Showtime rolled out a trailer for its upcoming 4-hour dramatization of former FBI Director James Comey’s memoir on Monday, offering a preview of Jeff Daniels as Comey and Brendan Gleeson as a menacing President Donald Trump.
Brendan Gleeson as Donald Trump.@Jeff_Daniels as James Comey.
In a special two-night event, an all-star cast brings James Comey’s book to life in #TheComeyRule. pic.twitter.com/YEMt0L40P2
— SHOWTIME (@Showtime) August 24, 2020
The trailer is the most footage revealed yet from the miniseries that premieres Sept. 27, which is based on Comey’s 2018 book “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership.”
Journalist Mollie Hemingway excoriated the trailer, tweeting, “The proof that Democrats/media/NeverTrump don’t *genuinely* care about conspiracy theories getting adopted by small or fringe portions of the general population is that they continue to actively push the ‘Russia collusion’ conspiracy theory that causes such damage to the country.”
The proof that Democrats/media/NeverTrump don't *genuinely* care about conspiracy theories getting adopted by small or fringe portions of the general population is that they continue to actively push the "Russia collusion" conspiracy theory that causes such damage to the country. https://t.co/68sZ1iGlQo
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) August 24, 2020
The casting of Daniels as the former FBI director was announced last October, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Director Billy Ray reportedly cast the “Dumb & Dumber” actor following a meeting with him backstage after his performance as Atticus Finch in the Broadway play “To Kill A Mockingbird.”
Ray described Daniels as a perfect fit for the role, saying, “Jeff is so perfect for this part: great actor, instant integrity, loads of warmth, intelligence, complexity and gravitas. We talked backstage after I saw him in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ on Broadway, and I knew I was looking at the only person who could play Jim Comey. Lucky for me, he said yes.”
Daniels has been an outspoken critic of both Trump and his supporters, some of whom he has accused of being racist. During a May 2019 interview with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, Daniels said:
I think there are people in the Midwest, between the coasts, who don’t care about this, don’t have time for this, who have to make a decision now. You have to decide whether, like Atticus, you believe there is still compassion, decency, civility, respect for others, do unto others, remember that? Do unto others. All that stuff you guys believe in and you still voted not for Hillary, for Trump, where are you now? Your kids are looking up at you going, but he lies. I think there are a lot of people in the midwest who are going — it might be enough for them. We’ll find out if the big gamble is to go all the way to November 2020, which I agree, and lose, it’s the end of democracy.
According to texts he sent to Wallace, Comey and his wife saw Daniels on Broadway in a performance she wanted so badly to see that she sat through it while holding a broken clavicle in place.
“Yes, the whole family went in early January,” Comey texted Wallace. “We were so excited to see it that Patrice fell on the sidewalk, broke her clavicle, and refused to go to the hospital. She held her arm in place all during the show.”
“It is the perfect play for our time,” Comey continued. “It reminds us that people can be deeply biased and flawed but the truth is a real thing and our heroes in the long run are always those who stood up for it.”
Related: Jeff Daniels: America Needs Someone Who Can Punch Trump ‘In The Face’