Jeff Daniels has a lengthy resume spanning five decades, but there are many roles he’s turned down.
“I’ve said no a lot,” the actor tells Page Six in an exclusive interview, explaining that his criterion for saying yes includes asking himself several questions.
“Would (this) keep me from getting bored halfway through shooting?” he says of his thought process. “Are the people I’m working with going to make me better? Is the writing there?”
In fact, Daniels started a one-man show because he didn’t want to accept projects he wasn’t interested in, such as the “jerk father in a TV show with some 28-year-old who’s making $10 million and can’t remember his line.”
“I don’t want that job,” the 70-year-old emphasizes. “So, I’d rather do what I’m doing with the guitar, which I thoroughly enjoy.”
Daniels also notes that money has never been a deciding factor in what movie roles he accepts.
“When you’re an actor and you’re paid well, that’s terrific,” he opines. “But there are other times where you’re doing acting jobs and you’re not paid a lot and you put the same effort into those, whether it’s independent films or theater … the money’s never driven me.”
For about 25 years, the “Newsroom” alum has been performing around the country in “Jeff Daniels: Onstage & Unplugged,” telling behind-the-scenes tales and singing original songs while playing an acoustic guitar.
“I have a one-man show, which every actor does,” he jokes. “But mine’s with a guitar, which includes stories and humor, and you know, what it’s like to be killed by Clint Eastwood.
“And then I go into a song called ‘Dirty Harry Blues.’”
Another one of his songs is about Daniels not having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, something he swears he’s totally “OK” with.
“I think if I were to get one, it would be somewhere near Encino [Calif.]. There are so many people that have got them!
“I mean, David Hasselhoff, Dr. Phil, Woody Woodpecker. I mean, it’s just, you know, I’m good, I’m good,” he adds.
Daniels’s lack of a Hollywood star is surprising considering he’s been in some iconic movies, including “Dumb and Dumber,” which catapulted him to fame.
The Emmy winner knows that the movie, in which he acts opposite Jim Carey, will probably lead to his obit and he has no problems with that.
During our chat, he recalls being asked to visit injured troops at the Walter Reed hospital, where he met a severely injured soldier who was a big fan of the 1994 comedy.
“So, I leaned in and I got right here with him, and I started quoting lines. And you could see his eyes smile,” he remembers, noting that “the Greeks were holding up two masks, and one wasn’t above or in front of the other. They were equal. And I’ve always looked at them as equal.”
Daniels will be performing at Cafe Wha? in New York City on Thursday.
