Jeff Daniels reveals he’s turned down a lot of roles — and which one he’d never take
One of the things that happens when you get older is the ambition dissipates and you don’t need that next thing to get you to that next thing to get you that that’s what kind of being on a red carpet and an award show is. You’re surrounded by ambition. You’re surrounded by people wanting to make that next step up. And I’ve never thought of it like that. I’ve always just thought of whether the next thing was interesting enough or challenging enough or um would keep me from getting bored halfway through shooting. Um it’s the people I’m working with uh are the people I’m working with going to make me better? Um is the writing there? Uh I I’ve said no a lot and um and so when you do say yes to something and even something that’s kind of off the radar like uh Noah Bombback Squid and the Whale you know back in the 20067 something like that. I mean I remember finishing that movie with Noah and Laura Lenny and just standing there going well nobody’s going to see this but we threw our best at it and I hope you’re happy Noah. We tried and and then yeah, you know, that happened. So it it’s it it gives you it restores your faith in the audience that something that that maybe you thought was ah this is this is different. This is good. This could be something that isn’t like everything else and when it catches it restores your faith in the audience. Were you concerned about money at all when you when you started doing singing songwriting because you weren’t getting acting jobs? No. No. Okay. No. The money part of it. No. You know, when when if if you’re an actor and you’re paid well, that’s terrific. But there are other times where you’re doing acting jobs and you’re not paid a lot and you you put the same effort into those, whether it’s independent films or theater or whatever that may be, it’s never the money’s never driven me. And so when I kind of, you know, took this other turn to kind of, well, maybe I should be doing that. The acting jobs were still there. I guess what I’m preventing is doing those acting jobs that I don’t want to do, right? Where you play the jerk father, you know, in a TV show with some 28-year-old who’s making 10 million and can’t remember his lines. I don’t want that job, right? So, I’d rather do what I’m doing with a guitar, which I thoroughly enjoy. I have a one-man show, which every actor does, but mine’s with a guitar, which includes stories and humor and, you know, like what it’s like to be killed by Clint Eastwood. And then I go into a song called Dirty Hairy Blues, others, and I entertain the crowd. And I’ve been on tour for well, currently for about a month, but also I’ve been doing this for about 25 years. And I really love it. And I’ve always wanted to play some of the great venues and Cafe Wah on Thursday night October 23rd is a bucket list thing for me. One of the the best received songs that with a story in front of it was I talk about not having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is okay. It really is okay. and I went out to uh present um say a few words because Ted Turner was getting a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He had produced the movie Gettysburg which I had done in the 90s. Are you really okay about now having a a star is a star on the Walk of Fame? I am okay about not having a a star in the Walk of Fame because I think if I were to get one it would be somewhere near Encino because there are so many people right that have got them. I mean David Hasselhoff, Dr. Phil, Woody Woodpecker. I mean it’s just I you know I I I’m good. I’m good. Um, does it worry you? Not worry, bother, whatever that in your oat dumb and dumber is probably going to be in the first sentence. Here’s the thing about Dumb and Dumber, and I know comedy is less. It’s a secondass citizen. Just ask the Oscars. I was at the Walter Reed Hospital and sometimes you know when you go into Washington they’ll ask will you come by and talk to some of the soldiers who’ve been wounded. So you say yes and you go in. You have what are you gonna say? And I went in and the Iraq war was going on and I went into a dozen rooms and there was one room I went into and it was a what was left of a 19-year-old kid. He’d lost his legs, maybe an arm. His face was half gone, couldn’t talk, but he had his eyes. And the nurse said he’s a big fan of Dumb and Dumber. So, I leaned in and I got right here with him and I started quoting lines and you could see his eyes smile. It has value. Oh, for sure. By the way, I’m only putting it for like 100%. It’s No, I’m talking to them. But to make someone happy is amazing. No, I’m talking to them because that’s that’s when I that just validated that, you know, if you can I don’t care how you do it. If you can make people laugh, uh that’s a that’s a that’s a good thing. I mean, 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.
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.
Read more at https://pagesix.com/2025/10/22/entertainment/jeff-daniels-reveals-hes-turned-down-a-lot-of-roles-and-which-one-hed-never-take/
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