"This really isn't a tax issue, is it?"
Anderson had admired Glover in many films, particularly his performance in "To Sleep with Anger." When he met him at a function at the United Nations, where Glover is active as a cultural ambassador, Anderson was even more impressed. 

"As soon as I met him, I was hooked on him. He has a real leadership quality. He seemed perfect for the role of Henry Sherman, the family accountant who's also Etheline's suitor, and I was excited at the prospect of working with him." The story's themes of responsibility and accountability attracted Glover to the role of Henry.

"Those are attributes I associate with family," the actor says. "Certainly most families are to some degree or other dysfunctional. But the capacity to forgive can help us to heal and overcome our dysfunctional-ism. 

Without a doubt, the sincerity and charm of Henry Sherman seemed to fit Danny Glover. However, adds Mendel, "Henry is kind of meek and bumbling, which Danny is definitely not. So it is exciting to see him play a character so opposite from who he is."

"Henry is dependable," says Danny Glover. "In many ways, he's the antithesis of Royal. He offers comfort and stability. [He] is not a man into self-promotion. So when he finally asks Etheline to marry him, even though it's something he's thought about a thousand times, it's something that just slips out, and he's immediately in over his head. And he sees all these reasons why she shouldn't marry him: they make great bridge partners, it would be better for tax purposes to be single he can't even say why it would be better to be married to him."

Credit: The Royal Tenenbaums press kit

About Danny Glover
A distinguished actor of the stage and screen, Danny Glover is known for his work in both Hollywood blockbusters and serious dramatic films. Towering and quietly forceful, Glover lends gravity and complexity to the diverse characters he has portrayed throughout his lengthy career.

A native of San Francisco, where he was born July 22, 1947, Glover attended San Francisco State and received his dramatic training at the American Conservatory Theatre's Black Actors' Workshop. He made his film debut in Escape from Alcatraz (1979). In the early '80s, Glover made his name portraying characters ranging from the sympathetic in Places in the Heart (1984) to the menacing in Witness (1985) and The Color Purple (1984). He reached box-office-gold status with the three Lethal Weapon flicks produced between 1987 and 1992, playing the conservative, family-man partner of "loose cannon" L.A. cop Mel Gibson. Glover carried over his fiddle-and-bow relationship with Gibson into his off-screen life, and also contributed an amusing cameo (complete with his Lethal Weapon catch-phrase "I'm gettin' too old for this!") in Maverick (1994). In 1998, Glover again reprised his role for the blockbuster-proportioned Lethal Weapon 4, and that same year gave a stirring performance in the little-seen Beloved.

On television, Glover played the title role in Mandela (1987), cowpoke Joshua Deets in the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove, legendary railroad man John Henry in a 1988 installment of Shelley Duvall's Tall Tales, and the mercurial leading character in the 1989 "American Playhouse" revival of A Raisin in the Sun.

Credit: AllMovie.com

Danny Glover's Filmography
Boesman and Lena (2000) - Boesman
Bàttu (2000) 
Monster (1999) - Henry Johnson 
Prince of Egypt (1998)(voice) - Jethro 
Beloved (1998) - Paul D Garner 
Antz (1998)(voice) - Barbatus 
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) - Detective Sergeant Roger Murtaugh
"Life by the Numbers" (1998) (mini) TV Series - Host 
Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? The Life & Music of Robert Johnson (1997)(voice) - Himself/Narrator 
Switchback (1997) - Bob Goodall 
Gone Fishin' (1997) - Gus Green 
Operation Dumbo Drop (1995) - Captain Sam Cahill
Kidnapped (1994) 
Angels in the Outfield (1994) - George Knox
Bopha! (1993) - Micah Mangena 
Saint of Fort Washington (1993) - Jerry/Narrator 
"Queen" (1993) (mini) TV Series - Alec Haley
Talking Eggs (1992) - Narrator 
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) - Detective Sergeant Roger Murtaugh 
Grand Canyon (1991) - Simon 
Party for Richard Pryor, A (1991) (TV) - Himself 
Pure Luck (1991) - Raymond Campanella 
Rage in Harlem, A (1991) - Easy Money 
Flight of the Intruder (1991) - Commander Frank 'Dooke' Camparelli 
Predator 2 (1990) - Lieutenant Mike Harrigan 
To Sleep with Anger (1990) - Harry Mention
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) - Detective Sergeant Roger Murtaugh 
Dead Man Out (1989) (TV) - Alex
Bat*21 (1988) - Captain Bartholomew Clark 
Lethal Weapon (1987) - Sergeant Roger Murtaugh 
Color Purple (1985) - Albert 
Silverado (1985) - Malachi 'Mal' Johnson 
Witness (1985) - McFee 
Places in the Heart (1984) - Moze 
Iceman (1984) - Loomis 
Out (1982) - Jojo/Roland
Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981) - Morgan 
Oscar Micheaux, Film Pioneer (1981) - Oscar Micheaux 
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - Inmate

Credit: The Internet Movie Database

The Royal Tenenbaums Criterion Collection