Actor Jeff Daniels has revealed that the now-iconic opening monologue from The Newsroom saved his career. Following his feature film debut in Milos Forman's Ragtime (1981), Daniels rose to prominence in the mid 1990s, with roles in Dumb and Dumber and action-thriller, Speed (both 1994). After a career dip in the 2000s, the Georgia native saw a revival of sorts when he played the role of Will McAvoy in all 3 seasons of The Newsroom, HBO's political drama. Over the course of his career, Daniels has received multiple nominations for personal awards and accolades, including 5 Golden Globe and 3 Tony Award nominations, and has won two Primetime Emmy Awards.
One of America's most respected and recognizable actors, Daniels is regarded as a household name in Hollywood these days, but that wasn't always the case. And after a string of flops following his critically acclaimed role in Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale (2005), Daniels has enjoyed a successful post-The Newsroom career, acting in hit movies such as Looper (2012), The Martian (2015), The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016), as well as the current Showtime drama, American Rust. However, it could all have been so different if the HBO political drama had never been made.
Now, THR has reported that during a recent career retrospective with GQ, Daniels revealed that his opening monologue in The Newsroom saved his career. Daniels explained that he had only two weeks to learn the monologue, penned by series creator and executive producer Aaron Sorkin, the American TV and screenwriter, producer, and director best known for creating hit political drama, The West Wing. According to Daniels, the monologue was not in the original pilot, but Sorkin choose to include it two weeks before shooting began. Daniels described the importance of the monologue, and explained how it wound up saving his career. Read the actor's comments below:
"You have to hit a home run with it. It was shot on day three of an 18-day shoot for the pilot. There was no guarantee we had a series. People bigger than Aaron Sorkin had gotten turned down by HBO... It was all one me. I worked my ass off on it. First take, I hit it out of the park. I know that because Aaron walked over to me after take one and he goes, ‘OK, you’re pitching a no-hitter. I’m not going to talk to you.’ And he walked away. That was great. Then I knew I had a role, I pretty much — with Aaron’s help — saved my career and that everyone had a job.”
It's fair to say that the monologue was a seminal moment in the life of the show, as well as American television. In the speech, Daniels' character launches into a three-minute diatribe about how America is not the greatest nation in the world and exposed the various shortcomings and failings of modern America. The monologue set the tone for the character, and the show itself, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential scenes in modern US television.
After three seasons, The Newsroom ended, and Aaron Sorkin claimed he was quitting television to focus on a film career. Based on the fact that he has yet to make a TV show since, it seems as though he is serious about this. Daniels is still acting in both film and TV, but it remains unclear whether the two men will wind up working together again in the future. It is interesting to think about what Daniels would be doing now if The Newsroom hadn't come along and if his career actually would have suffered without it.
Source: THR