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‘The Squid and the Whale’ Cast Interviews

They’re not in conflict, nor do they fight like their characters, but actors Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels seem to have career paths that reflect their characters in The Squid and the Whale.

Daniels, who turned 50 this year, is an actor who’s “always under the radar,” according to the writer/director Noah Baumbach, who cast Daniels in the role of the aging father who wants a divorce and has stagnated with his writing. Having starred in classics such as The Purple Rose of Cairo, The Hours and Terms of Endearment, Daniels has also starred in goofy comedies like Dumb & Dumber and Something Wild. One of the few awards he ever won was a science fiction Saturn Award for Arachnophobia.

Meanwhile, Linney, 41–who plays Daniels’ estranged wife and a more successful author–is finally becoming a household name. Not only was she nominated for an Oscar for You Can Count on Me and last year’s Kinsey, but she has made notable performances in The Truman Show, P.S.Mystic River and her last film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose was at the top of the box office.

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Now, as the Academy Award buzz for The Squid and the Whale intensifies after the debut in Toronto, both actors reflect on their career paths.

“What will be will be,” sighed Linney about the Oscar buzz. “I just hope that it means more people will go see it, because it’s a good movie.” 

Daniels laughed, “I’ve been around a long time, we were working with Laura when she was nominated last year [for Kinsey]. You pretend like it doesn’t matter, but it really does. It’s nice to be recognized for your work.” 

Daniels plays an intellectual named Bernard Berkman who is dealing with how his divorce is affecting his sons, 16-year-old Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and 12-year-old Frank (Owen Kline). Both parents are writers, and Joan (Linney) is suddenly finding a lot more success in her career, which adds to Bernard’s stress. So, he ends up moving into a house with his young student Lili (Anna Paquin) and Joan has fling with Frank’s tennis instructor (William Baldwin).

“The script was so realistic, that is why I signed on early on,” Linney said. “When I found out a lot of it really happened, it didn’t surprise me.”

Baumbach, who wrote and directed Kicking and Screaming and Mr. Jealousy and co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou with his friend Wes Anderson, said this is a very personal story. He grew up in Brooklyn with two writer/parents who split up and shared custody between them.

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“My brother was 9 and I was 14, but for the movie we made the brothers 16 and 12 so they could be more obviously interested in girls,” Baumbach said. “It’s not autobiographical, but I did pull from my family experiences.”

In fact, Baumbach‘s parents met both of the actors and the actors pulled a little bit from each of them. Daniels even wore some of the clothes from the director’s father. “Helping me wear someone’s clothes actually helps me get into character,” Daniels said. “Even more surprising, they fit.” 

Linney didn’t want the real-life counterpart to influence her as much as Daniels allowed, so she kept her distance until after the shoot was finished. It was, after all, only 23 days.

“It was a very quick shoot, but it worked out nicely,” said Linney. Although she’s used to big budgets and lavish accessories, it wasn’t beyond her now to do a small indie film where the producer picks her up to go to the set, or she occasionally catches the subway home.
For Daniels, who just completed the bigger budget Because of Winn-Dixie, the indie shoot was a refreshing change, too. He said he moved his family to Michigan in 1986 to get away from the Hollywood hubbub, and he has found that even with his multi-faceted credits he’s still stereotyped as only one kind of actor.

“For the longest time they would only want me for silly comedies, more Dumb & Dumber and now I’m getting a lot of dad roles,” said Daniels, who co-starred with Sigourney Weaver earlier this year in the family drama Imaginary Heroes about two parents who deal with a son’s suicide. “The last time I looked, those Greek masks represent both comedy and drama, why can’t people see that actors can do both, sometimes just as good?”

So, while Daniels gets rediscovered, and Linney rides her wave of stardom, their careers seem to reflect very much the roles they were cast in with The Squid and the Whale. Both of them have a slate of movies lined up for next year, but nothing as intimate and independent as this one.

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“It’s a golden time for me,” Linney said.

“I have no idea what will come,” Daniels said.

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