Q 13

PLAYBOY: When does it pay to be a former boy scout? How many scouting tenets have you retained?

Jeff Daniels: [Recites] "Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent." And they all still apply, don't they? Especially in show business. Actually, hanging on to any three of those in this business would be a worthy goal. Problem with my troop was, yes, you learned how to build fires and camp out, but you also learned to drink Boone's Farm wine without throwing up and play a version of mumblety-peg that involved knives being flung at your feet. It was like delinquent survival camp.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: What are your hidden talents?

Jeff Daniels: I moon-walk. I learned it for the high school-reunion scene in Something Wild. Unfortunately, there were about three hundred extras standing around watching me learn, and half of them were black. They were not impressed at all. But I eventually got it down and can now do it without looking like too much of a white guy. And it does get a lot of looks when I do it in local taverns.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: As an inveterate songwriter, were you tempted to show any of your work to George Harrison, who produced Checking Out?

Jeff Daniels: No, but I had my Gibson guitar with me, which I use whenever traveling. If that guitar fell out of a plane, I wouldn't be too upset--except that's no longer the case. One day on the set, I asked George to sign it. He said, "Oh, I'll be happy to." He told me to get a permanent marker and how to make the signature last. I took it and led him into a back room, so an autographing line wouldn't form. He signed it and added a little mystic symbol, then started tuning it for me and began strumming an A minor, a G, an F--he was playing All Along the Watchtower. And singing along! Forty-five minutes later, he had performed Hoagy Carmichael songs, Buddy Holly songs, a piece of Norwegian Wood, lots of blues stuff. I mean, he just had a ball. This was before the Wilburys, and he was saying, "I haven't played in so long." I couldn't get the smile off my face. It was frozen there. So I never played or sang for him. But he did say, "If you're ever in England, stop by--we'll sit around and play guitars." And the guy is nice enough that I think he meant it.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: In Checking Out, you played a guy coming to grips with the death of his best friend. Did it trigger thoughts of your own mortality?

Jeff Daniels: I never went through what this guy did. Where, as a sympathetic response, you actually feel like you're going to die, too. It was described to me in detail by those who've experienced it, though. I've always been a runner and fairly healthy. I've never had anxiety attacks where I've been on my hands and knees in my underwear on the front lawn, gasping for air, with my heart pounding. You get the sensation that your heart is going to burst out of your chest. Or you're convinced that you're down to five last heartbeats. You think, Four-three-two-one and now it's stopped.... [Choking] And...now...I...can't...breathe.... [Exhales] I mean, this character doesn't imagine himself falling off buildings to his death. He just figures the heart beats, beats, beats until someday, when it just stops.

I think of my mortality, sure, but much less obsessively. That's one of the reasons I write songs. They're like a diary and I always tape-record them. I figure that if I do go in a car accident, my kids can turn on a tape and hear me. That's also what's nice about films. They can put in a video cassette and see what Dad did. In theater, your work just vanishes into thin air. Which is romantic and wonderful for people who love to act in theaters. But I don't.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: What resonant wisdom has Jack Nicholson imparted to you?

Jeff Daniels: I remember I was the last guy on the set of Terms to meet him. I'd kind of held back because I was in such awe of him. Finally, Winger drags me over and says, "Jeff, Jack; Jack, Jeff." He says [doing dead-on Nicholson], "How are ya?" I said, "Jack, it's a thrill. You know, I grew up in Michigan, kind of near where Magic played ball in college." He said, "Oh, you played with Magic?" I said, "No, I didn't play with--Oh, never mind." I was just fumbling for words. Then he said, "So what have you done?" I said, "Well, I've done Ragtime and mainly a lot of Broadway." He looked at me and said, "Well, this ain't Broadway. This is the pro game." That was like a little gift he gave me. It kind of stays with you.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: Describe the most maddening experience you've had with a difficult leading lady. Names are optional.

Jeff Daniels: The worst one: I had practically finished doing an entire film with this woman, in the course of which she continually missed her mark by two feet, didn't know her lines, couldn't ad-lib to save her life, blew takes left and right. And now, it's almost the end of the movie, and they're lighting her, getting ready to shoot her in a close-up. Meanwhile, she's standing there reading Less than Zero--which in itself is a clue to something--and she's got one paragraph to go to finish the chapter. The director says, "We're ready!" Everybody--I mean, everybody--is in position. She says, "I just want to finish this one paragraph." [Pauses] Thirty seconds later, she closes the book and says "Jeff, you really ought to read this book." I couldn't believe it. I mean, what gall.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: How do you know when you've stolen a scene?

Jeff Daniels: When you look into the other actors' eyes and see confusion. You can see them thinking, What's my next line? Because you're not just reading your lines--you're doing things, trying different behavioral nuances, keeping them off balance. And they can't keep up with you. Sometimes you do it because you're provoked. You go into a scene, knowing that off camera the guy is being a jerk or the girl is being, ah, difficult. Then you're just trying to save your butt. So you turn it up a little bit, basically saying "Keep up with this." Sometimes it works to fire people up and make a scene better. Other times, they just say, "Cut!" because they can't remember their lines. Which is satisfying in itself.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: Let's explore the title of your next film, Love Hurts. When does love hurt the worst? When does it hurt the best?

Jeff Daniels: Love hurts the best when she's clinging to the headboard, her back is arched to the ceiling, she's coming like she's never come before and she looks into your eyes and you're smiling and you both know you have miles to go before you sleep. Love hurts the worst when you're spent, exhausted, your back is glistening with sweat and not only was it great for you--it was the best for you in God knows how long. And you look at her and she says, "Is that it?"