He, however, WasIn 2018, he said that he had been “immediately and smitten”. Sam Jones on Off-Camera. She was the director’s first meeting. Peter MedakTo see if there was any chemistry, I got them to meet up for dinner. I gave the okay to simply “look at this person in the eye and the face. At dinner, it was all just me. It was like a million-watt light bulb in her eyes. He moved with his head and indicated he was up for the count.
Danson said he didn’t find out until later that Steenburgen was suspicious of him, recounting how she had said, “‘Ugh, I love the script, but if Ted Danson’s attached to it and he’s that Hollywood-slick, Sam Malone-kind of guy…'” But, he felt that she started to look at him differently one day when they were in the lunch line on set and she noticed that he was both splattered with paint (taking up painting was part of his “self-discovery,” he explained) and had a tear in the back of his jeans, so she could see his “tighty-whities,” as she called them.
With a laugh, Danson replied, “And then she said, Well, that guy’s just not cool. “He is a doofus!” He’s a doofus!