Jeff Daniels remembers the moment he thought he had flushed his acting career down the toilet.
In an interview with USA Today while promoting his new Netflix limited drama series A man in his entiretyThe actor revealed how he took a big risk when he played Harry Dunne in Dumb and Dumber (1994) alongside Jim Carrey.
Daniels said he was worried that the scene in which his character suffers serious intestinal problems in the bathroom of his love interest Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly) in the hit comedy could be detrimental to his career.
“It’s one thing to read the bathroom scene, but then the day comes and we’re actually going to do the bathroom scene,” he confessed. “I told Jim, ‘This is the beginning of my career or the end.'”
Note that not only did his agents try to talk him out of the Peter and Bobby Farrelly movie by arguing that he was a “serious actor,” but he also claims that studio executives didn’t want him either and proceeded to belittle him by offering him $50,000 for the job, while his co-star Carrey received $7 million.
Jeff Daniels, 69, revealed how he thought the bathroom scene in Dumb and Dumber (1994) would flush his career down the toilet, in a new interview with USA Today.
Thinking that he would not accept the $50,000 for the role of Harry, Daniels discovered the studio’s deception and accepted the offer, in an attempt to change his career by doing a comedy.
Turns out, the studio preferred to cast a tried-and-true comedian who could bounce off Carrey.
“This is not the direction you should be going. We are going to stop this and get you out of this movie,” Daniels recalled his agents telling him, during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show in 2021.
At the time, in 1993, Daniels was a young dramatic actor with dramatic credits including Woody Allen’s Terms Of Endearment (1983) and The Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985).
While he was a comedian in several of his roles until then, Daniels had not made a full-fledged comedy film before that. But the Farrelly brothers fought for him and knew he was perfect for the film due in part to seeing him in the comedy thriller Something Wild (1986) with Melanie Griffith.
During the conversation with Eisen, Daniels explained his reasoning for wanting to make Dumb And Dumber and work with Carrey.
‘Ace Ventura had been out. Big success. And he had filmed (The) Mask, and it hadn’t been released yet when we started filming. So I wanted to get into comedy,” he said of his thought process.
He continued: “The studio wanted, you know, a comedian, basically, and so they gave me the first week to film, where we filmed a lot of my stuff. The snowball on the head, the tongue on the pole and all the skis inside the ski lodge. You know, Harry Dunne scenes. And they edited them at the end of the first week, they liked what they saw and I had to stay.’
“It’s one thing to read the bathroom scene, but then the day comes and we’re actually going to do the bathroom scene,” he confessed. “I told Jim, ‘This is the beginning or the end of my career.'”
In the scene, Harry suffers serious intestinal problems in the bathroom of his budding love interest Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly).
Not only did his agents try to talk him out of the Peter and Bobby Farrelly movie by arguing that he was a “serious actor,” but he also claims that studio executives didn’t like him either and proceeded to belittle him. offering him $50,000 for the job, while his co-star Carrey received $7 million.
Directed by Peter Farrelly, who co-wrote the script with his younger brother Bobby Farrelly and Bennett Yellin, the film also starred Carrey as Lloyd Christmas, a dim-witted, toothless slacker who is best friends with Harry, an almost equally asshole.
The story centers on the duo who stumble upon a suitcase full of money that Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly), who was headed to the airport, left in Harry’s car. The couple decides to go to Aspen, Colorado, to return the money, completely unaware that it is related to a kidnapping. Ultimately, they find their friendship and intelligence tested when they are chased across the country by assassins and police.
Along with Carrey, Daniels and Holly, the cast also includes Karen Duffy, Mike Starr, Charles Rocket, Teri Garr, Felton Perry, Harland Williams, Victoria Rowell and Cam Neely, among others.
When it came time to shoot the now famous or infamous scene, Carrey attempted to give Daniels a boost of confidence with a pep talk of sorts.
“(He) told me, ‘It’s going to be great. You have to go all the way,'” the Athens, Georgia, native remembers his co-star telling him.
Daniels went on to reveal that when the camera zoomed in to take the shot of his tense, red face, he had almost passed out doing the scene for a couple of hours, which he referred to as “porcelain gymnastics.”
In the end, everything worked out when Dumb and Dumber became a huge hit with fans, grossing $247 million at the worldwide box office against a $17 million budget.
In the end, Dumb and Dumber became a bona fide hit, grossing $247 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of $17 million.
The two stars would eventually reprise their roles in Dumb And Dumber To (2014), which received some negative reviews despite earning $169.8 million at the box office while working on a $50 million budget.
“In terms of comedic scenes, the bathroom scene will probably outlive us,” he joked. “In 40 years it will be fun.”
A long-awaited sequel directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly would finally be made 20 years after the original.
Dumb and Dumber (2014), written by the two Farrelly brothers, along with Sean Anders, John Morris, Bennett Yellin and Mike Cerrone, tells the story of adult fools Lloyd and Harry (Carrey and Daniels), who propose on a cross-country road trip to locate Harry’s daughter, who has been adopted.
While it received negative reviews from critics, it earned $169.8 million at the box office while working on a $50 million budget.