September 17, 2021 • 32 mins
Carlos talks to actor and playwright Jeff Daniels about his extensive acting career and his new Showtime series, American Rust.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Jeff Daniels grew up in Michigan and began acting in
the sixth grade. He would later move to New York
to pursue his acting career and hasn't looked back since.
He can be seen in some hit movies and series
like Dumb and Dummer, hbo Is, The Newsroom, and Tears
of Endearment. On this episode of The Carlos Watson Show podcast,
Jack Daniels reflects on his extensive acting career and his
(00:25):
new Showtime series American Rest. Hey, Jeff, Carlos, how are you?
I am good. I'm good, although I'm not as musically
inclined as apparently you are. That looks nice behind you, well,
some of them are. I mean some of them are
like from the twenties and thirties and forties, and you know,
(00:46):
I look at them as like, you know, either pieces
of art that you can hand down to your kids
or all the drugs I did not take you home,
so the better choice probably there. Now, do you have
a favorite song? What's what's your song? What do you
love to play songs? Now? Blues? I love acoustic blues.
(01:07):
I I I started out listening to Doc Watson, and uh,
I was in New York. I went to New York
in nineteen seventy six, and a couple of guys had
acoustic guitars, and so I wanted to get better at it.
So I learned. I heard of Doc Watson, Steve Goodman, um,
Stephen Grossman is an incredible acoustic Once I got into that, yeah,
(01:30):
came about all that. So but then I heard then
I found the Blues. Then you start going, oh, oh,
it's the beginning of everything, right and uh, and I
actually went down with my son. We took our r
V one year and drove down to Clarksdale, Mississippi, and
stood on the crossroads, went to Robert Johnson's grave. All that.
(01:51):
It was as important as people who go to Cooperstown
in the baseball This was just as important. I had
to go see where Robert Johnson was buried. Oh my god, Now,
now we're in New York. Were you Because New York
in seventy six was an interesting place. Where were you?
Were you there? Well? I was in and out of there.
(02:12):
My mom and dad met. My mom was stepping on
a boat in New York back in the day when
my dad spotted her. And UH was ambitious enough to
get on the boat and they actually had to kick
him off. But you know, fast forward, four kids in
a fifty years of marriage, and you know, I spent
a lot of time in New York where they met. So, uh,
(02:34):
seventy six in New York, it was the year. Uh
the next year, seventy seven was the blackout right July?
I think, Yeah, I was under studying on Broadway and
everything just shut down. You had to walk home and
I was at twenty three and seventh on the tenth
floor of a building. Elevators were out, so had you
(02:54):
walk up the stairwells, you know, feeling the walls and
counting to ten floors. You didn't have cell phones and
flash light, you didn't have anything like that. So, yeah,
it was it was. It was a different, different city
back then. Did you find it scary? Do you find
it exciting? Because you also had disco, you had Studio
fifty four, you had you know, you had all kinds
(03:16):
of stuff. You actually had. The Yankees were good then,
although I assume you're a Tigers guy, irmand Monson and
Ron Gidrey and Reggie Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, I you know,
I look back, it was it was you you dealt
with it, you know. Uh, you didn't go on Eighth Avenue.
You just didn't go down there. Yeah, and the forty
two Straight and eighth Avenue, it was a lot different
(03:38):
back in the seventies. You didn't go there, and uh,
you don't go into Central Park at night. All that
stuff was just you just kind of it was probably
a more guarded kind of existence, you know. And now
now with Disney and Times Square and Times Square being
you know gone, and are their peep shows and now
it's like corporate America everywhere you look, flash and flash,
(04:02):
you know. Yeah, I guess that's better. Yeah, but you
know it's Uh. I still enjoy going to New York
and I'm gonna go back, and uh, I still love
the city. I love I love the whole heart of it.
I love the fact that so many people in it
or the best at what they do. Right. Um, it's
(04:22):
a good place to be. Where did you grow up
your Michigan guy, Yes, I grew up in a town, Chelsea, Michigan, Um,
which is where I live now. And uh, yeah, Kathleen's
from here. I'm from here. And we were in New
York for about ten years, married for about five married
for five of it, but ten years of New York City.
And then we had a two year old boy in
(04:44):
nineteen six and said, why don't we just move home
and I'll use the airport in Detroit and that's I'll commute.
We did, Wait, where is Chelsea in Michigan. It's right
near Anne Arbor, so it's an hour from the airport. Okay, okay.
I had a I had a few folks who I
work with who always joked that Michiganders love to use
(05:05):
their hands and point where it is. Uh on there
do you? Okay? Okay, okay, But now how easy was
that to use the airport and uh and pursue pursue
your career? Did that have any compromises for you? Already benefits? Yeah?
I mean you're you're you're a bit out of sight,
out of mind, and so what what happens is that
(05:28):
you for me anyway? You take anything, not anything, you
take supporting roles, you take television. I was doing stuff
on A and E and HBO in the late eighties,
you know I was. I wasn't back then. If you know,
I'm a movie actor. I only do film. And while
I was doing everything, um, I just thought that supporting
(05:50):
actor was probably where I was headed. Um, I didn't
want to get in the rat race, the chase for
the biggest star in the history of stars, which to
me meant you had to be in l a And
I just wasn't gonna do it. So family first, and
I'll do the best I can, you know, in a
kind of secondary position, the crew being secondary. And then
(06:12):
I did Dumb and Dumber. And that brought me all
kinds of years in a lot of ways, and and
and you couldn't get dramas to look at me for
a while, but comedies for twelve year old kids, Yeah,
I was I was your guy. Uh. And then you know,
and then I just h and I think I'd spread
myself out. And then by doing Dumb and Dumber with
(06:35):
some against some of the dramas that I had done
over the years, Uh, that opened up a range that
showed that I had ranged. That was one of the
reasons I wanted to do Dumb Dumber, was to go
from like a Gettysburg to a Dumb and Dumber and
in between those two things are a lot of jobs.
If he can do this, and he can do that,
(06:57):
he can do this Clint said that when we did
blood work. You know, I'd done a drama two days
in the valley and Don and Dumber and Clint had
seen both of them, believe it or not, and he said,
if you can do this, and you can do that,
you can do this one. You know that's that said
it right there. That bought me a lot of years.
And then you know, Newsroom happened after that, And now
(07:19):
I've been riding newsrooms for ten years now. Did you
know that either Dumb and Dumber or Newsroom was going
to have the impact that they had? Like if I
had talked to you before you actually did or before
either was released, did you feel like, you know what?
I got something here? I got a turn in the road.
Well with Domma Dumber. Uh No, we knew that that
(07:42):
boys under the age of fourteen might think it was
the greatest, that might think it was their citizen Kane. Okay,
we got that, and that was my agent's fear. To
be honest, Jim had had done ace Ventura, had been
ace Ventura had been out, it had been a hit,
and he had shot mask that wasn't out yet. So
(08:02):
while we're shooting Dumb and dumber. We're hearing about mask
at Con being oh my god, Oh my god, and
we're halfway through shooting Dumb and Dumber. Jim Carrey is
about to explode six months from now and six months
from now. When we opened Dumb and Dumber, he was
Jim Carrey in capital letters. That certainly had an impact,
(08:25):
and we were the number one movie for six weeks
and all ages were going to see it. And did
not see that coming. No, I did not see that coming.
What news room was. Newsroom was a similar thing. Um.
I wanted that badly, and I met with Aaron Sorkin,
(08:46):
and uh, he was happy to have me, turns out,
and so and I worked harder than that and continue
to work that hard. H It was a great lesson
in how hard you have to work to get on
top of a roll. And with all that dialogue that
Sorkin gives you that you have to do it a
hundred miles an hour, that's a lot of work before
(09:06):
you even get there. And that taught me that. And
and then when I did that Northwestern speech, which is
what when Aaron Sorkin hands you a speech like that
about America not being the greatest country in the world.
And the first time you see that, I looked at it.
I said, I've been waiting thirty five years for this speech,
(09:29):
not just what it said, but to be to get
get the stars speech written by a star writer. Oh
my god, it was. It was. And we showed up
that day. There was a day three of shooting, day
three of an eighteen day shoot on the pilot, and
the pilot was not guaranteed to have a series. HBO
(09:51):
was still wondering if this was gonna work or not.
And the day three of shooting we shot that Northwestern
speech and number two three in four of HBO showed up.
The producer out of New York showed up. Sorkin was there,
of course, Sam Waterston, Olivia among Tom Sadovsky showed up.
This is an hour and a half northeast in east
(10:13):
of l A. We were shooting it. Everybody's there because
today is the day whether we find out if we
have a Will McVoy, and if we have a Will McAvoy,
we have a series. And on the way to the set,
Aaron said, as important as this speeches to you, it's
twice as important to me, which was funny because I
(10:33):
laughed because I knew it. I had it. I had
worked worked, worked, worked on it, and so by the
time the world cameras, I go, let's go, and uh
I hit it out of the part. As Aaron said,
he walked over and he said, after the first take,
he walked over and said, okay, you're pitching a no hitter.
I'm not going to talk to you. Turn walked up.
(10:55):
But that car that comes with thirty five years of
watching other don't get that speech of wishing you could.
Oh and then he had. If you don't hit it
out in the park on your first swing, you didn't
work hard enough. That's the attitude I took. And you know,
on that day it paid off. Who who else have
you seen get to give that version of the speech?
(11:18):
I like how you describe it. And I've got two
people in mind. Who who else in your mind is
given the Will macavoy speech? Who else is given the
Northwestern speech? I don't know. I don't know. You tell
me I was. I was gonna put Marlon Brando in
on the waterfront. I could have been a contender. I
(11:40):
feel that's not a speech, but I feel like that's
one where when you talk about like it's everything like
you said, you either have Will macavoy and you either
have a series or you don't. Marlon Brando either lands
that and you have an epic film or you don't.
And I feel like your guy Jack Nicholson in a
(12:00):
few Good Men, you know you want me on that wall.
You need me on that wall. I feel like I
feel like those are cousins to your Northwestern speech, even
though yeah, that's that's a great point. And as an actor,
you know, I mean Jack knew that was the line.
I mean he could see it on billboards before he
even did the scene. I mean, once you get down
(12:22):
the road acting, you you sense those speeches or those
lines that might you know, really stand out, and you
land those, you hit those. You definitely that comes with
experience and and learning to see things in a script
like that, Um Sarkin, you know, if you'd only give
you a couple of lines, then great, you can frame
those and learn those two Sarkin gives you two and
(12:45):
a half pages. You gotta get up and over the average.
I gotta get up with over Everest before you can,
you know, start. You know, you want me on that wall?
You know, yeah? Do you uh thing? When you talked
about working hard to do that. And I just saw
something really interest I don't know if you're a football fan,
(13:05):
but remember Walter Payton, the great Walter Payton. Any the
most amazing thing, the most interesting thing. I saw an
old cut of him saying they asked him if he
had any regrets. And I don't know if you remember
anything about Walter Payton, but he said, I wish I
had worked harder. Now, you remember, Walter Payton was a
guy Jeff who defined working hard. Remember he was the
guy was talking about Mississippi. He was a guy running
(13:27):
in the Mississippi. Right. He basically introduced us to running stadiums. Right,
you remember he used to put those weights on him
and run. And to hear him say I wish I
had worked harder, it really, it really And then hearing
you say today that you realized that you had to
work harder, you got me in a place and in
a moment thinking about what that means and what that
(13:50):
means when you have experience, What did it mean to you? Like,
what did you do differently that you may not have
done if you had gotten Northwestern a year or two
into the game. I mean he's a young actor. Yeah, oh,
my god, I you know, and I didn't need I
don't need that speech in terms of endearment. I was
twenty eight. You're in a movie with Jack Shirley, Deborah,
(14:12):
John Lithgow, you know others. It's just and it's and
it's the number one movie. And now here comes the
Oscar nominations. I'm twenty eight, second movie. As a friend
of mine said, I went to college with. He said,
everyone in the movie got an Oscar nomination. Even the
guy who combed your hair got an Oscar nomination. Why
didn't you? I was, and and Lithgow, John came onto
(14:37):
the movie. They fired an actor, they brought Lithgow on.
He shot for ten days and he got nominated Supporting Actor,
which he feels. He feels terrible about it. I've seen
him since and I've told him no, no, no no, no, no.
As you're implying, Carlos, I I would not have been
able to handle it at twenty eight, would not have
been able to handle it. And so years later to
(14:58):
get that opportunity, like a newsroom, even dumb and dumber,
I'm standing next to Jim Carrey and sometimes behind him,
you know, um, certainly in the media's eyes, and and
so the newsroom was I'm glad what happened at in
terms of endearment, I'm glad I got to watch the
Oscars that year. It was a good thing. It's a
(15:20):
good thing Jeff Wood would pulled you into acting to
(15:41):
begin with, kid from Michigan. Was that an obvious path
for you? Uh? Not to me? Uh? And it still isn't. Uh,
and well it's it's it's I think I'm of the
age and hour. I think I finally figured out how
to do this. Um. And it's forty five years later.
It's it's really interesting. I I, uh, the last two
(16:04):
or three years. Yeah, but um, small town, I was inquired.
Um we had a hundred and fifty people in our
graduating class every year. Uh, there was a I was
in sixth grade. I was in a choir class with
a woman named Diane Elroy who, instead of singing today,
(16:25):
we're gonna do skits, didn't even call him improv skits.
And Jeff, you're gonna go up and be a politician
who's giving a speech and your pants are falling down,
and I turned it into like five minutes. I'm in
the sixth grade. I don't know what a comedian is.
And you know, it starts with a little tug at
the belt and a little more and a little more
(16:45):
two or three minutes in there like five pound weights
these pants and you're holding them up, and I don't know.
She thought it was a funny thing she'd ever seen.
She told my parents, you need to watch this one.
Something's going on. A teacher she later on did high
school musical. She she's taught in the high school as well.
And once I got into high school, suddenly I'm Fagan
(17:07):
and Oliver. Now I'm Tevan Fiddler on the roup um
Harold Hill in the Music Man. She just built musicals
around this seventeen eight nine twenty year old kid, and
I got the experience, and I could walk out on
stage not a nerve in my body. I knew what
to do, knew how to do it, knew how to
(17:28):
time it so that six people would laugh right now,
I knew. And so it just was a continued college
similar And then I got a break and met someone
and that got me to New York City into the
Circle Repertory Company off Broadway. At the age of twenty one,
I dropped out of college, went to New York I
one and that's where I learned how to be an actor.
(17:50):
Was a circle rep. But that was the you're really
good at this, you should keep doing it. Oh okay.
She just needed guys through the musical out Pacific and
I was one of them. That's how I got in something.
What would have happened, Jeff if it hadn't worked out?
Do you know? Do you know what you're sliding doors? Is? Yeah,
(18:11):
I'd have been I would have been working at my
dad's lumber company. My brother runs it now, which is
he does he should have been? Should and would have? Um?
I that's that's where I have been, and playing guitar
in the local clubs. Would you have been happy doing that? Um?
I think I'd have found a way to be happy. Yeah.
(18:32):
I don't want to say happy year because it's been
such an exciting ride for forty five years. The people
have gotten to meet and work with and and I
mean when you do to kill a mockingbird, the people
that came back stage, my god, I mean, it's been
a thrill of a lifetime. But I don't think I
(18:53):
would have been unhappy never leaving here. And that's I
don't know why that is, but you know, call a shrink.
You know. Um, it's funny. I think, Um, have you
thought about running for office before? Is that? Is that? Obviously?
I know between newsroom lots of the other work you've done,
you've been involved in it. I know you supported President Biden,
(19:15):
But have you actually thought about running yourself? No, I've
been asked a couple of times here in Michigan, and
I'm just my family is too important to me at
this age. And uh, maybe twenty years ago if someone
had come after me, but I wasn't outspoken like I
am now. You know, Um, No, No, I I I
(19:39):
am being an actor. You are an independent contractor. You
are a freelancer. You are a gypsy and no mad.
You don't respond to authority very well. You don't stick
to one thing. I don't want to make other people happy.
I I would be an authoritarian for the progressive you know,
side of things. But I would if I needed someth
(20:00):
thing from you, I would, you know, Tony Soprano, I
would just you'd come in and I'd take your head
and I'd bang it on the desk until you said
it's okay. So I'm gonna know it. Thank you you
can leave now. That's the governor I would be. We
used to have those in the New Jersey and a
few other places. We need one now, I'll tell you
(20:20):
we need some. We need to bang some hands on
the desk right now, make make a few changes, uh,
in different places. I actually but it's it's interesting what
you said about from a very early age knowing when
to make someone laugh at that moment, knowing when I
do see that you have that in you, and it
reminds me of what Reagan used to be able to do,
and reminds you what Fred Thompson used to be able
(20:43):
to do. I think fred Thompson also had that. I
think he could read a room and he could know
how to tell a story or to have a conversation
in a way that I don't think most of us
know how to. And I think to your credit and
Mr is uh, Diane, what was her name? You said,
Michael Elroy? I think Mrs Mrs l Roy helped you
a little bit. I knew Fred Thompson. He did a
(21:04):
movie called Marie that I was in. He played, and
then he later went on to run and serve in
the Senate, I believe, and all that I knew, Fred, Yeah,
you're right. That's the ability to tell a story and
know how to set up a joke and land one.
You know, my dad was kind of like that. He could.
I listened to him tell stories to a bunch of people,
and you just it's not that I was conscious of
(21:27):
what's he doing and how do I do? It was
just you just absorb that and next thing, you know,
you can tell a funny story. Hey, how did you
(21:51):
decide to do American Russ? Was that your idea? Did
they come after you? How did that? How did that evolve?
And Philip Meyer wrote a great book called American Rushton
two thousand five. It was his debut novel. My agent
at the time uh NOW manager and executive producer on this,
Paul Martino said, let's go down. We're gonna do a book.
(22:13):
There's a book reading. I want to go to come out.
I'm going to what book? What? So I went somewhere
in Lower Manhattan. We listened to Philip read a chapter
or something, and met him. But that was it. Two
thousand and five. Paul kind of kept track of the book.
I was not in a position to get things made
in any platform, TV, movie, stage anything. So I was
(22:35):
just plodding lung as an actor. And you know, my
agent asked me a couple of years ago to three
years ago, um, and this is when I know I'd
made it money success. Now this is when you know
is when your agent says, well, we could do this,
you could do that, or this other thing came in,
but what do you want to do? And forty some
(22:59):
odd years this the first time that he said that.
I said, well, I remember American Rust, Let's chase that.
So we did, got got our hands on I got
a boat. Rocker was a great company that had it
and wanted to pursue how to get it made. And
then during Mockingbird, I met with Dan Futterman, who had
(23:20):
written Show Ran and written on Looming Tower for Hulu
that I had done. And I said, Dan, if you
read this book and see something minute, I'd love to
do it. And he did. He loved it, and uh
and off it went and and Showtime grabbed it, and uh,
(23:40):
you know, the pandemic got in the way. But then
we we shot from March until August in full COVID
shelter in place, bubble up, you know, daily routine. But
we got it made, and I'm glad we did it.
It's a really strong story and but also a kind
(24:01):
of reflection on not only Southwest Pennsylvania and the people
that are either at the bottom or staring at it,
they can see it from where they are, and what
they do to kind of mask that pain with the opioids,
and that there there are bad people, to be sure,
(24:22):
but there are good people in that position all over
the country, and the series speaks to that a little
bit and shows those people in their raw kind of
desperate attempt to hang onto their good qualities while doing
some very bad and sometimes illegal things just to survive.
Did you end up That's what I liked about it.
(24:44):
Did you end up learning anything and doing this work
or did it just reaffirm things that you already knew? Um?
I think it reined. It reaffirms something that I learned
playing Atticus Finch on Broadway. I'm be is In in
Aaron Sarkin's version of the play of the book based
on the book. Atticus is the guy who hangs on
(25:08):
to the fact that there's goodness and everyone, you just
have to care enough to look for it. And I'm
not sure that's true anymore. And certainly Del Harris and
American Rust is in a position where he is good
and he's trying to be good. Um, and he's with
(25:28):
some people who have given up on good and and
that's it feels like where we are so um yeah, yeah,
that's what I took away from it. One of the
things that and I got to drive a uh police cruiser,
(25:49):
one of those SUVs that the cops have are bad.
It's boom and it's the Latin and this guy an
engine that was last used at the ND five hundred,
that's what it's got under the hood was hanged up
onto the curbs. I had a bump driving that thing.
(26:10):
You know what, You Michigan drivers are always Your guys
are a dangerous breed. Bostonians are the day of my lane.
Why are you in it? Yeah? We're like correct, right,
you guys and the folks in Boston. You guys both believe,
both of you guys believe no one else should be
on the road. And you guys drive like that, which
is uh, which is which is always a little bit,
(26:32):
a little bit, a little bit dangerous for the rest
of us. I dial I've dialed that way down, way down.
I used to have a recreational vehicle. And I used
to drive that thing to California to shoot a newsroom.
And so you don't go over seventy maybe tops and
you get very defensive when you're driving a building, which
is what that thing was, forty two ft foot building.
(26:53):
Oh my god, I was insane. That'll slow you down.
So no, I don't run up on people anymore. I go,
you want to go, go, I have a good life,
then die. That is Uh, have you ever done any
stand up? Jeffery? Though? Have you ever done if you
grabbed the mic? Have you've done any stand up? Oh?
Those guys are pros. I'm good. I'm good for I
(27:16):
actually had a golf thing with Dave Coolier, who's moved
back to Michigan, and uh, they're just so much. I mean,
it's there's a there's something that comedians can do that
I I don't. I can tell a funny story, you know,
That's part of what I When I take the guitar
out and I gig I I I've been out with
my son's band a few times, but I love just
going out with me in the acoustic guitar and a
(27:38):
wouldn't chair and you got to listen to me for
a hundred minutes, and it could be death because you've
got an actor with the guitar. This this could be
a slow, tortuous Oh my god, I mean William Shatner,
I mean this could be And so I play to that.
I used to open with a song called if Illiam
(28:00):
Shatner can, I can too, and I would just riff
on all all the celebrities, including me, suddenly have an album.
You know, you know, as long as you don't have
one of those nineteen seventies uh suits and jackets in
the wide open shirt, you know on your album cover.
I know there's no more album cover, right Shan in Germany?
(28:25):
If you if you wanted to go all the way there,
they're gonna grab you in a second. But can I
do a sixty second round of rapid fire with you
and then let you go? Sure? All right? Your favorite?
Your favorite athlete of all time? Lklin Detroit Tigers, Oh
my goodness, nineteen fifty four. It was like, was that Kaylin? Was?
It was I'm gonna stay fifty five? He won the
(28:47):
batting title as a twenty year old rookie or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Wow,
Your favorite movie of all time. I don't know why,
Jeremiah Johnson. I don't know why. Every time Redford's up
on the mountains, I gotta stay there and watch him,
see if he gets out Holy Cow, and that was
seventy two. I think I may have that wrong, Jeremiah Johnson.
All Right, Um, most beautiful place you've ever been? Uh? Um, wow, boy, Tom,
(29:20):
and not rapid fire enough. I'm gonna. I'm gonna yeah, home, home, home. Yeah,
that's whear a vacation. I like that. Everybody should be
so lucky. Yeah I am. I'm lucky, and I've been
a lot of places. That's why I didn't have an answer.
I'm already there. Yeah, everybody should be so lucky that
(29:42):
that's that's a good deal. The most interesting thing you've
learned in this life about dreaming fearlessly that it can
sometimes make a movie even funnier. That's the one thing
I learned dreaming fearlessly. I don't know, but it's certainly fearlessness.
I learned from Jim Carey because he taught me. Um.
You know, actors are so worried about I don't want
(30:04):
to be too big, you know, I don't want to
go over the top. Jim says, we start at over
the top on take one, Let's go. I love Jim
taught me that. Jim taught me to be fearless and
dream fearless was and what's the dream now? To stay
in love with acting as long as I can. And
I'm doing pretty good. I still love it. The pandemic
(30:26):
I thought was was, well, that's this is what retirement
feels like without the gold Watch. I get it. Maybe
I'm done Attica is Finch on Broadway Newsroom, dumbind up. Yeah,
it's been a good run. And then I went to
Pittsburgh and doing to do American Rust, which Ida was
already committed to do, and found out how much I
love between action and cut mhm still, which not everybody does,
(30:51):
and I didn't. I wasn't sure I did. But unlike
an athlete, an actor, an artist can only grow get smarter,
get more wise, get more experienced, and have a bigger
tool kit to draw from which to draw. And I
think that's what's happening. Like I said before, it's taken
me this long to figure out how to do what
(31:12):
I do, and part of that is that that work ethic.
I I was brought up with but also needed to
survive on newsroom, and the combination of all that is like, no,
you're not done yet. We still like this. So hey, Jeff,
this was this was too good to be true. Uh,
(31:32):
I really really enjoyed the conversation. Have appreciated you from
Afar from a long time. So if I ever get
a chance to shake your hand in person, I'm gonna
take it. I appreciate it. Carlos enjoyed it. Thank you. Okay,
be safe, be well. Thank you for listening to this
(31:58):
episode of the Carlos Blotson Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode,
please tell your friends to find us on the I
heart podcast app or Apple podcast
Jeff Daniels grew up in Michigan and began acting in
the sixth grade. He would later move to New York
to pursue his acting career and hasn't looked back since.
He can be seen in some hit movies and series
like Dumb and Dummer, hbo Is, The Newsroom, and Tears
of Endearment. On this episode of The Carlos Watson Show podcast,
Jack Daniels reflects on his extensive acting career and his
(00:25):
new Showtime series American Rest. Hey, Jeff, Carlos, how are you?
I am good. I'm good, although I'm not as musically
inclined as apparently you are. That looks nice behind you, well,
some of them are. I mean some of them are
like from the twenties and thirties and forties, and you know,
(00:46):
I look at them as like, you know, either pieces
of art that you can hand down to your kids
or all the drugs I did not take you home,
so the better choice probably there. Now, do you have
a favorite song? What's what's your song? What do you
love to play songs? Now? Blues? I love acoustic blues.
(01:07):
I I I started out listening to Doc Watson, and uh,
I was in New York. I went to New York
in nineteen seventy six, and a couple of guys had
acoustic guitars, and so I wanted to get better at it.
So I learned. I heard of Doc Watson, Steve Goodman, um,
Stephen Grossman is an incredible acoustic Once I got into that, yeah,
(01:30):
came about all that. So but then I heard then
I found the Blues. Then you start going, oh, oh,
it's the beginning of everything, right and uh, and I
actually went down with my son. We took our r
V one year and drove down to Clarksdale, Mississippi, and
stood on the crossroads, went to Robert Johnson's grave. All that.
(01:51):
It was as important as people who go to Cooperstown
in the baseball This was just as important. I had
to go see where Robert Johnson was buried. Oh my god, Now,
now we're in New York. Were you Because New York
in seventy six was an interesting place. Where were you?
Were you there? Well? I was in and out of there.
(02:12):
My mom and dad met. My mom was stepping on
a boat in New York back in the day when
my dad spotted her. And UH was ambitious enough to
get on the boat and they actually had to kick
him off. But you know, fast forward, four kids in
a fifty years of marriage, and you know, I spent
a lot of time in New York where they met. So, uh,
(02:34):
seventy six in New York, it was the year. Uh
the next year, seventy seven was the blackout right July?
I think, Yeah, I was under studying on Broadway and
everything just shut down. You had to walk home and
I was at twenty three and seventh on the tenth
floor of a building. Elevators were out, so had you
(02:54):
walk up the stairwells, you know, feeling the walls and
counting to ten floors. You didn't have cell phones and
flash light, you didn't have anything like that. So, yeah,
it was it was. It was a different, different city
back then. Did you find it scary? Do you find
it exciting? Because you also had disco, you had Studio
fifty four, you had you know, you had all kinds
(03:16):
of stuff. You actually had. The Yankees were good then,
although I assume you're a Tigers guy, irmand Monson and
Ron Gidrey and Reggie Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, I you know,
I look back, it was it was you you dealt
with it, you know. Uh, you didn't go on Eighth Avenue.
You just didn't go down there. Yeah, and the forty
two Straight and eighth Avenue, it was a lot different
(03:38):
back in the seventies. You didn't go there, and uh,
you don't go into Central Park at night. All that
stuff was just you just kind of it was probably
a more guarded kind of existence, you know. And now
now with Disney and Times Square and Times Square being
you know gone, and are their peep shows and now
it's like corporate America everywhere you look, flash and flash,
(04:02):
you know. Yeah, I guess that's better. Yeah, but you
know it's Uh. I still enjoy going to New York
and I'm gonna go back, and uh, I still love
the city. I love I love the whole heart of it.
I love the fact that so many people in it
or the best at what they do. Right. Um, it's
(04:22):
a good place to be. Where did you grow up
your Michigan guy, Yes, I grew up in a town, Chelsea, Michigan, Um,
which is where I live now. And uh, yeah, Kathleen's
from here. I'm from here. And we were in New
York for about ten years, married for about five married
for five of it, but ten years of New York City.
And then we had a two year old boy in
(04:44):
nineteen six and said, why don't we just move home
and I'll use the airport in Detroit and that's I'll commute.
We did, Wait, where is Chelsea in Michigan. It's right
near Anne Arbor, so it's an hour from the airport. Okay, okay.
I had a I had a few folks who I
work with who always joked that Michiganders love to use
(05:05):
their hands and point where it is. Uh on there
do you? Okay? Okay, okay, But now how easy was
that to use the airport and uh and pursue pursue
your career? Did that have any compromises for you? Already benefits? Yeah?
I mean you're you're you're a bit out of sight,
out of mind, and so what what happens is that
(05:28):
you for me anyway? You take anything, not anything, you
take supporting roles, you take television. I was doing stuff
on A and E and HBO in the late eighties,
you know I was. I wasn't back then. If you know,
I'm a movie actor. I only do film. And while
I was doing everything, um, I just thought that supporting
(05:50):
actor was probably where I was headed. Um, I didn't
want to get in the rat race, the chase for
the biggest star in the history of stars, which to
me meant you had to be in l a And
I just wasn't gonna do it. So family first, and
I'll do the best I can, you know, in a
kind of secondary position, the crew being secondary. And then
(06:12):
I did Dumb and Dumber. And that brought me all
kinds of years in a lot of ways, and and
and you couldn't get dramas to look at me for
a while, but comedies for twelve year old kids, Yeah,
I was I was your guy. Uh. And then you know,
and then I just h and I think I'd spread
myself out. And then by doing Dumb and Dumber with
(06:35):
some against some of the dramas that I had done
over the years, Uh, that opened up a range that
showed that I had ranged. That was one of the
reasons I wanted to do Dumb Dumber, was to go
from like a Gettysburg to a Dumb and Dumber and
in between those two things are a lot of jobs.
If he can do this, and he can do that,
(06:57):
he can do this Clint said that when we did
blood work. You know, I'd done a drama two days
in the valley and Don and Dumber and Clint had
seen both of them, believe it or not, and he said,
if you can do this, and you can do that,
you can do this one. You know that's that said
it right there. That bought me a lot of years.
And then you know, Newsroom happened after that, And now
(07:19):
I've been riding newsrooms for ten years now. Did you
know that either Dumb and Dumber or Newsroom was going
to have the impact that they had? Like if I
had talked to you before you actually did or before
either was released, did you feel like, you know what?
I got something here? I got a turn in the road.
Well with Domma Dumber. Uh No, we knew that that
(07:42):
boys under the age of fourteen might think it was
the greatest, that might think it was their citizen Kane. Okay,
we got that, and that was my agent's fear. To
be honest, Jim had had done ace Ventura, had been
ace Ventura had been out, it had been a hit,
and he had shot mask that wasn't out yet. So
(08:02):
while we're shooting Dumb and dumber. We're hearing about mask
at Con being oh my god, Oh my god, and
we're halfway through shooting Dumb and Dumber. Jim Carrey is
about to explode six months from now and six months
from now. When we opened Dumb and Dumber, he was
Jim Carrey in capital letters. That certainly had an impact,
(08:25):
and we were the number one movie for six weeks
and all ages were going to see it. And did
not see that coming. No, I did not see that coming.
What news room was. Newsroom was a similar thing. Um.
I wanted that badly, and I met with Aaron Sorkin,
(08:46):
and uh, he was happy to have me, turns out,
and so and I worked harder than that and continue
to work that hard. H It was a great lesson
in how hard you have to work to get on
top of a roll. And with all that dialogue that
Sorkin gives you that you have to do it a
hundred miles an hour, that's a lot of work before
(09:06):
you even get there. And that taught me that. And
and then when I did that Northwestern speech, which is
what when Aaron Sorkin hands you a speech like that
about America not being the greatest country in the world.
And the first time you see that, I looked at it.
I said, I've been waiting thirty five years for this speech,
(09:29):
not just what it said, but to be to get
get the stars speech written by a star writer. Oh
my god, it was. It was. And we showed up
that day. There was a day three of shooting, day
three of an eighteen day shoot on the pilot, and
the pilot was not guaranteed to have a series. HBO
(09:51):
was still wondering if this was gonna work or not.
And the day three of shooting we shot that Northwestern
speech and number two three in four of HBO showed up.
The producer out of New York showed up. Sorkin was there,
of course, Sam Waterston, Olivia among Tom Sadovsky showed up.
This is an hour and a half northeast in east
(10:13):
of l A. We were shooting it. Everybody's there because
today is the day whether we find out if we
have a Will McVoy, and if we have a Will McAvoy,
we have a series. And on the way to the set,
Aaron said, as important as this speeches to you, it's
twice as important to me, which was funny because I
(10:33):
laughed because I knew it. I had it. I had
worked worked, worked, worked on it, and so by the
time the world cameras, I go, let's go, and uh
I hit it out of the part. As Aaron said,
he walked over and he said, after the first take,
he walked over and said, okay, you're pitching a no hitter.
I'm not going to talk to you. Turn walked up.
(10:55):
But that car that comes with thirty five years of
watching other don't get that speech of wishing you could.
Oh and then he had. If you don't hit it
out in the park on your first swing, you didn't
work hard enough. That's the attitude I took. And you know,
on that day it paid off. Who who else have
you seen get to give that version of the speech?
(11:18):
I like how you describe it. And I've got two
people in mind. Who who else in your mind is
given the Will macavoy speech? Who else is given the
Northwestern speech? I don't know. I don't know. You tell
me I was. I was gonna put Marlon Brando in
on the waterfront. I could have been a contender. I
(11:40):
feel that's not a speech, but I feel like that's
one where when you talk about like it's everything like
you said, you either have Will macavoy and you either
have a series or you don't. Marlon Brando either lands
that and you have an epic film or you don't.
And I feel like your guy Jack Nicholson in a
(12:00):
few Good Men, you know you want me on that wall.
You need me on that wall. I feel like I
feel like those are cousins to your Northwestern speech, even
though yeah, that's that's a great point. And as an actor,
you know, I mean Jack knew that was the line.
I mean he could see it on billboards before he
even did the scene. I mean, once you get down
(12:22):
the road acting, you you sense those speeches or those
lines that might you know, really stand out, and you
land those, you hit those. You definitely that comes with
experience and and learning to see things in a script
like that, Um Sarkin, you know, if you'd only give
you a couple of lines, then great, you can frame
those and learn those two Sarkin gives you two and
(12:45):
a half pages. You gotta get up and over the average.
I gotta get up with over Everest before you can,
you know, start. You know, you want me on that wall?
You know, yeah? Do you uh thing? When you talked
about working hard to do that. And I just saw
something really interest I don't know if you're a football fan,
(13:05):
but remember Walter Payton, the great Walter Payton. Any the
most amazing thing, the most interesting thing. I saw an
old cut of him saying they asked him if he
had any regrets. And I don't know if you remember
anything about Walter Payton, but he said, I wish I
had worked harder. Now, you remember, Walter Payton was a
guy Jeff who defined working hard. Remember he was the
guy was talking about Mississippi. He was a guy running
(13:27):
in the Mississippi. Right. He basically introduced us to running stadiums. Right,
you remember he used to put those weights on him
and run. And to hear him say I wish I
had worked harder, it really, it really And then hearing
you say today that you realized that you had to
work harder, you got me in a place and in
a moment thinking about what that means and what that
(13:50):
means when you have experience, What did it mean to you? Like,
what did you do differently that you may not have
done if you had gotten Northwestern a year or two
into the game. I mean he's a young actor. Yeah, oh,
my god, I you know, and I didn't need I
don't need that speech in terms of endearment. I was
twenty eight. You're in a movie with Jack Shirley, Deborah,
(14:12):
John Lithgow, you know others. It's just and it's and
it's the number one movie. And now here comes the
Oscar nominations. I'm twenty eight, second movie. As a friend
of mine said, I went to college with. He said,
everyone in the movie got an Oscar nomination. Even the
guy who combed your hair got an Oscar nomination. Why
didn't you? I was, and and Lithgow, John came onto
(14:37):
the movie. They fired an actor, they brought Lithgow on.
He shot for ten days and he got nominated Supporting Actor,
which he feels. He feels terrible about it. I've seen
him since and I've told him no, no, no no, no, no.
As you're implying, Carlos, I I would not have been
able to handle it at twenty eight, would not have
been able to handle it. And so years later to
(14:58):
get that opportunity, like a newsroom, even dumb and dumber,
I'm standing next to Jim Carrey and sometimes behind him,
you know, um, certainly in the media's eyes, and and
so the newsroom was I'm glad what happened at in
terms of endearment, I'm glad I got to watch the
Oscars that year. It was a good thing. It's a
(15:20):
good thing Jeff Wood would pulled you into acting to
(15:41):
begin with, kid from Michigan. Was that an obvious path
for you? Uh? Not to me? Uh? And it still isn't. Uh,
and well it's it's it's I think I'm of the
age and hour. I think I finally figured out how
to do this. Um. And it's forty five years later.
It's it's really interesting. I I, uh, the last two
(16:04):
or three years. Yeah, but um, small town, I was inquired.
Um we had a hundred and fifty people in our
graduating class every year. Uh, there was a I was
in sixth grade. I was in a choir class with
a woman named Diane Elroy who, instead of singing today,
(16:25):
we're gonna do skits, didn't even call him improv skits.
And Jeff, you're gonna go up and be a politician
who's giving a speech and your pants are falling down,
and I turned it into like five minutes. I'm in
the sixth grade. I don't know what a comedian is.
And you know, it starts with a little tug at
the belt and a little more and a little more
(16:45):
two or three minutes in there like five pound weights
these pants and you're holding them up, and I don't know.
She thought it was a funny thing she'd ever seen.
She told my parents, you need to watch this one.
Something's going on. A teacher she later on did high
school musical. She she's taught in the high school as well.
And once I got into high school, suddenly I'm Fagan
(17:07):
and Oliver. Now I'm Tevan Fiddler on the roup um
Harold Hill in the Music Man. She just built musicals
around this seventeen eight nine twenty year old kid, and
I got the experience, and I could walk out on
stage not a nerve in my body. I knew what
to do, knew how to do it, knew how to
(17:28):
time it so that six people would laugh right now,
I knew. And so it just was a continued college
similar And then I got a break and met someone
and that got me to New York City into the
Circle Repertory Company off Broadway. At the age of twenty one,
I dropped out of college, went to New York I
one and that's where I learned how to be an actor.
(17:50):
Was a circle rep. But that was the you're really
good at this, you should keep doing it. Oh okay.
She just needed guys through the musical out Pacific and
I was one of them. That's how I got in something.
What would have happened, Jeff if it hadn't worked out?
Do you know? Do you know what you're sliding doors? Is? Yeah,
(18:11):
I'd have been I would have been working at my
dad's lumber company. My brother runs it now, which is
he does he should have been? Should and would have? Um?
I that's that's where I have been, and playing guitar
in the local clubs. Would you have been happy doing that? Um?
I think I'd have found a way to be happy. Yeah.
(18:32):
I don't want to say happy year because it's been
such an exciting ride for forty five years. The people
have gotten to meet and work with and and I
mean when you do to kill a mockingbird, the people
that came back stage, my god, I mean, it's been
a thrill of a lifetime. But I don't think I
(18:53):
would have been unhappy never leaving here. And that's I
don't know why that is, but you know, call a shrink.
You know. Um, it's funny. I think, Um, have you
thought about running for office before? Is that? Is that? Obviously?
I know between newsroom lots of the other work you've done,
you've been involved in it. I know you supported President Biden,
(19:15):
But have you actually thought about running yourself? No, I've
been asked a couple of times here in Michigan, and
I'm just my family is too important to me at
this age. And uh, maybe twenty years ago if someone
had come after me, but I wasn't outspoken like I
am now. You know, Um, No, No, I I I
(19:39):
am being an actor. You are an independent contractor. You
are a freelancer. You are a gypsy and no mad.
You don't respond to authority very well. You don't stick
to one thing. I don't want to make other people happy.
I I would be an authoritarian for the progressive you know,
side of things. But I would if I needed someth
(20:00):
thing from you, I would, you know, Tony Soprano, I
would just you'd come in and I'd take your head
and I'd bang it on the desk until you said
it's okay. So I'm gonna know it. Thank you you
can leave now. That's the governor I would be. We
used to have those in the New Jersey and a
few other places. We need one now, I'll tell you
(20:20):
we need some. We need to bang some hands on
the desk right now, make make a few changes, uh,
in different places. I actually but it's it's interesting what
you said about from a very early age knowing when
to make someone laugh at that moment, knowing when I
do see that you have that in you, and it
reminds me of what Reagan used to be able to do,
and reminds you what Fred Thompson used to be able
(20:43):
to do. I think fred Thompson also had that. I
think he could read a room and he could know
how to tell a story or to have a conversation
in a way that I don't think most of us
know how to. And I think to your credit and
Mr is uh, Diane, what was her name? You said,
Michael Elroy? I think Mrs Mrs l Roy helped you
a little bit. I knew Fred Thompson. He did a
(21:04):
movie called Marie that I was in. He played, and
then he later went on to run and serve in
the Senate, I believe, and all that I knew, Fred, Yeah,
you're right. That's the ability to tell a story and
know how to set up a joke and land one.
You know, my dad was kind of like that. He could.
I listened to him tell stories to a bunch of people,
and you just it's not that I was conscious of
(21:27):
what's he doing and how do I do? It was
just you just absorb that and next thing, you know,
you can tell a funny story. Hey, how did you
(21:51):
decide to do American Russ? Was that your idea? Did
they come after you? How did that? How did that evolve?
And Philip Meyer wrote a great book called American Rushton
two thousand five. It was his debut novel. My agent
at the time uh NOW manager and executive producer on this,
Paul Martino said, let's go down. We're gonna do a book.
(22:13):
There's a book reading. I want to go to come out.
I'm going to what book? What? So I went somewhere
in Lower Manhattan. We listened to Philip read a chapter
or something, and met him. But that was it. Two
thousand and five. Paul kind of kept track of the book.
I was not in a position to get things made
in any platform, TV, movie, stage anything. So I was
(22:35):
just plodding lung as an actor. And you know, my
agent asked me a couple of years ago to three
years ago, um, and this is when I know I'd
made it money success. Now this is when you know
is when your agent says, well, we could do this,
you could do that, or this other thing came in,
but what do you want to do? And forty some
(22:59):
odd years this the first time that he said that.
I said, well, I remember American Rust, Let's chase that.
So we did, got got our hands on I got
a boat. Rocker was a great company that had it
and wanted to pursue how to get it made. And
then during Mockingbird, I met with Dan Futterman, who had
(23:20):
written Show Ran and written on Looming Tower for Hulu
that I had done. And I said, Dan, if you
read this book and see something minute, I'd love to
do it. And he did. He loved it, and uh
and off it went and and Showtime grabbed it, and uh,
(23:40):
you know, the pandemic got in the way. But then
we we shot from March until August in full COVID
shelter in place, bubble up, you know, daily routine. But
we got it made, and I'm glad we did it.
It's a really strong story and but also a kind
(24:01):
of reflection on not only Southwest Pennsylvania and the people
that are either at the bottom or staring at it,
they can see it from where they are, and what
they do to kind of mask that pain with the opioids,
and that there there are bad people, to be sure,
(24:22):
but there are good people in that position all over
the country, and the series speaks to that a little
bit and shows those people in their raw kind of
desperate attempt to hang onto their good qualities while doing
some very bad and sometimes illegal things just to survive.
Did you end up That's what I liked about it.
(24:44):
Did you end up learning anything and doing this work
or did it just reaffirm things that you already knew? Um?
I think it reined. It reaffirms something that I learned
playing Atticus Finch on Broadway. I'm be is In in
Aaron Sarkin's version of the play of the book based
on the book. Atticus is the guy who hangs on
(25:08):
to the fact that there's goodness and everyone, you just
have to care enough to look for it. And I'm
not sure that's true anymore. And certainly Del Harris and
American Rust is in a position where he is good
and he's trying to be good. Um, and he's with
(25:28):
some people who have given up on good and and
that's it feels like where we are so um yeah, yeah,
that's what I took away from it. One of the
things that and I got to drive a uh police cruiser,
(25:49):
one of those SUVs that the cops have are bad.
It's boom and it's the Latin and this guy an
engine that was last used at the ND five hundred,
that's what it's got under the hood was hanged up
onto the curbs. I had a bump driving that thing.
(26:10):
You know what, You Michigan drivers are always Your guys
are a dangerous breed. Bostonians are the day of my lane.
Why are you in it? Yeah? We're like correct, right,
you guys and the folks in Boston. You guys both believe,
both of you guys believe no one else should be
on the road. And you guys drive like that, which
is uh, which is which is always a little bit,
(26:32):
a little bit, a little bit dangerous for the rest
of us. I dial I've dialed that way down, way down.
I used to have a recreational vehicle. And I used
to drive that thing to California to shoot a newsroom.
And so you don't go over seventy maybe tops and
you get very defensive when you're driving a building, which
is what that thing was, forty two ft foot building.
(26:53):
Oh my god, I was insane. That'll slow you down.
So no, I don't run up on people anymore. I go,
you want to go, go, I have a good life,
then die. That is Uh, have you ever done any
stand up? Jeffery? Though? Have you ever done if you
grabbed the mic? Have you've done any stand up? Oh?
Those guys are pros. I'm good. I'm good for I
(27:16):
actually had a golf thing with Dave Coolier, who's moved
back to Michigan, and uh, they're just so much. I mean,
it's there's a there's something that comedians can do that
I I don't. I can tell a funny story, you know,
That's part of what I When I take the guitar
out and I gig I I I've been out with
my son's band a few times, but I love just
going out with me in the acoustic guitar and a
(27:38):
wouldn't chair and you got to listen to me for
a hundred minutes, and it could be death because you've
got an actor with the guitar. This this could be
a slow, tortuous Oh my god, I mean William Shatner,
I mean this could be And so I play to that.
I used to open with a song called if Illiam
(28:00):
Shatner can, I can too, and I would just riff
on all all the celebrities, including me, suddenly have an album.
You know, you know, as long as you don't have
one of those nineteen seventies uh suits and jackets in
the wide open shirt, you know on your album cover.
I know there's no more album cover, right Shan in Germany?
(28:25):
If you if you wanted to go all the way there,
they're gonna grab you in a second. But can I
do a sixty second round of rapid fire with you
and then let you go? Sure? All right? Your favorite?
Your favorite athlete of all time? Lklin Detroit Tigers, Oh
my goodness, nineteen fifty four. It was like, was that Kaylin? Was?
It was I'm gonna stay fifty five? He won the
(28:47):
batting title as a twenty year old rookie or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Wow,
Your favorite movie of all time. I don't know why,
Jeremiah Johnson. I don't know why. Every time Redford's up
on the mountains, I gotta stay there and watch him,
see if he gets out Holy Cow, and that was
seventy two. I think I may have that wrong, Jeremiah Johnson.
All Right, Um, most beautiful place you've ever been? Uh? Um, wow, boy, Tom,
(29:20):
and not rapid fire enough. I'm gonna. I'm gonna yeah, home, home, home. Yeah,
that's whear a vacation. I like that. Everybody should be
so lucky. Yeah I am. I'm lucky, and I've been
a lot of places. That's why I didn't have an answer.
I'm already there. Yeah, everybody should be so lucky that
(29:42):
that's that's a good deal. The most interesting thing you've
learned in this life about dreaming fearlessly that it can
sometimes make a movie even funnier. That's the one thing
I learned dreaming fearlessly. I don't know, but it's certainly fearlessness.
I learned from Jim Carey because he taught me. Um.
You know, actors are so worried about I don't want
(30:04):
to be too big, you know, I don't want to
go over the top. Jim says, we start at over
the top on take one, Let's go. I love Jim
taught me that. Jim taught me to be fearless and
dream fearless was and what's the dream now? To stay
in love with acting as long as I can. And
I'm doing pretty good. I still love it. The pandemic
(30:26):
I thought was was, well, that's this is what retirement
feels like without the gold Watch. I get it. Maybe
I'm done Attica is Finch on Broadway Newsroom, dumbind up. Yeah,
it's been a good run. And then I went to
Pittsburgh and doing to do American Rust, which Ida was
already committed to do, and found out how much I
love between action and cut mhm still, which not everybody does,
(30:51):
and I didn't. I wasn't sure I did. But unlike
an athlete, an actor, an artist can only grow get smarter,
get more wise, get more experienced, and have a bigger
tool kit to draw from which to draw. And I
think that's what's happening. Like I said before, it's taken
me this long to figure out how to do what
(31:12):
I do, and part of that is that that work ethic.
I I was brought up with but also needed to
survive on newsroom, and the combination of all that is like, no,
you're not done yet. We still like this. So hey, Jeff,
this was this was too good to be true. Uh,
(31:32):
I really really enjoyed the conversation. Have appreciated you from
Afar from a long time. So if I ever get
a chance to shake your hand in person, I'm gonna
take it. I appreciate it. Carlos enjoyed it. Thank you. Okay,
be safe, be well. Thank you for listening to this
(31:58):
episode of the Carlos Blotson Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode,
please tell your friends to find us on the I
heart podcast app or Apple podcast
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.