Jeff Daniels
Bernard Berkman, The Squid and the Whale
Age: 50
Birthplace: Athens, Georgia
Essential Filmography: Terms of Endearment (1983), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Something Wild (1986), Dumb and Dumber (1994)

PREMIERE: Who are your idols?
Lanford Wilson, [Hall of Fame Detroit Tigers outfielder] Al Kaline, and Dick Van Dyke. When I did Something Wild, I was often thinking, “What would Dick do?”

If you weren’t acting, you would be . . . ?
Working at the family lumber company.

Describe your character in this movie.
He is an underappreciated, self-absorbed novelist.

Any discoveries playing this role?
Bernard basically published one book that had success, but that was fifteen years ago and he feels very underappreciated. So what I tapped into was the fact that I’ve worked with a lot of guys who have won awards and who make $20 million a movie, but I haven’t and I don’t. So I took that and poured gasoline on it and lit it.

What was the toughest scene to play? The tennis. I now know what tennis elbow feels like, let me put it that way.

Do you have a secret to putting a character onscreen? It’s all in the shoes. You have to get the right shoes.

What’s your best piece of acting advice? The closer the camera gets to you, the more you make it about the other person. I learned that from Woody on The Purple Rose of Cairo.