Yahoo Lifestyle Jeff Daniels recalls his dad watching “Dumb and Dumber” toilet scene with head in hands: 'No, Jeffrey'
"Meanwhile 5,000 people fell out of their chairs laughing," the actor who played dunderhead Harry Dunne said.
New Line Cinema
Jeff Daniels in 'Dumb and Dumber'As cinematic sage Lloyd Christmas once said, "Senior citizens, although old and dangerous behind the wheel, can still serve a purpose" — like critiquing their children's work.
Jeff Daniels recently reflected on filming Dumb and Dumber with Jim Carrey, who played Lloyd in the comedy, and zeroed in on one of the most memorable scenes: the sequence in which his empty-headed Harry Dunne fights for his life on the toilet after accidentally drinking a whole lotta laxatives. Daniels told The Guardian he was nervous to perform the scene, which involves an abundance of over-the-top facial expressions and writhing on the porcelain.
"I was stretching myself comedically," he said. "I remember getting ready to shoot the toilet scene after my character unknowingly drinks laxative-laden tea. Jim asked me: 'Hey man, you okay?' I said: 'Just cold feet. This is either the beginning of my career or the end of it.' He said: 'You’ve gotta go all in man. Go all the way!' He couldn’t have been a better cheerleader."
The Newsroom star explained that he screened Dumb and Dumber for his theater company in Michigan shortly before its wide release. "I was sat next to my parents and when we got to the toilet scene, my father hung his head in his hands and said: 'No, Jeffrey…'" he recalled. "Meanwhile 5,000 people fell out of their chairs laughing."
Related: Jeff Daniels explains why he really wanted to be in Dumb and Dumber with Jim Carrey
The audience reception didn't translate to critical adoration, however.
"The reviews were horrible," the two-time Emmy winner said. "I still have a scrapbook of 200 newspapers panning the movie and wishing it never existed. Then we were the box office No. 1 for six straight weeks. That’s when it hit me that we’d done the impossible."
New Line/Everett
Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in 'Dumb and Dumber'Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.
Daniels had previously starred in dramedies like Terms of Endearment, Something Wild, and Heartburn, and was fed up with playing more dramatic characters.
"I was bored with drama and wanted to explore comedy, but my agents didn’t want me to do the film," he said of Dumb and Dumber. "They said: 'There’s a chance Jim Carrey will wipe you off the screen.' I said: 'Maybe – but not if I work with him.' And that’s what I did. I remember thinking: 'It’s either going to be such a bad career move I’ll never work again, or it just might be funny.'"
The actor said that he and Carrey kept each other on their toes.
"One day Jim came into rehearsals having put a bowl on his head and cut his hair, because that’s how his character Lloyd would do it," he recalled, noting that he realized he had to come up with a similar gesture in response. "We were staying at a Holiday Inn and I started using the shampoo but with no conditioner. Then I’d towel my hair dry and not comb it. And that was it. I came in and said: 'Maybe this is Harry’s look?' Everyone agreed. After a couple of months, you could almost break my hair off."
Daniels thinks that Dumb and Dumber — and the bathroom scene specifically — will go down in history as his best-known work. "Me on that toilet will be the image on my tombstone," he said.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
