How Jeff Daniels ruined James Comey’s day
Last winter, James Comey met Jeff Daniels for the first time. The experience made Comey sick to his stomach. “I remember the word ‘nauseous,’” Daniels recalled.
The two men — Comey, a former FBI director, and Daniels, an Emmy-winning actor — met in Toronto on the set of “The Comey Rule,” a two-part series debuting Sunday on Showtime, based on Comey’s 2018 memoir, “A Higher Loyalty.” Daniels plays Comey.
The real Comey had made himself available by phone and email but stayed otherwise uninvolved. Eventually, he found time to spend a day on set. That day’s schedule included a recreation of the nowinfamous private dinner at which Comey has said President Donald Trump told him: “I need loyalty. I expect loyalty.” (Trump has disputed this.)
Watching Daniels squirm in a replica chair at a replica table in a replica of the White House Green Room opposite Brendan Gleeson’s Trump, Comey began to feel physically ill. That’s how he knew the scene was working.
“It was painful for him,” Daniels recalled during a three-way Zoom conversation with Comey earlier this month. Comey, whose only credit on the show is for
writing the source material, put it more colorfully. “It freakin’ ruined my day,” he said cheerfully.
Written and directed by Billy Ray, a director and screenwriter who specializes in thrillers based on real events, “The Comey Rule” mixes legal procedural, political suspense and historical drama about a period of history so near and largely unprocessed that watching it can induce a kind of emotional whiplash.
The first episode covers the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the FBI investigation nto Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
The second focused largely on the probe into Russian election meddling and culminating in Comey’s firing. Re-enactments and domestic scenes offer a sympathetic view of Comey as both public servant and private individual. They re
iterate his self-criticism that he can be prideful, overconfident, led by personal ethics at the expense of useful institutional norms. But no scene contradicts or questions the events “A Higher Loyalty” supplies.
Ray acknowledged that he had approached the project with the belief that Comey’s handling of the Clinton investigation had delivered the election to Trump. But the Comey of Part 1 is ultimately a tragic hero, an upright man trapped in a no-win situation. The circumstances of Part 2? Even less winnable.
Still the real Comey had one word for his experience watching the series: “Exhausting.”
Side by side on Zoom — Comey from Virginia, Daniels from Michigan — Comey and the actor suggested a compare-and-contrast exercise. Daniels wore a Philadelphia folk festival
T-shirt, his hair every which way. Comey was perfectly kempt in a suit jacket and collared shirt. His tidy background clashed with Daniels’ cluttered office.
During an hourlong interview, Comey and Daniels discussed the shock of reliving the recent past, what a drama about the
2016 election can mean for viewers in 2020 and how much the miniseries made the real Comey cry.
These are excerpts.
Q: Jim, I understand you were reluctant to sell the film and television rights. What convinced you? James Comey: Shane Salerno, one of the producers, turned me around. He said, “Tell us why you wrote this book.” I said, “Well, I wanted to be helpful, especially to young people, and try and offer a vision of these institutions and what leadership can be.” And he said, “If your book sells a million copies, it’ll be a huge nonfiction success. If a TV show has a million viewers, it’s canceled today.” He let that sink in and then he said: “Look, man, I know you’re uncomfortable. But if that’s your mission, get over your discomfort. Because kids aren’t going to read your book, but they will watch a show.”
Q: What was your discomfort?
Comey: At first I wasn’t going to write a book. Then I wasn’t going to include the Trump chapters until my literary agents told me, “You’re crazy.” I just wanted the whole thing to go away. And the idea of a movie or TV show meant it was just going to be back in the public eye forever. As it turns out, I’ve decided to stay in the public eye until the election, so it didn’t make that big a difference. But that was my discomfort. I just thought, “Oh, God, do I really need that?” And also, look, I’m sensitive to criticism, and one of the criticisms of me that I think is wrong is this notion that I’m a showboat or that I want the attention.
Q: Jeff, what sold you on the role?
Jeff Daniels: Billy came to me and said, “We want you to play Jim Comey.” My first thought was, “I don’t have a clue as to how to do that.” Which is a good thing. Because that’s what I thought with “Newsroom,” “Godless,” “Looming Tower,” Atticus Finch. So I said yes, knowing I’d have to do it nine days after I wrapped a year’s run in “Mockingbird,” which is like running a marathon and then somebody hands you a glass of water and says turn around and run another one.
Q: Jim, how did Jeff do, playing you?
Comey: I got to see the “loyalty dinner.” That was the only day I could get to Toronto. I’m watching this, and I’m feeling slightly ill. Jeff is capturing my discomfort in an amazing way. So when I met him, I said: “The best compliment I can pay you is you just ruined my day. I feel awful.” Yeah, the scene is eerily accurate.