Jeff Daniels has had some peaks and valleys in his decades-long career, including a time when he thought it was all over.
While exclusively chatting with Page Six over Zoom, the actor recalls his career started to “slow down” after eight years in the industry.
After acting in a couple independent movies “nobody saw,” he flew to Los Angeles from his home in Michigan to audition for roles.
“I went up on five movies,” he recalls. “I got called back on three of them, offered two of them, and one of them was ‘Dumb and Dumber.’”
The 1994 comedy stars Daniels and Jim Carrey as two dim-witted pals who go on a road trip to return a briefcase full of money. The movie received mixed reviews but has built a cult following over the years.
It inspired a sequel, “Dumb and Dumber To,” in 2014.
Daniels knows the film is considered low-brow.
“Look, it makes people laugh,” he says. “And the last time I looked, the Greeks are holding up two masks [tragedy and comedy].”
The Tony nominee then went through another dip when he hit 50.
“I got to, you know, 49, 50, 51. And I was just going, ‘Oh, God,’” he shares. “Because they don’t tell you when it’s over, right? … You’re the last to know.”
That’s when he began to develop a one-man show in which he played original songs and recounted Hollywood tales.
“I played clubs all over the country, 200 theaters, opera houses in the Midwest, toward the northeast, you name it,” Daniels reminisces.
He says he wasn’t seriously worried about paying bills because his family lived in Michigan and “the dollar goes further” than in New York or LA. But he admitted they had to “live a different life.”
Daniels’ circumstances changed yet again when was he was offered a role in the play “Blackbird” at the Manhattan Theater Club. He controversially portrayed a pedophile in the production.
The play received rave reviews, which led to Daniels being cast in the Broadway production of “God of Carnage” with James Gandolfini and then Aaron Sorkin’s drama “The Newsroom.”
He played news anchor Will McAvoy, whose monologue on America in the pilot episode has been viewed millions of times on YouTube.
So what does Daniels, who identifies as an Independent, think McAvoy would make of the current administration?
“I think McAvoy, who was a Republican, would stand up for things that are bigger than US institutions,” Daniels says. “For instance, rule of law is bigger than us and we serve that, and that has been lost.”
Daniels will be performing his one-man show at 54 Below on April 7.
“It’s basically just the acoustic guitar, a chair and my stories and then fingerpicking blues,” he says. “Singer-songwriter Americana, but the storytelling is a big part of what I do.”