And this film, family-oriented, has got a lot of depth to it. And then at Sundance I did a movie called “The Squid and The Whale,” which just has got a lot of heat. And so from middle of December to middle of February it's like boom boom boom boom.
What attracted you to “Imaginary Heroes?”
[Sigourney Weaver] and I had been around New York since the 70s together. We'd never done anything together, so I really like working with people who are really good, whom I haven't worked with before. That was one reason to go in. Also I really liked the script. It was a great indie script.
[Writer/director] Dan Harris is 25 or something — he looks 12 — and he's so, so smart. He's part of this new breed of young filmmakers who understands story, not just visuals. So when it's always about relationships, especially when it's a supporting character and you don't have the screen time to show every piece of the journey, it gets a little tricky. But we had good people on that. The scenes with Sigourney were great. The scenes with Laura Linney in “The Squid and The Whale” — I loved doing that one. I had more to do in that one.
Where do you stand with your playwriting? Are you doing more writing right now?
The Purple Rose [Daniel’s theatre company] is going real strong. I haven't written for a couple of years but I wrote a play that we just opened last week called “Norma and Wanda.” It's two sisters and it's a wild comedy that's actually got a message to it. And locally in Michigan we got some pretty great reviews, so we'll see what happens with it. We're at least gonna do a nine-week sold-out run there. If nothing else it will get published, which is fine with me.
What do you get out of writing you don’t get from acting?
Creatively, you have more control. There is a joy in crafting a role for a certain actor or actress, which I do in Michigan. We have a company and you tailor it for them like it's a suit. And there's an art to that. So that's kind of the payoff. Did I really find her voice that no one else has found, that thing she can do, that only I saw because she made some comment two years ago in the green room, and it stuck with me, and it turned into this? And I hit that.
By the time you get to opening night even before the critics [write their reviews], you know whether you did or not. It's interesting because when we opened, I told Guy Sanville, my artistic director who directed it, I said, "It's over. It's over for me now." It's not about the opening and all of that. It's just - you're done. And now it's, “Where's the next one?” So I really like that.
It's more solitary, you have complete creative control. The other thing too is that as an actor, you're asked to play this role, that role, that role. You don't get to play that, that, that, that or that, that, that, that, that because you're not a woman or you're completely wrong for it. But as a writer you can play it.
Do you act in your plays?
I haven't acted on our stage yet in 15 years. I've directed a couple of times. It's my least favorite thing. I'd rather be the playwright. Again, the artistic director I have is very good. He loves directing. I don't. I just [say], “Let me know when they're ready to have me come in and kind of help.” The line, “Yes, but I've always wanted to direct,” is replaced by, “I'd rather write. I've always wanted to write.”
I have this CD I've done. I've been writing songs for 30 years and I know there have been far too many actor-singer-songwriters, and William Shatner is the lead among us. Minnie Driver, Robert Downey Jr. — I mean, you go down the list. I've got a CD that raises a lot of money for my theatre company. It's at jeffdaniels.com and we've sold 10,000 of them already. It's just me live on stage with an acoustic guitar and all the songs are original. It's kind of an extension of the playwriting career. A lot of them are funny. There's one called “If William Shatner Can, I Can Too.”
