There are outstanding professionals in any field — people who are admired for their insights, their intelligence and pure skill. And when you get to work with such a person, well, it can be an amazing thing. Or maybe a nerve-racking thing, depending on your perspective.
That’s true for actors as well. For Jeff Daniels, that was working with Meryl Streep for the first time. “It’s in a movie called ‘Heartburn’ with Mike Nichols directing.
You’re young and you’re supporting. And she’s No. 1 on the call sheet.
And she’s Meryl Streep. And you realize very quickly that if we do eight takes, I have to be great eight times. She only has to be great once.
And she was [struggling], ‘Mike, there’s just something, I don’t know what it is’ ...
and we get to about take six, seven, and I’m starting to flop sweat.” Soon enough, though, Streep nailed it, says the veteran actor, who plays a wealthy businessman whose world falls apart in Netflix’s “A Man in Full.” “If she were a pitcher, it’s not just fastballs now.
Now it’s fastball, curveball, slider, knuckle curve, change-up ...
and I’m over here, I can feel the sweat. And that really taught me early on that half your performance is in the other actor.” “Wow, that would have been like a master class,” says clearly impressed newcomer Hoa Xuande of the HBO series “The Sympathizer.
” “My first speaking role on a TV show back home in Australia, I got to do a small scene with Elisabeth Moss.
