Jeff Daniels Rises Up To Play Besieged FBI Director James Comey in Timely Political Drama THE COMEY RULE

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede It can be said with 100% certainty that Jeff Daniels reaches new heights in SHOWTIME’s THE COMEY RULE. James Comey, former director of the FBI, is 6-foot-8. Daniels – who portrays Comey in the four-hour political drama, which will be available for streaming in its entirety, Sunday, Sept. 27 on Crave – is 6-foot-3. But amazingly, Daniels has really perfected Comey’s body language and posture in THE COMEY RULE. Daniels figured out how to walk like a 6-foot-8 man! “Well, I put two-inch lifts in my shoes, which got me to 6′ 5″,” Daniels said. “I’m still not 6′ 8″, but I could act the other three inches.” Based on Comey’s book A Higher Loyalty, THE COMEY RULE chronicles the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the subsequent fractious relationship between Comey and President Donald Trump, played by Brendan Gleeson. Comey was fired by Trump on May 9, 2017. Written and directed by Billy Ray, THE COMEY RULE is sure to make big waves and cause much debate in U.S. political circles, with the 2020 presidential election coming up on Nov. 3. In fact, THE COMEY RULE may wind up being as controversial as Comey, who first was hated by the Democrats for his pre-election announcements about investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails, and then was hated by the Republicans for the bureau’s post-election investigations into Trump’s ties with Russia. “Those who felt they knew why Comey did what he did will learn things, because not all of our information is available on Twitter,” Daniels said. “Sometimes you’ve got to dive deeper, and this is a deep dive into why Comey did what he did. You find out that he was an apolitical guy, and he really tried to stay true to that. I just felt also that he was vilified, certainly by Trump. That’s the only part of the story that we knew, Trump’s version, which is, ‘Comey is a liar.’ Okay. Here’s the other side. You decide. See you on Nov. 3.” On linear TV, THE COMEY RULE is airing in two parts – Sunday, Sept. 27, and Monday, Sept. 28, at 9 p.m. ET both nights, on Crave – and Gleeson’s face doesn’t show up on screen as Trump (notwithstanding a few side-shots, or from behind) until almost 15 minutes into part two. But one of the most compelling scenes is the depiction of the so-called “loyalty dinner,” attended by only Trump and Comey, in which the former demanded loyalty from the latter. “Half of my performance is in the other actor, as has been the case up and down, and with Brendan in the ‘loyalty dinner,’ the posture changed because, here comes Trump – he’s just coming at you with this loyalty stuff, and it backed me up,” Daniels said. “Jim (the real James Comey) was there (on set) that day, and he said, ‘You’ve got my posture, the uprightness.’ There wasn’t a lot of, you know, personal training with a movement coach or anything. It was just taking what I was given and using it.” That was the only day Comey was on set, and they had not met beforehand, as Daniels felt he had enough to go on, with Comey’s audiobook, and plenty of news footage to study. Nonetheless, Daniels was asked if he felt any added pressure, playing a living person who was in the news not very long ago. “I knew eventually I’d meet Jim, and he would either like what I did or not – that was a little bit of added pressure,” Daniels admitted. “But every character I play is ‘alive.’ I’ve always said, when I’m done, whatever age that is, I’m going to throw a dinner party, and all the characters I’ve ever played are going to show up. I want to see Harry Dunne (from DUMB AND DUMBER, available on Crave) sitting with Will McAvoy (from HBO’s THE NEWSROOM, available on Crave), and then Jim Comey sits down. They are all ‘alive’ to me.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv