CHELSEA, MI–Many actors of Jeff Daniels’ stature opt to create their own production companies to insulate their projects from being poisoned by studio executives beholden to mainstream sensibilities. But Daniels, 63, resisted the notion for ages out of an unwillingness to canvass the entertainment industry hounding the suits for money. His time, he felt–as has been repeatedly proven–was better spent glued to his artistic callings of performance and writing.

But when old friend and fellow Emmy award-winning actor Timothy Busfield(Thirtysomething, Field of Dreams) and his wife, actress Melissa Gilbert (Little House on the Prairie), came calling with a scaled-down model to produce in the trio’s home state of Michigan, the proposal was too alluring to pass up.

With Grand River Productions, their debut film, Guest Artist, made its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 9. Adapted from a 2006 play Daniels wrote and staged at a small-town Michigan playhouse he founded in 1991, Guest Artist mines the actor’s rich association with the theater to exalt the medium’s artistic purity, while sharply lamenting its economic atrophy.

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