Jeff Daniels On Why One of the First Scenes He Shot for ‘American Rust’ Set the Tone for the Series

Awards Daily talks to two-time Emmy Award winner Jeff Daniels about the art of ‘guess’ acting in Showtime’s drama series American Rust.

In the season finale of American Rust on Showtime, Jeff Daniels’ chief of police Del Harris asks local pharmacist Jackson Berg (Dallas Roberts) to go for a drink at a bar. While this scenario sounds innocuous enough, the cat-and-mouse game that ensues leads to a climactic confrontation that not only showcases another intense Daniels performance but his ability to hone the art of “guessing” in his acting.

“I had not shot anything [yet],” says Daniels of that scene. “I think it was my first day. So I have to guess, which is what actors have to do all the time, usually not to this extent where you’re shooting the end and the beginning at the same time—so you’re guessing where you’re going to be in the last episode, from the drug use, from the detox, from quitting cold turkey, all of the stuff you’ve discovered. You play it guessing that this is how it’s going to go leading up to that over the next five months. I’ve got to put on a show for him and be a little crazy because I’m off my meds.”

Daniels credits working with Aaron Sorkin as helping him in doing this scene, especially with the long, rambling speech he gives.

“You’re interrupting yourself, you’re starting over, you’re changing subject, you’re back to the original subject. It’s so much fun to do those speeches. That’s what actors do all the time. You have to guess. It really helps to have a great knowledge of story and where you are. It all comes into play. If you guessed right, then you pulled it off.”

As an executive producer on the show, Daniels feels it was important for him to set the tone with this crucial scene that was filmed during the first week of a five-month shoot.

“If the number one guy on the call sheet comes in completely off book, dead on, for both of these scenes on the first day, that’s how we’re going to do this, and that’s how we did it. That’s how everybody did it. If you come in and you don’t know it and you’re not really sure and you complain about it, you’ve already failed.”

A Small-Town, Rust Belt Boy Himself

American Rust isn’t your typical drama series, just as Del Harris isn’t your typical hero. When we meet him in the first episode, the chief of police is intently watching his ex lover Grace (Maura Tierney) from his cop car, and you can’t tell whether he’s stalking her or protecting her.

“That’s what made it so interesting. You’re playing the strength and the weakness at the same time. You’re playing the contradictions. They all end up being complications that end up making a very complex character who keeps things inside. That’s of great interest to me.”

As a small-town guy himself who resides in Michigan, Daniels performed research for the show by simply reading, including of course the book the series is based on by Philipp Meyer as well as local Western Pennsylvania writers.

“I did it for Godless, I did it for Comey—I read a lot about the area, and I also read fiction by writers from there. And one guy Rust Belt Boy—Paul Hertneky wrote a series of short stories set in Ambridge [Pennsylvania]. The police station we used for Del’s office was in Ambridge. I just read about that area to get a feel for it, and that’s where I put most of my focus. And then just used having grown up and still live in small town.”

Daniels remarks that Hollywood typically makes small towns in the upper Midwest look like the Hollywood version of a small town, “except with better makeup and better hair.” But what he is especially proud of with American Rust is what showrunner Dan Futterman and the writers do to portray complicated small-town people.

“You go 10 pages and then you stop and then you go, what happens next? And if you guessed right, you’re ahead of it, and if you guessed wrong—or it’s something that you did not see coming and you realize that it’s absolutely plausible—and it’s fake left/go right writing, then we have an unpredictable storyline, and now we’ve got a chance of holding an audience. Then you lay the characters on top of that, and put some good actors around it, and you have something that might actually hold an audience.”

‘A Bunch of Right Hooks in that Last Episode’

American Rust is certainly filled with complications and complex characters. Del risks his career and life for Grace, in order to protect her son Billy (Alex Neustaeder), but whether she would do the same in return is the real question.

“I think that’s the Sophie’s Choice for Grace. Billy or Del. In a heartbeat, she’d say Billy. But Del can’t see past his quest, probably for the last woman he’ll ever take a run at. And if it doesn’t work with her, then forget it. He’s not a guy who dates. I think it’s all or nothing for him at his stage of his life. She’s there, she was interested once, and she broke his heart. She says she’s sorry for it, and you’re weak to it. It’s the possibility of it all with her, that maybe you can finally have some good years left instead of battling everything you’re battling coming off the VA cocktail and what ends up happening in Pittsburgh with his old partner. There’s a lot he’s running away from and he’s running to something as well, which is her and maybe a good last third of his life.”

The dangerous decisions that Del makes for Grace come to the forefront in one of the final scenes of the season finale, when Virgil (Mark Pellegrino) reveals something dark about his ex-wife that the audience watches Del find out in real time.

“There are times when the audience is ahead of Del, and that’s a great example of a scene that does that, where we see Del find out on camera. It’s always preferred when you can realize something on camera. And in this case the audience knows it ahead of you.”

In this particular scene, Daniels simmers like a boiling pot, as he evaluates the situation and everything he’s done for Grace up until this point.

“It’s the ‘Oh, shit’ moment. But you can’t show Virgil that. You’ve got to add up what that means while he’s talking, having just gone what you went through with Grace the night before. In that case, the audience is ahead of us on that particular plot point, but there’s a surprise in that scene as well. Del walks in and all we see is a closeup of Virgil. It’s not until he brings that duffle bag up and explains what’s in it. That’s when the audience goes, ‘Oh, shit’ and looks at Del.”

And not only does Del have to face Virgil in these final moments, but his past in Pittsburgh is catching up with him, one of the many threads that American Rust leads dangling for Season 2.

“And by the way, here are two detectives from the Pittsburgh police department. They want to talk to you, too. We really wanted to have Del take a bunch of right hooks in that last episode.”

Season 1 of American Rust is available on Showtime.