Firmly Anchored – Cultural Conversation With Jeff Daniels by Joanne Kaufman

This just in: Before Jeff Daniels was cast as a world-weary cable anchor in Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO series, “The Newsroom” (it debuts Sunday night), he was giving serious thought to packing it in as an actor. Producers at major studios weren’t coming up with much in the way of parts; independent producers weren’t coming up with much in the way of pay.

“I was tired of being the guy they’d tell, ‘Look, we’d love to have your 55 films of experience and we have no money,'” said Mr. Daniels, 57, who is best known for his work in movies like “Terms of Endearment,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” “The Squid and the Whale” and yes, of course, “Dumb and Dumber,” and who tends to be mentioned in close proximity to words like “underrated” and “wait, isn’t that Jeff Bridges?”

“You just go, ‘this is not where I want to be.’ I was feeling like ‘I’m tired of this. I did what I said I was gonna do when I started out,'” added Mr. Daniels over breakfast at an Upper West Side restaurant. “‘It was fun. Now I’m getting out.'”

Turns out the actor was just being melodramatic. When Showtime decided against moving forward on a project with Mr. Daniels, he arranged a meeting with Mr. Sorkin about “The Newsroom.”

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