TRENDING NEWS ENTERTAINME NT FOOD & DRINK PETS SHOPPING HEAL THY NOW HOME BEST READS ON PARADE BOOK PICKS SEE MORE e One Book Actor Je Daniels Says Scarred H im For Life Emmy winner Je Daniels on the new season of 'American Rust,' his favorite books and the one book that he couldn't nish MICHAEL GILTZ • MAR 29, 2024 Parade aims to feature only the best products and services.</p><p> If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.</p><p> Actor Je Daniel s admits there is one book he could never nish.</p><p> He won’t even watch an adaptation of it.</p><p> Mind you, Je Daniels loves books–words, really.</p><p> His current tv show is American Rust, based on the acclaimed novel by Philip Meyer.</p><p> Fans feared they wouldn't get a season two but it found new life on Prime Video.</p><p> All ten episodes are available to binge right now.</p><p> More reasons to love books? Daniels' lm career began with a role in the lm Ragtime, an adap tation of the ground-breaking historical novel by E.L.</p><p> Doctorow.</p><p> His success came in movies based on great books like Nora Ephron’s thinly veiled novel Heartburn and Larry McMurtry’s Terms of Endearm ent.</p><p> The Emmy winner’s love of words continues right up to his recent stage triumph in To Kill A Mockingbird, an upcoming miniseries based on Tom Wolfe’s novel A Man In Full and the new season of American Rust.</p><p> H as Je Daniels W ri en A Book? So far, Je Daniel s has not written a novel or memoir.</p><p> But he did tell his story in an Amazon Audible original.</p><p> And he’s told his story through song.</p><p> Daniels has roughly a baker’s dozen of studio albums, live concert albums and eps of original material, most recently 2020’s Alive And Well Enough. (He’s due for another one soon, frankly.) If that’s not enough, Daniels is a playwright, crafting comedies and dramas for the Purple Rose Theatre Company Daniels founded in his hometown of Chelsea, Michigan.</p><p> He just did a revival of one of those plays: in the comedy, a group of women head to New York City for a one- night-only concert by Celine Dion. (Like the classic movie The Out-Of- Towners, everything that can go wrong for these tourists from the Midwest will go wrong.) Daniels chatted with Parade about season two of American Rust (subtitled Broken Justice), the books he read to prepare for the role of Chief Del Harris, some of his favorite books of all time and, yes, that one book he jokingly says scarred him for life.</p><p> Je Daniels on the New Season Of 'Am erican Rust' PARADE: Season one of American Rust told the story of Philip Meyer’s novel, in which your character Chief Del Harris uncharacteristically hides evidenc e to protect the son of his lover Grace.</p><p> That act reverberates throughout the show.</p><p> Now in season two, you’re venturing into new territory, with the small town at its heart impacted by the burst of fracking that created jobs local folk now depend on.</p><p> Plus, Grace and her son threaten to sue over the violence he faced in prison.</p><p> What’s it like to really live with these characters, something you’ve only done once before – on the Emmy winning series The Newsroom? JEFF DANIELS: Philip Meyer’s book really focuses on the characters.</p><p> Even the chapters are [told from the point of view of] Del [Harris] and Grace.</p><p> We spent time in season one getting to know these half a dozen characters that you need to care about.</p><p> And we took our time with it and we got slapped around by the critics a little bit because they want something to blow up every 12 minutes.</p><p> No, no, no, no.</p><p> We're shooting the novel.</p><p> It's gonna take three or four episodes for you to care about all these people.</p><p> So settle in and what's your hurry? PARADE: But you can’t really capture small-town America in a show that moves as fast as ER can you? DANIELS: We're so impatient now.</p><p> We all have our phones, we all have a fteen second attention span and for those who read books, it's not possible to read War and Peace in 15 seconds.</p><p> I'm sorry, you just can't do it – not even the Cli SNotes! So I don't know; I really like the leisurely pace.</p><p> Also with American Rust – and I know this from small towns – it doesn't look like there's a lot going on.</p><p> There's a simplicity to living in small towns in the Midwest or outside of Pittsburgh and we don't rush that we don't try to make it something that it isn't.</p><p> We have some authenticity when it comes to that kind of tone and pace and feel.</p><p> That’s true of the Midwest, which isn't always re ected when Hollywood decides to make a movie that's set in the Midwest.</p><p> PARADE: Do you always read the book a project is based on? Or does it depend.</p><p> DANIELS: You always read the book.</p><p> That’s the job.</p><p> I did Atticus [the lawyer in To Kill A Mockingbird, in which Daniels enjoyed a triumph on Broadway.] You read the book, you read Harper's book.</p><p> You also read the rst one [Go Set A Watchman] and you nd out why it wasn't published.</p><p> And then you read Joseph Crespino.</p><p> I think he's at Emory University in Atlanta.</p><p> He wrote a book called Atticus Finch: The Biography.</p><p> It wasn't the Gregory Peck version, that kind of Mount Rushmore Atticus Finch thing.</p><p> And that helped, it kind of made him human.</p><p> PARADE: What did you read to prepare for American Rust? DANIELS: I read two.</p><p> One was by a guy, a great writer, who died young at 26 named Breece D’J Pancake. [He wrote] short stories, and they just – boom – they put you right in the hills of West Virginia, which is just across the border from Pennsylvania.</p><p> And then another book I read is Rust Belt Boy by Paul Hertneky.</p><p> I read those two books and…all right now you're in Del Harris's world.</p><p> Plus, with Philip Meyer’s book, that’s all I need.</p><p> PARADE: Were you a big reader as a kid? DANIELS: I'm going to guess fourth or fth grade, I discovered The Hardy Boys.</p><p> They were all lined up on a shelf I can remember and I'm gonna guess they had 20 or 25 di erent Hardy Boy novels.</p><p> And it was a race between a couple of us to read all of them and get the next one.</p><p> Also I read Chip Hilton.</p><p> Yeah and Bronc Burnett.</p><p> They were heroic athletes – collegiate and high school athlete stories that just wrapped themselves around my little fth grade mind.</p><p> So the Hardy Boys got me into reading.</p><p> And then later on, I don't know why, but later on, I got into [crime writer] Donald Westlake.</p><p> Very fun. e One Book Actor Je Daniels Says Scarred H im For Life PARADE: Is there a book that you couldn’t nish? DANIELS: I was in New York.</p><p> It was my rst year in New York and no one saw my lack of reading.</p><p> You're reading new plays that are never gonna get produced.</p><p> And so you’re not going home to say, “Let me pick up that book.” But I was told I really needed to read Shôgun.</p><p> And that's 1000 pages of I don't know what the hell is going on.</p><p> Now it's a series and I just…the thought of sitting down and trying to watch the series would bring back the trauma.</p><p> Books Je Daniels Loves American Rust by Philip Meyer ($17; Random House Trade Paperback) The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake by Breece D'J Pancake ($17.99; Back Bay Books)Courtesy Prime Video Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Content continues below Sponsored Stories Here Are 23 of the Coolest Gifts for This 20 24 23 Insanely Cool Gadgets You'll Regret Not Getting Before They Sell Out Trending Gadgets | SponsoredRainbow Runtz - Indica Hybrid - 15.38% THCa - Free Shi pping HelloMood | Sponsored Dermatologist Sa ys Do Not Buy Regular Bedsheets, Here's Why After testing dozens of bedsheets, these are #1. thegrannyblog.com | SponsoredFresh So urdough Starter Where else can you nd FRESH sourdough starter - not dried? 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