Jeff Daniels says he ‘didn’t know how to be that dumb’ in ‘Dumb and Dumber’

He’s had a lengthy and accomplished career with all kinds of roles, but Jeff Daniels’ says his part in Dumb and Dumber remains his most “out of body” experience.

Daniels made the revelation to Nicolle Wallace on The Best People podcast on Monday, telling the host, it came down to the fact he felt like he “didn’t know how to do it.” In the film, he plays one of two well-meaning but ultimately dimwitted best friends who set out on a hilarious cross-country road trip to return a briefcase full of money, not knowing it was part of a ransom.

“I didn’t know how to be that dumb,” Daniels told Wallace, who started laughing at his declaration. “I didn’t,” he insisted, before reminiscing on the screen test he did with eventual costar Jim Carrey. “There were a few of us that were in the finals, and so I came in, I remember Jim just kind of started a scene and he kind of screwed his hair up, and so I go, I got to match that, so I did, and then we were kind of bouncing off each other.”

That was all fine and dandy — he obviously landed the role — but when it came time to shoot the Farrelly brothers comedy in Colorado, Daniels claims “it wasn’t going well.” “We were reading stuff — it wasn’t going well and you could tell,” he said.

And then, he had a lightbulb moment. “And I said, I know what it is. And I go, what, please? He has an IQ of 8,” Daniels recalled thinking of his character. “Not 7, not 98. And that made perfect sense to me. And then I became the puppy on a leash. Jim would lead… There’s a vacancy that happens, and then they’d say cut, and you’d get your brain back.”

Whatever him and Carrey did worked. Though it debuted to mixed reviews in 1994, Dumb and Dumber went on to gross $247 million at the box office, and spawned an animated TV series, a 2003 prequel, and a 2014 sequel, all of which Daniels is still grateful for. “You hope that especially with a comedy, which there is a shelf life on most of them, that the fact that we were lasting like Pink Panther, Peter Sellers, Preston Sturges movies last — at least for me — it becomes this kind of ‘everybody does something stupid at some point,’ so that’s the kind of universal hook, and I’m glad,” he said.

However, he was still surprised at just how universal that theme turned out to be. “We knew when we put it out that 12-year-old boys, 13-year-old boys would think of it as their Citizen Kane,” he said. “We were aware of that. We just weren’t prepared for the demo that went from 8 to 80.”

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As for what it means to have that role among his iconic roles? “Part of my plan was to create as wide a range as possible,” Daniels said. Mission accomplished, we’d say.

Watch the full interview with Daniels, above.