PECK-ING ORDER
Jeff Daniels, Richard Thomas found different ways to stage Atticus Finch in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
Nine years ago, Aaron Sorkin gave Jeff Daniels an offer he could not refuse.
The two were doing interviews for the 2015 biopic “Steve Jobs,” which Sorkin wrote and in which Daniels played onetime Apple CEO John Sculley. “Aaron turned to me one day and said, ‘We’ve got the rights for ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Would you like to play Atticus (Finch)?’” recalls Daniels, who’d also worked with Sorkin on the HBO series “The Newsroom.” “That was the audition.”
And the reply was an immediate “yes,” even though Chelsea-based Daniels quips that “it had failure written all over it.” “Mockingbird” was, after all, a beloved and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, while Gregory Peck’s Academy Award-winning performance as Finch in the 1962 film adaptation was long considered iconic. And definitive.
But with a little trust and daring, “Mockingbird” and its provocative story about a small-town Alabama lawyer who steps up to defend a Black man falsely accused of murder turned into a hit on stage, too. Premiered on Broadway in December 2018, it received nine Tony Award nominations, including one for Daniels, who also was nominated for a Drama League Award. It also broke a Shubert Organization ticket sales record for a nonmusical production.
And the stage “Mockingbird” succeeded in broadening the scope of the story and its characters, which particularly appealed to Daniels and to Richard Thomas, who’s been portraying Atticus Finch during “Mockingbird’s” delayed national tour.
“To take on Gregory Peck … he either gave the definitive performance, or he’s the only one who got to do it,” Daniels explains. “I had to take the latter or I have no business walking about there.”
Fortunately, Sorkin’s script — after some battles with the Lee estate over variances from the book — fleshed out the Finch character to allow the actors to create a greater arc in the role.
“He wasn’t Atticus Finch on page one,” Daniels says. “He becomes Atticus twothirds of the way through the play. He was just a small-town lawyer who didn’t want anything to do with (plaintiff) Tom Robinson. He didn’t want to get involved, and Aaron took that and used it as kind of a metaphor for people who just want to look the other way and don’t want to get involved, and he forced Atticus in there and that became our interpretation of the role.”
Thomas — best known for playing John-Boy in TV’s “The Waltons” from 1972-1981 and subsequent TV movies — adds that because Finch is “so real to so many people it’s almost as if he’s not a fictional character. He has a life outside the confines of the work.” And that presents its own challenge in portraying him on stage.
“Just because Atticus Finch is a great character on the page and in the movie doesn’t mean it’s going to be a great character on the page — unless the adaptation is done by Aaron Sorkin,” explains Thomas, whose last Detroit engagement was in “Twelve Angry Men” at the Fisher Theatre. “What he’s done with Atticus makes him more accessible and in some ways a more dramatically interesting character.”
Sorkin also “gave (Finch) a sense of humor, a very wry, Southern sense of humor, which makes him more accessible to the audience,” Thomas adds. “He knows how to balance light and shade beautifully in his writing. The humor is a set-up for the tragedy, and the tragedy is released by the humor afterwards. It’s a beautiful balancing act.”
That aspect extends to the entire play and to the interactions between the characters — particularly the widower Finch with his children Scout and Jem (played by adults) and with their nanny, Calpurnia.
“They’ve basically been raising these kids together,” says Jacqueline Williams, who portrays Calpurnia in the touring production. “There’s a long history of trust there, and they’re confidants of each other and very free to disagree with each other and there’s a lot of playfulness between them, as well.
“And there are many things Calpurnia schools Atticus on, things from the black perspective he can’t possibly understand, being as liberal as he is. It’s a really, really wonderful relationship.”
Thomas points out that the Sorkin script makes room for nuanced interpretations, meaning he’s not tied down by Daniels’ portrayal even though he originated the part. “We’re too radically different as actors to ever have to worry about that,” says Thomas, who worked with Daniels in “Fifth of July” on Broadway and in “The Comey Rules” on Showtime. “I’m an inveterate maximalist and he’s a rigorous minimalist, so we have different approaches. I love the clarity and passion of his performance. I loved him in it, and … I love getting to play (Finch) the way that I do.”
Thomas was, in fact, negotiating for the tour while Daniels was still on Broadway. “He came backstage and I just said, ‘I’m here for you if you need me,’” Daniels recalls. “But he’s smart. He saw what Aaron was doing and did his own thing with it. I think that’s what Sorkin has done. Anyone can play Atticus now.”
The “Mockingbird” national tour will be on the road for four more months, and neither Thomas nor Williams have firm plans for what comes next. “This has been a long haul,” Thomas notes. “I’m hoping to get a month or so to do nothing.” Daniels, meanwhile, views “Mockingbird” as “the last thing I do on Broadway;” these days he’s focused on his Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea, along with roles in the TV mini-series “American Rust” (on Amazon Prime) and “A Man in Full” (on Netflix).
“I really enjoy being in front of the camera, and I love the fact that on television or movies, you’ve got weekends off,” Daniels says. “With (‘Mockingbird’) it was eight shows a week. Just brutal. I just became Cal Ripken Jr. and made it all the way through, one year without missing a show. At the final curtain call, I all but planted a flag at the front of the stage and waved goodbye. What a great way to finish.”
“To Kill a Mockingbird” runs Tuesday, March 5 through March 17 at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit. 313-872-1000 or broadwayindetroit.com.