For Jeff Daniels, ‘Dumb’ proved a smart move
Jeff Daniels is at the top of his game starring as an overly confident Southern real-estate mogul in Netflix’s “A Man in Full.” But more than three decades ago, the young dramatic actor, who had starred in 1983’s Oscar darling “Terms of Endearment” and 1985’s “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” took the chance of his career.
Daniels agreed to star as “8 IQ” Harry alongside Jim Carrey’s dimwitted Lloyd in 1994’s unabashedly moronic comedy “Dumb and Dumber,” despite his agents’ warning.
“I had agents, who weren’t wrong, telling me, ‘You’re a serious actor. This is not the direction you need to be going. We’re going to stop this and get you off this movie,’ ” Daniels recalls. “But I wanted to shake it up with a comedy. And I wanted to work with Jim Carrey.”
Daniels, 69, reflected on “Dumb and Dumber,” which turns 30 this year, and why that infamous toilet scene was deadly serious business.
Daniels understood that a big risk was disappearing in the comedy, written and directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, behind the force of the outlandish Carrey. Therefore scenes featuring Harry’s high jinks, the more humiliating the better, were important to stand out. There were moments in the script including Harry getting his tongue stuck to a frozen pole and his enduring severe intestinal issues in the bathroom of his budding love interest Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly).
Those stupid showcases were key for the actor, who was cast even though the movie studio wanted a comedian for the role.
“It was like, I’ve got scenes. I knew I was going to score,” says Daniels. “If (the Farrelly brothers) cut those, the movie was going to be ‘Jim and the other guy.’ ”
They didn’t get cut. Yet when it came to shooting the scene in which Harry suffers his prolonged intestinal purge on Mary’s toilet after drinking laxativespiked tea served by his jealous best friend Lloyd, Daniels clenched.
He suddenly feared for his serious actor career.
“It’s one thing to read the toilet scene, but then the day comes and we’re actually going to do the toilet scene,” says Daniels. “I told Jim, ‘This is either the beginning of my career or the end of it.’ Jim, who is fearless, told me, ‘It’s going to be great. You’ve just got to go all the way with it.’ ”
The pep talk pushed Daniels over the line and the actor gave it his all in the bathroom.
“That was a couple hours of porcelain gymnastics,” says Daniels.
“And that close-up when they pop in tight on my red face. I had been doing it so long, I had almost passed out.”
In most scenes, Daniels deferred to the comedy superstar Carrey, allowing the “Dumb and Dumber” pairing to succeed.
“Let Jim, as Lloyd, be the leader. You want him to do that, don’t try to compete with him,” says Daniels.
“Let him go through the door first and you follow like a puppy on a leash.”
“Dumb and Dumber” was a $127 million box-office hit that developed an even bigger cult following, which led to the 2014 sequel “Dumb and Dumber To.”
The continued success of the original is way beyond Daniels’ wildest estimations.
“We thought 12-year-old boys would go see it,” says Daniels. “We weren’t prepared for the demo to go from 8 to 80. People are still walking up to me like it’s their ‘Citizen Kane.’ ”
“What kind of shoes do you wear?” Cy the Cynic asked me in the club lounge.
“Slippers, mostly. Why?” “Well,” Cy said jocularly, “if thieves wear sneakers, artists wear sketchers, bread-bakers wear loafers and linguists wear Converse, I was wondering what bridge columnists wear.”
In today’s deal from a penny game, Cy landed at six hearts as South. When West competed to six diamonds, North would have done better, at least in practice, to pass, giving Cy the final say, or to double and accept a decent penalty.
West led the ace and a low diamond, and Cy ruffed. He led a trump to dummy and returned the jack of clubs for a finesse. West took the king for down one.
“You must be wearing combat boots today,” I told the Cynic, “because you booted that one. Your club finesse was futile. On the bidding, West surely had the king.” “I had no option,” Cy growled.
Cy had one “sole” legitimate chance. West was likely to have four spades as well as the king of clubs. If Cy takes all but one of dummy’s trumps, discarding the four and queen of clubs, the shoe will be on the other foot. With five tricks to go, dummy has the K-5 of spades, a trump and J-6 of clubs. Cy has the A-97-4 of spades and ace of clubs.
If West saves three spades and the K-10 of clubs, Cy takes the K-A of spades, ruffs a spade and wins the last two tricks with the ace of clubs and a good spade. If instead West keeps four spades and the singleton king of clubs, Cy cashes his ace of clubs and wins Trick 13 with dummy’s jack. South dealer
N-S vulnerable