-Let's talk about "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Man, rave reviews on this. Congrats on this.
You're playing Atticus Finch.
I mean, legendary. Harper Lee.
I mean, this is -- Are you --
Were you intimidated or scared at all
when you first were offered this?
-I was supposed to be intimidated.
And I knew that if I let myself worry
about Gregory Peck winning an Oscar for it
or Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning, you know, novel.
And Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the play,
you know, we're in the same boat.
And you just -- you can't do that.
I mean, you got to look at Peck.
And as great as he was in the movie,
it was either the definitive,
"can't imagine anybody else doing it" performance
or he was the only guy who got to do it.
-Oh, that's true. -So that's what I said.
I said, "I'm going to originate it.
I'm going to ignore what he did. Here we go.
And if you like it, great."
And they did. They went for it.
-Yeah, people are loving it right now.
I mean, as powerful as this story is,
but as many words as Aaron Sorkin writes.
-A couple of lines.
-I mean, he's a great writer, but he packs it in.
I mean, I remember "Social Network,"
he wrote like three times the script
and just said, "Just talk faster."
-Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.
-So you have a lot of dialogue.
-Yeah, but I have yet to meet an actor who wants fewer lines.
You know, so...
-But how do you prepare for all these --
Do you do vocal warm-ups before every show?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm fighting something now.
-I appreciate you being here, 'cause I know it's your day off.
-I'm happy to be here. But I --
Yeah, there's a thing you do to get the -- get up in here.
Singers do this all the time.
So I have, like, a 15-minute thing where it's, you know --
[ Vocalizing ]
[ Laughter ]
-Wow, Oh, my --
[ Cheers and applause ]
Dude.
Welcome back to master class with Jeff Daniels.
And --
Oh, I love that you do that.
I also heard that you have a new favorite snack that you've --
-Oh, yeah. Yeah.
-You act like it's going to be a smash hit.
I don't know about this. -Oh, really?
-Well, I don't know, because I have a little.
This is -- It involves rice cakes...
-Yeah. -...peanut butter...
-Yeah. -...and barbecue sauce.
-Yeah. -Now, I --
-Yeah. I know, right?
-Explain this to me. How did this happen?
-Well, when you're on a diet, when you still got --
You got to fit into Atticus' suit.
-Yeah. -And they cut it tight anyway.
You can't be eating a pint of The Tonight Dough ice cream.
-No, you can't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I understand.
-I mean, you can have it in your freezer, of course.
-Wait till after you're done with your play.
-But you got to do something dietetic.
So rice cakes are -- It's like eating cardboard.
-[ Laughs ]
That's such a great commercial, yeah.
-But I just took --
I'm kind of like, you know, the single man cooks.
And so I -- You know, when Kathleen's gone,
I just go, "Well, I'm going to go gourmet tonight.
Let me get a rice cake.
Let me get some peanut butter. I like that taste.
And I really love the taste of barbecue sauce."
So you just start doing it.
-All three together? -Yeah.
-I don't know about this, dude.
[ Piano plays ] All right, I can do that.
-There's that. -Okay.
-So far this is -- So far, so good.
-Rice-cake music. I love it.
-Yeah. -All right, there's that.
-This selection is actually called "Rice-Cake Music."
-Is it? Is it? -Yeah, it's very famous.
-I can look it up, get it on -- -Yeah.
-Get it on the Internet, the iCloud up there.
-Yeah, oh.
[ Audience groans ]
-Jeff, I don't know, man.
[ Laughter ]
I don't know, man.
I think you took it one step too far, buddy.
Ah!
Wow, well, you ate it.
[ Laughter ]
Do I got to really try this right here?
Oh, my gosh.
Are you just making me do this just to see how I react?
[ Exhales sharply ]
I know, but I'm very close.
-Are you kidding me?
-Come on, I trust you. What's up?
[ Crunches ]
[ Laughter ]
-You've got the crunchy. -It's a ride.
-You've got the cream
and then the sparkle with the barbecue sauce.
-I don't want anyone to think I'm acting.
Do you want to give one to someone in the audience,
just have them take a bite of this?
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Give them this one.
You guys want Jeff Daniels to --
[ Cheers and applause ]
Will you try it? Good job.
You can give this to her.
I'll take that one 'cause you're not feeling too well.
So I'll take that one. -I'm deathly ill. I'm toxic.
So you'll probably -- you'll probably die if you eat this.
-Yeah, don't -- Yeah.
All right, try it and be really honest.
-Come on. [ Drumroll ]
-Oh! -Yeah, oh, yeah.
-That's the exact -- -Oh, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-That's -- I don't want to say -- I have nothing.
Do we have a bucket or something?
Here, give me a script.
-Just take it.
-Yeah. We won't look at you.
She said, "Just take it." She wasn't --
She said, "Thank you so much."
She loved it. She absolutely loved it.
Jeff, come on. -Oh, she acts like --
She's going to have one tonight when she goes home.
-I don't know. We tried it.
That is unbelievable right there.
Oh, my goodness.
Thank you for that.
This is, I want to say,
the second time you have a mockingbird in your credit,
because we all know from "Dumb and Dumber,"
you and Jim Carrey singing --
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪ Mock ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Ing ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Bird ♪
-Yeah. -Yes, yeah.
Anyways, does that stick with you?
People bring that up at all or no?
-There are a couple in the cast who said,
"You know, is there a connection with --
You did that, and now you're doing this.
Did you know then?"
No, of course not. -Of course not.
-But it would have been -- If Jim had turned --
It would have been nice if Jim turned to me and go, "Someday."
[ Laughter ]
-Is this true -- I heard that when you did --
you were doing "Dumb and Dumber To," you were talking to Jim,
and you go, "I think I'm going to retire after this movie."
-Yeah, I was done. -Really?
-Yeah. [ Crunches ]
[ Laughter ]
-Dude, that's just the best thing ever.
Dude, I want to do that take.
Camera where? Camera four?
Where do I look? Right here?
"Yeah, I was done." [ Crunches ]
Dude. "Yeah, I was done.
Yeah, I was done." -I'd had enough.
-You really were going to retire?
-I wanted to sit at home on my porch and eat these things.
-Really? -Yeah.
-But what made you -- What happened?
What turned it around?
-Well, Aaron Sorkin with "Newsroom" turned it around.
-That's right.
-But, you know, Jim said something.
And, you know, friends having done the two movies together.
And I said, "I'm thinking about being done."
And he goes, "You know, you can't do that.
This what you do."
-Yeah. -"It's what you do.
You find funny every night.
And that's what you're supposed to do, Jeff.
You're supposed to be an actor.
And that's what you're going to do until you hit your grave.
So stop talking about reti--"
He just slapped me around.
It was annoying.
You know, but it was like, "Yeah, okay, all right."
And then "Newsroom" happens. And then "Godless" happens.
I mean, Aaron Sorkin -- and then Aaron comes to me and says,
"We got the rights to 'Kill a Mockingbird' on Broadway
at the Shubert Theatre, which is the Carnegie Hall of Broadway.
And we want you to play Atticus."
And you know when Aaron Sorkin, 42 years into your career,
says that, you know it's the role of a lifetime.
And your job at that point
is to give the performance of your life every night.
And so that's how I approach it.
That's how the cast approaches it.
And that's why it works every night.
-And you're hitting it out of the park.
We love you, buddy.
Thank you so much for coming on the show.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I'm going to have to take another bite of this.
Jeff Daniels, everybody.
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