- 4 days ago
Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:07in the kingdom of hollywood he's the king you're right you're right just dedicated 24-hour-a-day
00:00:15guy is there another kind he would give you everything every take you just felt this guy
00:00:21wants me to be great in this scene two times he's a risk taker and he's still a risk taker
00:00:27and he will always be a risk taker like i'm just sowing my wild oats i'm psyched about that when
00:00:33i
00:00:33have kids going me and nicholson did a movie that was pretty cool baby you'd probably like to hear
00:00:39me say something wild right now don't you be like me with his joker grin and trademark shades
00:00:46jack nicholson is cooler than cool he's his own style but he's his own man in his own way and
00:00:54jack's
00:00:54off-screen antics are as legendary as the characters he brings to life he just turned
00:01:00around bent over dropped those drawers and one of the great moonshots in the history of professional
00:01:05sports apparently that i was walking around nude at all hours of the night jack has a way with the
00:01:11ladies i've been around jack appraised women throwing themselves at him yet the endings weren't always
00:01:18happy my life with jack was many things there were great times there were painful times and a shocking
00:01:26family secret forced nicholson to confront his past he said my blood ran cold jack was absolutely
00:01:33devastated i mean deeply painfully there are actors there are stars and then there is jack nicholson
00:01:44well all comparisons are odious as my mother told me i always have a good time working this is his
00:01:52story
00:01:53like it's never been told before the e true hollywood story tell him jack tell him like it is buddy
00:02:22he's fun he's crazy he loves young women you got jack nicholson it's it's like you got the guy
00:02:29i'm doing good over the past five decades jack nicholson graduated from bit player and b movies
00:02:35from now on you're gonna do what i tell you to do to a list actor one of the best
00:02:42in the business
00:02:45i was just gonna give you a kiss a little oh
00:02:51the joker grin and dark glasses made jack famous one other feature made him a legend
00:02:57he always talked about his devil eyebrows you like my devil eyebrows sal and i went oh my god he
00:03:03does
00:03:04have devil eyebrows he is the devil still the mischievous man many people think they know
00:03:10remains an enigma he's full of mystery because the only thing you know about him is what you see
00:03:16in his roles or what you read about him but you'll never see a good depth interview with jack
00:03:23here's johnny as jack closes in on 70 he's an in-demand leading man what can you really say about
00:03:32jack nicholson i mean you know he's i was spoiled to death really working with him he went out of
00:03:37his way i think to make me feel like the leading lady of this movie and his friends know jack's
00:03:44still a ladies man
00:03:45jack nicholson is sexy he has been gifted by god with this extraordinary ability to just look at
00:03:54you with that grin and make you feel like there's nobody else people think they know jack nicholson
00:04:01because they've seen him on so many photographs with beautiful women a lot younger than he is
00:04:06well i almost put a line in when i said how many people i worked with and said most of
00:04:12them i didn't sleep
00:04:12with is there any possibility or should i give up now give up now
00:04:21john joseph nicholson was surrounded by women the day he arrived on april 22nd 1937 in neptune city new jersey
00:04:30jack had two older sisters june 17 and lorraine 15 mom ethel may owned a beauty salon dad john worked
00:04:39odd jobs the family unit seemed normal it wasn't though almost 40 years would pass before jack found
00:04:47out why when jack was still young his dad abandoned the kids in ethel may he had to be very
00:04:54strong to be
00:04:55ahead of that household and to be earning the money and keeping them like she did ethel may worked hard
00:05:01to build her business while june looked after jack june was very protective of him and very motherly he
00:05:08was a beautiful child i remember that one halloween june had dressed him up as a little girl i think
00:05:14he
00:05:14was only three or four at the time he was just the most beautiful girl you had ever seen i
00:05:19don't think
00:05:20he's going to appreciate that story as jack grew older he cooked up clever nicknames for friends and
00:05:26family including one for his mom ethel may the dead end kids was a very popular show at that time
00:05:33in our
00:05:33gang they used to say mutter go tell your mother this your mother that jack shortened mutter for mother
00:05:40into mud even as a kid jack showed flashes of that famous nicholson bravado jack and i were playing in
00:05:48my mother's front yard and a bumblebee came around me and i was scared to death and jack somehow
00:05:54knocked it to the ground and stepped on it so to me immediately he was my hero jack also liked
00:06:02to turn
00:06:02on the charm jack learned very early on that a winning smile got you more than a temper tantrum jack
00:06:12always found a way to get just what he wanted especially from ethel may my mother was having her hair
00:06:18done jack peeks into the room and he goes mud and she goes don't bother me i'm busy i'm working
00:06:27on a
00:06:27customer mud don't bother me jack i want to go to the store no jack he just looks and he
00:06:35looks at me
00:06:36doesn't say a word comes back a second later with her hand with a handbag with a big smile on
00:06:42his face
00:06:43and just hands it to her and she stops a minute and she opens her handbag and gives him some
00:06:51money he
00:06:51looks over at me with a big smile on his face to say that's how it's done jack took the
00:06:57money and ran
00:06:57to the local cinema he was very interested in movies at an early age and we would all go on
00:07:04saturday
00:07:05afternoon to the theater in bradley beach cops and robbers cowboys and indians jack loved them all
00:07:12at 16 he began acting in high school productions this is the auditorium that jack performed in as a
00:07:20high school student at maniscon high school and of course now it's the jack nicholson theater and this
00:07:27is the same stage that he performed uh in class plays and was extremely funny jumping out of a box
00:07:34and making
00:07:35silly faces and making everybody in the audience laugh when he wasn't cutting up on stage jack found
00:07:42ways to act up off stage getting people in trouble were his favorite things and he'd be he'd be there
00:07:49and somebody else would wind up in trouble and jack would sit back and roar and laugh jack was popular
00:07:56i think everybody liked jack he had to like him so in the senior poll he was voted class clan
00:08:01which he
00:08:02very much was and best after but not everything came so easily to jack he wanted to be an athlete
00:08:11was probably frustrated about not having been a little bigger a little taller um maybe even a little
00:08:18older at the time he was always the the youngest in the group even though he never made the team
00:08:23jack
00:08:24liked to hang out with the jocks he was accepted as part of the group he didn't have to be
00:08:29an athlete to
00:08:30hang around with us in june 1954 17 year old nicholson graduated from manisquan high jack couldn't wait
00:08:38to bust out of small town new jersey he said he was going to hollywood and i remember myself and
00:08:47a few
00:08:47of my friends really kind of laughed at that and wondered why he was going out there as much as
00:08:51jack
00:08:52says he liked his childhood in new jersey he didn't waste much time leaving he went out west to california
00:08:58to
00:08:58join june his sister who was trying to become a showgirl jack rolled into town that fall within a
00:09:05few months he bagged a job at the famed mgm studios which also housed hannah-barbera cartoons jack's show
00:09:14business career started really at the bottom he joined mgm as a mail clerk for 30 a week and then
00:09:21his
00:09:21next job was as a gopher in the animation department of hannah and barbera one of his little jobs was
00:09:28you know answering the fan mail for tom and jerry which was one of the big products of hannah-barbera
00:09:33besides the famous cat and mouse jack saw many other hollywood legends like a lot of people i guess
00:09:41who come here i wanted to see movie stars and uh watch how they made movies and i did for
00:09:48two and a half years
00:09:49you know me and tom and jerry and bill hannah and joe barbera you know i mean i saw marilyn
00:09:56and bogey
00:09:57and lauren and fred and ginger and gene and everybody i ever wanted to see you know and there i
00:10:03was right
00:10:03with them what a life outside the studio lot nicholson attracted one fan of his own in the summer of
00:10:111955.
00:10:13i saw jack and i'm so proud you know that i spotted him you know and i invited him to
00:10:19a beach party but i
00:10:20was just crazy about him i mean he just was always always magical always so charming so i wanted to
00:10:27be
00:10:28his friend nicholson kept his hollywood pals in the dark about his real ambition however folks back home
00:10:35got an earful i went out there and i saw him he says why are you out here johnny and
00:10:41i said well i
00:10:42want to become an actor and he says you know he says that's what i'd like to do too but
00:10:47i never told
00:10:48anybody and i said why not he said because the guys would bust my chops i wasn't going to tell
00:10:52anybody i
00:10:53wanted to be an actor mud reacted to the news like any concerned mom but daughter june convinced mud that
00:11:00jack should do his thing she did not want jack to be an actor but june was okay with it
00:11:08june uh encouraged
00:11:11him because she also wanted to become an actress coming up jack in a box he was feeling very frustrated
00:11:22and thought he would never break through as an actor and later jack meets his jill jack really met his
00:11:29match in a way in angelica
00:11:37by the spring of 1956 19 year old wannabe actor jack nicholson grew tired of the mgm mailroom
00:11:46jack decided to make his move so he's you know met this producer joe kasternak and wangled a screen
00:11:53test which cost money you know for the studio to to underwrite jack had a line it was
00:11:59judy i love you and jack was going how the hell am i going to say judy i love you
00:12:06when i can't even
00:12:07ask a girl to dance without getting excited jack's take on judy i love you fell flat he didn't deliver
00:12:15his lines well and even worse he didn't have the look of the day the look of the day was
00:12:19very tab hunter
00:12:20troy donahue this very pretty boy blonde and that just wasn't jack nicholson's rough start in showbiz
00:12:26didn't surprise mom ethel maid says you know i'm worried about jack she says i'm worried about this
00:12:32is such a difficult business so i said to her mrs nicholson jack is going to be a giant he's
00:12:38going
00:12:38to be a star i didn't mean a word of it jack wasn't even close to throwing in the towel
00:12:45instead he took on a second job at the players ring theater in los angeles they had classes and
00:12:52and so forth and i i really started working there i i worked in the theater cleaning it up on
00:13:00the next
00:13:00production i got a small part in it and all by then i was managing the theater at night
00:13:07early in 1957 jack signed up with a well-known acting coach jeff cory who was a veteran character
00:13:15actor had a very influential acting class that served as a kind of a school for a generation of young
00:13:24talent nicholson's friend sally kellerman also studied with cory but sally's dream of acting with jack
00:13:31didn't exactly work out we did one scene where we were going to have to kiss or something you know
00:13:37and i and instead we laughed and i remember falling off a couch or something you know and so that
00:13:43was
00:13:43probably the end of my career with jack at the same time a fledgling director named roger corman joined
00:13:49cory's classes corman not only learned the craft he put his friends to work not knowing too many people
00:13:56in hollywood i started casting from that acting class and i used almost everybody including a kid
00:14:04who smiled like he just ate the canary i was impressed from the beginning with jack he's a
00:14:09serious dramatic actor but he has a flair for comedy and a way to introduce or integrate comedy into a
00:14:20dramatic piece which i think is unusual in 1958 corman gave 21 year old jack his first movie role here's
00:14:30what happens when the cops stage a blast out when a boy gets a gun and unleashes a monstrous terror
00:14:36i'm giving you 10 minutes son i think first was crybaby killer in which he played a teenage killer in
00:14:43a
00:14:43drive-in however jack's acting debut didn't exactly thrill the folks back home in jersey
00:15:00crybaby killer was i don't know i guess it left something to be desired my oldest sister spoke up
00:15:07and she said well you know jack i'm sorry but you don't make the kind of movies i'm really interested
00:15:13in other jersey shore residents disagreed i used to hear about him from well you know all the women
00:15:21down there all my my my sisters my cousins they all loved him i mean he was like uh you
00:15:28know adorable he
00:15:29was like you know this really cute you know they talked about this guy so he was already like you
00:15:35know
00:15:35it didn't it didn't seem like to me it may have seemed like to him that it took him a
00:15:39long time
00:15:40to become a big star and don't you forget it over the next two years nicholson played bit parts in
00:15:48forgettable films then in 1960 corman cast jack in little shop of horrors nicholson played wilbur force
00:15:56a masochistic dental patient this is gonna hurt you more than it is nice oh goody goody here it comes
00:16:12oh my god don't stop now nicholson earned 700 bucks for two days work i'll recommend you to
00:16:20all my friends thank you bye bye now when jack returned to acting class a bonus waited he met georgiana
00:16:31carter she was a beautiful red-headed woman very slim very very feminine and they hit it off and they
00:16:37had a very lively love affair a few months later jack landed his first lead role in the wild ride
00:16:49nicholson starred alongside his girlfriend georgiana wow you really are a drag it's a good thing dave's
00:16:57through with you well i don't think he is but i'm not through with him jack and georgiana's romantic
00:17:08ride ended by the time the film opened i think he was too young to get serious i don't think
00:17:16he had any
00:17:16money uh i'm not so sure if georgiana carter's father liked jack not because of the person jack's
00:17:25eminently likable but because he was an actor like i'm just showing my wild oats nicholson pressed
00:17:32on with his career he started training with seasoned actor martin landau jack is one of the best students
00:17:40i had ever because he was hell bent on getting better all the time 22 year old actress sandra knight
00:17:50also found jack fascinating the couple began dating and in june 1962 they exchanged wedding vows
00:17:59a short time later jack and sandra brought their partnership to the big screen
00:18:04in the b movie the terror i said to jack you're going to emerge as the lead in the picture
00:18:11and he
00:18:11said fine he said can sandy play the leading lady we really need the money and i said sure she's
00:18:17great
00:18:18not long after the film wrapped sandra became pregnant but the joyful news was dampened jack's
00:18:26sister june became ill the diagnosis cancer she lost the battle on july 31st 1963 at the age of 44
00:18:37june took a family secret to her grave
00:18:41six weeks later jack and sandra welcomed a daughter jennifer the family grew but nicholson's career stalled
00:18:49he had sort of given up the idea of acting and didn't think that he could have a movie career
00:18:55because there's so much emphasis and even then there was on youth that he figured he'd pass that
00:19:00moment in time when he could have made the transition to stardom this whole early part of jack's career
00:19:05probably had a lot of personal repercussions as well in 1968 he and sandra knight divorced four-year-old
00:19:13jennifer stayed with knight while 29 year old jack reflected on his 10-year run in hollywood
00:19:20i know part of my mystique is that i had a very hard beginning of a career
00:19:26and it's simply not true you know very few actors can say that once they started acting that was their
00:19:33profession and they never worked at anything else but that and i can say that we're gonna play games
00:19:41in 1968 roger corman's cast of b-movie regulars included jack's buddies dennis hopper and peter fonda
00:19:49dennis and peter wanted to do a film about a couple of drugged out bikers called easy rider
00:19:55and they wanted jack to play the losing lawyer george hansen it's exactly the right role at the right
00:20:03time for this guy who didn't fit in the whole thing crystallized and that was an amazingly fortuitous role
00:20:18the famous scene where jack's character gets stoned seemed very realistic the scenes at the campfire
00:20:25between uh peter fonda dennis hopper and jack nicholson gives that film uh it's it's central
00:20:34emotional power and heart and if dope is something that helped those scenes come into being and i have
00:20:41no information about that i think that's fine jack is so much in control as an actor but i don't
00:20:47think
00:20:48whether he had a little dope here or a little wine there i don't think it would affect a performance
00:20:53meanwhile the head of production at paramount robert evans was on the hunt for the studio's next big
00:20:59star walk into the screening room and it's got three minutes on the film and then another guy
00:21:05from the outside walks in with an envelope hands it to the guy sitting there and smiles at him and
00:21:11walks
00:21:11out he said hold it hold it that's the guy the guy was jack nicholson and evans knew a good
00:21:18thing
00:21:18when he signed he said remember the guy we went to see is the other guy he said i don't
00:21:24know who he
00:21:24is who's the guy that just walked out i don't know we got to find him that's a billion dollar
00:21:29smile and
00:21:30i don't want to lose it soon after that first meeting evans put an even bigger smile on jack's face
00:21:37because how would you like to make ten thousand dollars for six weeks worth plus two weeks free
00:21:42starring opposite barbara streisand and he looks at me and he says i have a kid and i have to
00:21:48pay
00:21:49alimony and i have to be child support and i'm an empty could you make it fifteen i look back
00:21:56at him
00:21:57and said how about twelve five he throws his arms around me and kisses me hugs me he says i'll
00:22:04never
00:22:04forget you for this for the rest of my life and he never has meanwhile columbia studios released easy
00:22:11rider on july 14th 1969 the film cost three hundred and forty thousand dollars to make and revved up the
00:22:19box office to pull in a cool 30 million it caught everyone's attention it was the end of the 60s
00:22:27and a new epoch was beginning to happen it represented incredibly the hopefulness of the 60s and the
00:22:37disillusion and collapse of that hopefulness at the end of the 60s uh with vietnam it just became
00:22:44a touchstone both in american culture and in jack's career i think the young people are uh have
00:22:52always been alternately repressed and uh and released you know in our culture i mean if someone
00:23:00were to ask me what the most the strongest single power group in the world was i would say the
00:23:05american
00:23:06child jack nicholson is somebody who grows in the film and obviously then something very you know
00:23:11tragic happens to him so that was the first time he said wow who's that guy he's really you know
00:23:15he's a
00:23:15big league talent but the year proved bittersweet for jack in november 1969 71 year old ethel may nicholson
00:23:25fell ill with cancer i don't know if she was in a position to appreciate and understand that jack
00:23:33was on the verge of becoming a star ethel may died in january 1970 just weeks before jack received an
00:23:42academy award nomination for his role in easy rider like june nicholson ethel may passed away without
00:23:49revealing the family secret coming up jack gets a major jolt jack told me he said do you know the
00:24:01expression when your blood runs cold on september 12 1970 jack nicholson's second big studio film
00:24:18five easy pieces hit movie screens across the country five easy pieces is uh you know a classic
00:24:26in that i think a lot of people at the time could relate to nicholson's character this kind of wandering
00:24:30song there's something very very sad and kind of romantic about that character you look at five
00:24:35easy pieces you see a really intelligent adult thoughtful provocative film with another great
00:24:43genuinely great performance by nicholson in february 1971 33 year old nicholson received his second
00:24:52academy award nomination for his role in five easy pieces so all of a sudden hollywood is lavishing
00:24:59attention on this guy who couldn't get a break for 10 or 12 years and jack told me that he
00:25:04felt he
00:25:05handled it just fine but once again the oscar eluded jack george c scott took home the prize for his
00:25:13performance as patent it was around this time that nicholson began his love affair with the los angeles
00:25:20lakers he later became a fixture at courtside but in the early 70s jack and his buddy record
00:25:27producer lou adler grabbed any seat they could get we just bought our tickets um no season tickets just
00:25:34picked up a couple of tickets and we were pretty much at the top of the arena we're at the
00:25:40forum at the
00:25:41time and uh pretty close to the last row in 1973 jack went to work on his next film the
00:25:51disturbing drama
00:25:52chinatown directed by roman polanski and produced by robert evans john houston and faye dunaway co-star
00:26:00but the movie was custom made for jack bob town wanted to write chinatown and if he was telling me
00:26:07what's about this private eye i didn't understand what he was talking about either but he said i'm
00:26:12getting it for nicholson and i said get ready for jack he said yeah nicholson earned a million bucks for
00:26:19his
00:26:19portrayal of private eye jake giddes however along with the big talent and big paychecks
00:26:26came even bigger egos roman polanski and jack nicholson two strong personalities and they clashed
00:26:33a lot on his set which is no no no no wait a minute i said yes wrong one of
00:26:38these is look
00:26:40this script is a hundred and whatever it was pages long in order to have a movie at a screenable
00:26:48length with the amount of things that you have to say for no other reason than that you have to
00:26:54talk faster
00:26:58meanwhile john houston's striking 22-year-old daughter began showing up on the set jack and
00:27:05actress angelica houston soon became an item they were two very special people who had found each
00:27:12other their backgrounds seemed to uh to suit each other or certainly were of great interest to each
00:27:21other and it's a little awkward i mean you know jack's in a movie with her father and you know
00:27:27he's sleeping with the character's daughter and eventually this is what's happening off screen
00:27:32jack really meant his match in a way in angelica because she was a very strong woman too two strong
00:27:38willed very talented uh people that were interested in in their art and their craft as much as they were
00:27:43in being like mr and mrs hollywood chinatown opened in theaters on june 21st 1974.
00:27:51the gripping tale of greed politics and a dark family secret scored with critics and audiences
00:27:59it's an absolute landmark american film and again it's the product of new thinking people where'd you
00:28:07get the midget they're a very nosy fella kitty cat huh you know what happens to nosy fellas they lose
00:28:17their
00:28:18nose it next time you lose the whole thing i understand i understand i understand
00:28:30chinatown is a brilliant film uh one of the best screenplays in modern history and you've got jack
00:28:36and that was the first one i think that you know people could probably make the comparison to humphrey
00:28:41bogart nicholson wasn't in bogart's league just yet but chinatown proved jack had serious box office club
00:28:51no one bats a thousand you have hits and misses along the way but his track record was pretty pretty
00:28:58damn good jack also became a hot ticket at the hottest hollywood events
00:29:05i've been around jack appraised women throwing themselves at him i mean you know i mean of course
00:29:12i mean women have thrown themselves at him since when since i remember back in the late 60s
00:29:18jack wasn't just popular with the women and he's always good company and he's funny we always laugh
00:29:25together talk about anything he's just a very blessed person man he's a very lucky guy
00:29:33but in august 1974 lucky guy jack suddenly stopped laughing the events that changed his life began with a
00:29:42phone call that finally revealed the nicholson's dark family secret he got a call from a man who said
00:29:49that he was his father and the jack told me what the man asked and what the man said and
00:29:58uh jack was
00:29:59going to hang up on the guy and the guy said don't hang up you don't believe me call uh
00:30:05lorraine in new jersey
00:30:07nicholson did what the mystery man said he put in a call to his sister lorraine
00:30:13her husband shorty picked up the phone jack said look i got this crazy phone call
00:30:18phone call from this guy you know and he told me to call uh lorraine to ask lorraine and isn't
00:30:28this
00:30:28wild shorty and shorty said i think i better give the phone to lorraine lorraine began to speak and the
00:30:39family secret finally came out and jack told me i'll never forget this as long as i live he said
00:30:46do you know the expression when your blood runs cold he said my blood ran cold jack discovered that
00:30:54the sister june was actually his mother june nicholson had given birth to jack out of wedlock
00:31:02when she was only 17 years old in those years of course there was a lot of shame and stigma
00:31:06attached
00:31:06to that so the family apparently made a decision to make it seem as though jack's grandmother was his
00:31:13mother in a matter of minutes jack's world turned upside down jack was absolutely devastated by the
00:31:22by the reality of it i mean deeply painfully and unable to deal with it exactly because it was too
00:31:32late
00:31:36it's got to be shattering he was very upset that june never said anything on her deathbed that mud never
00:31:43said anything to him and lorraine kept that secret jack had been kept in the dark for 37 years
00:31:51but on top of that the folks back home in new jersey knew all along because we lived as neighbors
00:31:59and our
00:32:00health family interacted my sisters with his supposed sisters i knew the story that june had given birth to
00:32:07him and that mud raised him as her own i didn't know that he didn't know so when i found
00:32:16out so many years
00:32:17later that he was just informed of it i was quite surprised
00:32:24coming up jersey guys he came right around the corner and you see me
00:32:31you're from asbury park and later laughing all the way to the bank he bet on himself and he won
00:32:38and he
00:32:39deserved the win in the summer of 1974 the life of jack nicholson went haywire when he learned a shocking
00:32:53secret the woman he thought was his sister was really his mother but years later nicholson said he
00:33:01had no ill will towards the woman who raised him it was tough i wept and i i believe he
00:33:07wept too i think he
00:33:09was stunned his access was turned around and all the implications of who he thought he was and who
00:33:18they were to him changed an instant one thing didn't change nicholson's dedication to his craft
00:33:27his next role proved pivotal the part randall mcmurphy a sane man in an insane asylum the movie one flew
00:33:35over the cuckoo's nest first time producer michael douglas only wanted one actor to play mcmurphy 37 year
00:33:43old jack nicholson the chief put his hand up the chief put his hand up look he voted would you
00:33:49please
00:33:49turn this would you please turn the television set on the chief has got his hand up right there nicholson
00:33:55had come to represent i think for audiences then the quintessential american anti-hero and that's what
00:34:03this part calls for somebody who is refusing to play by the rules who bucks the system
00:34:13but you can't help like him
00:34:17the chief voted now will you please turn the television set on mr mcmurphy the meeting was
00:34:23adjourned and the vote was closed but the vote was ten to eight the chief he's got his hand up
00:34:28look
00:34:28when the meeting was adjourned the vote was nine to nine jack was always a little screwy to start with
00:34:37but i say that with love because it's something that needs to be there i mean
00:34:42in order to play a crazy person you have to be a little crazy
00:34:47oh come on you're not going to say that now you're not going to say that now you're going to
00:34:51pull
00:34:51that hand now when the vote that chief just voted it was ten to nine i want that television set
00:34:56turned
00:34:57on right now
00:35:04cuckoo's nest was filmed at a real mental hospital in oregon jack didn't have to look
00:35:09far for inspiration and you had research all around you you know you could drop into a ward at any
00:35:17given time in the day and look at something i for instance had to watch shock treatments because i
00:35:22it's not something you can conceptualize out of imagination 30 year old danny devito a long time
00:35:29pal of michael douglas landed the role of patient martini devito couldn't wait to meet jack
00:35:36i always hear about this guy you know who went to california to become an actor
00:35:42and uh and then he started working he was doing all those you know
00:35:47the corman movies and then when cuckoo's nest came along
00:35:51you know i was finally gonna you know i was gonna get to meet this guy and he came running
00:35:55around the corner he's screaming you're from asberg park cuckoo's nest wrapped in may 1975.
00:36:02two months later jack got to work with one of his idols screen legend marlon brando
00:36:09the two collaborated on the western the missouri breaks i had enough of a relationship with marlon to
00:36:17know that if something that was right came along we would probably like to do it together it's it's
00:36:24something to watch him work you know i mean the things that you can't fool and the things that
00:36:29you can fool people with and uh he's you know you'd be a fool not to i mean every actor
00:36:37would want to
00:36:38work with brando get up get up i want to lie here and lose no dinner no nothing
00:36:51then in november 1975 cuckoo's nest premiered to rave reviews the success and the popularity would
00:36:59have had to have had to have exceeded anyone's expectations because uh you know i mean this is
00:37:06enormous success um and you don't expect that in february 1976 jack received his fifth academy award nomination
00:37:19the next month he won i just thought that there was no doubt in my mind
00:37:26after i saw that performance that he was going to win the best actor award yeah i think most actors
00:37:33want to win an oscar if they can you know i'm still getting used to working regular you know
00:37:39cuckoo's nest also garnered four other oscars including best picture
00:37:46however the missouri breaks didn't fare so well the film opened in january 1976 and flopped at the box office
00:37:56nicholson decided to take some time off and relax at his home in aspen
00:38:01chinatown director roman polanski stayed nicholson's los angeles home
00:38:07polanski used jack's house uh on occasion and other people did and people crashed people stayed for
00:38:13periods of time people came over to use the pool whatever um and you know how much jack knew about
00:38:19what polanski was using in the house for is is an open question what actually happened i think
00:38:25is you know still arguable certainly polanski had sex with an underage girl the next day police
00:38:33arrested the oscar nominated director polanski was charged with raping a minor that judge also issued
00:38:40a search warrant for nicholson's house jack's girlfriend angelica houston was there when the
00:38:45cops arrived according to police records they discovered cocaine in houston's purse and busted
00:38:52the 25 year old actress for possession the charges against houston were later dropped but polanski
00:38:59wasn't as fortunate he pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor but the director
00:39:05fled to france before being sentenced there is no director in the world i'd rather work with than roman
00:39:12anyone he's the single most talented man that i've ever known in making a film but unfortunately roman
00:39:20was not allowed in the country shaken by the scandal jack buried himself in his next project
00:39:26a comedic western called going south nicholson directed and starred in the film he had a vision
00:39:34from the picture and he wanted to put a even a closer stamp of his on the picture by being
00:39:43the director
00:39:44and he did very well it's a very unusual you know that's a cult movie now i enjoyed it i
00:39:50laughed my
00:39:50ass off he's a damn good director then jack switched gears again to play an unhinged writer in the film
00:39:59version of stephen king's novel the shining the creepy setting a haunted hotel high in the mountains
00:40:05provided the perfect backdrop for one of nicholson's most powerful performances and jack's take on the
00:40:12role inspired a pop culture phenomenon here's johnny who had jack nicholson who just goes so far over the
00:40:24top which was perfect for this sort of kind of uh kind of antiseptic look to the film and uh
00:40:31you know
00:40:31that's the reason why people look back on that film you know 20 years later as a horror classic it's
00:40:36the nicholson performance at the heart of the film i mean he does such a great job of playing crazy
00:40:40by
00:40:41early 1983 45 year old nicholson boasted 36 films mostly playing a bad boy then he surprised everyone
00:40:51with a daring career move jack took on the role of an aging astronaut a part originally offered to burt
00:40:59reynolds
00:41:00jack played the astronaut garrett breedlove in terms of endearment for the first time jack's not
00:41:04a young man he used to be a little paunch but you know he embraced this he he wasn't afraid
00:41:09of being
00:41:09old or being older and this has served him well in his career i'm starving no hidden meaning in that
00:41:17remark well uh would you like an oyster
00:41:26the film also starred shirley mclean and deborah winger as a mother-daughter team caught up in a
00:41:32tempestuous relationship jack's special brand of humor broke up the tension in scene after scene
00:41:40just the perfect comic and romantic relief for a story that without him quite frankly might have been
00:41:45too melodramatic you need a lot of drinks to break the ice to kill the bug that you have up
00:41:55your ass
00:41:57terms of endearment hit pay dirt bringing in more than 100 million dollars terms endeared members of
00:42:05the academy as well nabbing five oscars nicholson walked off with his second academy award this one
00:42:12for best supporting actor well i get drunk a lot fall out of cars uh take six seven women home
00:42:19every
00:42:19night alone you know swim 90 laps at three o'clock in the morning drive cars with my feet like
00:42:26a lot in
00:42:27common with them
00:42:31coming up a joker gone wild so he said i won't be in this film unless you give me a
00:42:37percentage of all the
00:42:38of you it grows
00:42:47in 1984 jack nicholson grabbed the chance to reunite with hollywood great john houston the two men stayed
00:42:54close since their hugely successful film chinatown ten years earlier jack also continued his relationship
00:43:02with john's daughter angelica this time houston got behind the camera to direct nicholson in pritzy's
00:43:08honor he had many meetings with uh john houston the director who he admired and and maybe even
00:43:15worshipped john houston was sort of his father-in-law there for quite a while uh as jack spent those
00:43:22years
00:43:22with angelica and um the the fruition of that is this wonderful film that's his honor the movie
00:43:29co-starred angelica and kathleen turner at first nicholson found it hard to get a handle on his
00:43:35character brooklyn gangster charlie portana he really didn't know how to play this part in the
00:43:41beginning of this italian mobster john houston said to him he's dumb jack he's dumb and jack got it and
00:43:46just nailed the part the film opened in june 1985 and scored big with critics and audiences once again
00:43:54jack found himself in the race for an oscar one of the other key ingredients of nicholson's career is
00:44:01surprise the element of surprise that you never know what's coming next and when he played that
00:44:08character in pritzy's honor you know he caught us up short we've never seen him play a character like
00:44:12that who looked like that talk like that or acted like that houston and his daughter angelica also
00:44:19received nominations jack didn't win and neither did director john houston but 34 year old angelica
00:44:26took the oscar for best supporting actress a year and a half later in august 1987 john houston passed away
00:44:36at the age of 81 jack was you know uh stricken weeping was a great loss to him you know
00:44:46we're talking
00:44:47about a giant jack stood on the shoulders of giants and people now stand on jack's shoulders
00:44:55in the summer of 1988 warner brothers studios paid big bucks to make a movie about the famous comic
00:45:02book character batman producers hired hot young director tim burton michael keaton landed the title
00:45:10role studio execs wanted a special actor to play batman's number one nemesis the joker this was a very
00:45:18expensive film for one of those to take on as they needed all the firepower to surround and support their
00:45:24decision the kind of comfort you get when a star or stars commit to it so the idea was to
00:45:30embrace jack
00:45:31get jack and use his momentum to drive the studio into making the picture embracing jack meant doing
00:45:37whatever it took to get him on board i was in aspen colorado at my ranch and jack hadn't committed
00:45:44to it
00:45:44and we took tim burton jack said let's go riding let's go horseback riding and tim burton leans and
00:45:50he says i don't horseback ride i said you do now the bumpy journey paid off nicholson said yes
00:45:58casting a star of the magnitude of nicholson as the joker was very smart on the part of the producers
00:46:06and in a way introduced jack to a whole new audience he could bring his natural zest
00:46:14vigor energy and the uncontrolled part of himself the big part you know the theatrical part
00:46:23because that part lent itself to him you know that i think that tickled him and i think the
00:46:29money tickled him too so i said i won't be in this film unless you give me a percentage of
00:46:33all the
00:46:34gross and unless you give me a percentage of all the monies that are made from future sequels and from
00:46:39the the across marketing along with the reported six million dollar paycheck nicholson received up to
00:46:46twenty percent of all profits from all things batman the sweetest deal negotiated for any actor in
00:46:53filmmaking history you know if he probably never worked again after the rest of his life his annual
00:46:59you know payments from batman would probably be enough to make and you know any ordinary person happy
00:47:06production began in october 1988 with so much at stake jack became very determined to make batman pay off
00:47:16one day on the set in in england i was there with my partner and jack had all his makeup
00:47:21on his
00:47:22smiling face you know and he was screaming at us because we were weeks over budget and he only
00:47:27been paid a certain amount of money and he was just yelling and screaming we all started laughing
00:47:30because he had a smile on his face as he was screaming only time he had a smile on his
00:47:33face
00:47:35batman wrapped in january 1989 three months later nicholson reprised his role as jake giddis
00:47:42the la private eye he played 16 years earlier in chinatown the two jakes was the long delayed and
00:47:50much anticipated sequel to the oscar-winning classic jack took on the director's role as well through the
00:47:57camera lens a certain fit player caught the eye of 52 year old nicholson he meets a woman named rebecca
00:48:04broussard and has a side relationship with her while he's still theoretically with angelica houston
00:48:1026 year old broussard piled around with jack's daughter jennifer also 26 according to an interview
00:48:18nicholson later gave to smart magazine his relationship with rebecca shocked jennifer jack
00:48:24responded these things happen and girls in their early 20s know not to trust their girlfriends around
00:48:30their fathers still jack did not flaunt the romance in public the opening of batman in june 1989 provided
00:48:39enough excitement for nicholson fans hi everybody i'm greg kid here for movie time and tonight it looks like
00:48:46months and months of anticipation have finally come to a close with the premiere of warner brothers 50
00:48:51million dollar plus batman you should think of it as a therapy
00:49:03maybe we can cut a deal jack jack is dead my friend you can call me joker
00:49:16and as you can see i'm a lot happier batman went on to gross 425 million dollars worldwide the joker
00:49:26laughed all the way to the bank reportedly raking in between 60 and 70 million dollars
00:49:50jack later told buddy danny devito about his windfall shortly before devito signed on to play the
00:49:56villainous penguin in the sequel batman returns what a day the only advice that he gave me early
00:50:01on was uh you know try to get my deal the deal never happened for devito there is only one
00:50:11actor in
00:50:11hollywood with that kind of power jack nicholson coming up a hollywood ending my life with jack was
00:50:24was many things there were great times there were painful times and later still excited after all these
00:50:31years i dropped about three quarts of water the minute they said my name
00:50:45in the summer of 1989 batman reaped millions at the box office and 52 year old jack nicholson made a
00:50:53bundle playing the joker around that time jack found out that his girlfriend rebecca broussard
00:50:59was pregnant that development spelled doom for nicholson's long-running relationship with angelica
00:51:06houston they've been on and off for years and there were reports of other women but this was pretty
00:51:13conclusive jack broke the news to angelica in person nicholson described houston's reaction as fair
00:51:20my life with jack was was many things there were great times there were painful times when it comes to
00:51:28something like this and one has the opportunity in in some way to um if not uh alter a certain
00:51:38state
00:51:38of being but that you can you can take maybe what's painful and use it the following spring in april
00:51:451990
00:51:46broussard gave birth to a daughter they named her lorraine after jack's and nicholson said it's the
00:51:53greatest experience in life the baby's half-sister jennifer jack's first child was 27 years old at the
00:52:01time jennifer showed interest in pursuing a career as a clothing designer two years later jack and rebecca
00:52:07welcomed a second child raymond the couple never married or lived together and agreed to share custody
00:52:14of the kids jack's an exemplary father jack would drive his children to school eight o'clock in the morning
00:52:22and jack is not a morning person jack likes to stay up late very late but he gets up for
00:52:28his kids would
00:52:29drive them over he would read stories i mean he involved himself when you have children in a later
00:52:34part of your life and pretty much you can focus everything on those children they become the most
00:52:42important uh thing at that time in your life he's real proud of his kids he's made a lot of
00:52:48room in his
00:52:49life for them but uh i think he goes out of his way i know he goes out of his
00:52:53way uh shows up at
00:52:56school sits and sits in the when the kids were in preschool would sit in the circle with them and
00:53:01stuff like that uh he's a real good good father in august 1990 a few months after lorraine's birth
00:53:09the two jakes premiered nationwide jack played jake diddis harvey keitel was the other jake
00:53:16the chinatown sequel seemed like a sure bet we've passed through similar portals in our time you
00:53:24know and there was a lot of faith involved in each other and so jack for me as you can
00:53:30see from the
00:53:30film you know we uh i like that but the chemistry didn't translate on screen and the two jakes tanked
00:53:39at
00:53:39the box office nicholson gladly gave up the director's chair it's a very difficult thing
00:53:45for him you know for the very chancy thing of making your own film where you take about two
00:53:49years out of your life it's very doubtful i think that he'll make another film a year later in october
00:53:541991 nicholson signed on to play a tough as nails colonel in the military drama a few good men
00:54:03nickolson reportedly earned five million bucks for ten days work he wanted a killer deal and the
00:54:09studio had an ante up and we did because we looked at it and said he is the perfect icon
00:54:14to play against
00:54:15tom cruise jack nicholson was perfect to play jessup who was somebody who thought he was infallible who
00:54:20did think he was bigger than life and thought he couldn't be brought down colonel what's that
00:54:26i'd appreciate if he would dress me as colonel or sir i believe i've earned it with a few good
00:54:31men you're seeing the real solid jack character it's become part of our acting landscape it's just
00:54:38this guy that you're never sure where he's gonna go he's kind of funny but it's a sinister edge to
00:54:43him so it keeps you riveted you can't keep your eyes off this guy because you never know what he's
00:54:55uh taking on the persona and the uh emotions um of that character his hair would change um his
00:55:06temperament might change uh he might get a little shorter with his answers and then when you would
00:55:13see the film you'd understand jack's on-screen rival tom cruise loved spying with the master he would
00:55:21give you everything every take he was right there you know didn't play games or anything was just
00:55:26right there you know he just felt this guy wants me to be greatness and you know that's how i
00:55:34feel
00:55:34with other actors you know and to feel that from everybody you know it was it was tremendous i think
00:55:40there's a danger for any actor especially any young actor that you're going to be overshadowed by nicholson
00:55:45that he's going to steal the scene but i also think he can be a generous actor when he needs
00:55:49to be
00:55:49and i think a few good men is a prime example of that the film's most riveting scene became an
00:55:55instant classic i'll answer the question you want answers i think i'm entitled you want
00:56:01answers i want the truth you can't handle the truth jack you can't take the truth the heat
00:56:09are better than the lakers before going to the miami heat in 1995 pat riley coached jack's beloved
00:56:16lakers for nine years everybody has to understand jack is a fan fan fan first and foremost he's
00:56:22serious about basketball serious about the lakers and his team he's totally into the game he knows the
00:56:29game he talks the game he understands the game and uh the whole time that we're there he's into the
00:56:36game
00:56:37all the years i coached in los angeles uh you know i was opposite him
00:56:43uh at the other end of the floor because he he spent most of his time trying to gain an
00:56:48advantage
00:56:48for the lakers he's a baiter he's a referee baiter we all saw him in the shining we saw him
00:56:53in cuckoo's
00:56:53nest we know that he's a little bit loose up there but basketball will you know fire those synapses
00:56:59he absolutely incites the crowd there's mixed boos and yells and you know applause but there's an excitement
00:57:07that he's brought to the game that the game takes on another level when he feels like his team is
00:57:12is
00:57:13getting the short end of the stick he's going to stand up and get into the officials faces he's going
00:57:17to get into the opposing players faces he's going to say something to the coaches the triple coach on
00:57:22the way down he'll say something that will uh will disrupt the game jack and his buddies became a
00:57:28celebrity sideshow i kick my coca-cola over it goes right out into the middle of the court i mean
00:57:38like
00:57:38literally right out into the center of the right and people are screaming and hollering and everything
00:57:44and laughing and carrying on and we it settles down and they're just about to bring the ball out again
00:57:51and nicholson turns to me and he says you want another coke d jack attended every home game and
00:58:01often followed the team on the road with his pal lou adler one night in boston la's number one fan
00:58:07became the number one attraction it was a very hostile crowd and uh and nasty crowd also and they
00:58:16gave us hard hats because they were throwing things at us and the crowd held up nasty signs about jack
00:58:21and it and it was tough jack finally hit the wall he stood up and brought down the house just
00:58:28turned
00:58:28around bent over dropped those doors uh and uh one of the great uh one of the great moon shots
00:58:34in the
00:58:35history of professional sports you know so we're very proud of jack when he does stuff like that
00:58:43coming up jack keys off it was a very bad horrible no good day for jack and he really um
00:58:50acted out
00:58:59jack nicholson's love affair with the lakers began in 1972 and his courtside antics became
00:59:06as legendary as his famous grin but basketball wasn't the only game in town he shows up in my office
00:59:13and
00:59:13says uh doc you want to play some golf i know you're a golfer i'm just learning the game
00:59:19i said okay you know i took him to play golf and uh we left for 18 holes for most
00:59:25golfers playing around
00:59:27takes three to four hours but jack usually found a shortcut to the 19th hole we're playing golf and
00:59:34uh we want to go through another group i don't know if you're a golfer or not but uh we'll
00:59:40go through the
00:59:41group people don't like to let people through but uh jack you know give him a little wink a little
00:59:46the arched eyebrow and oh go yeah sure mr nicholson please go on and i said no one else gets
00:59:52this
00:59:53however nicholson dropped the engaging wink and the politely arched brow during a well publicized
00:59:59incident off the golf course the driver of another car allegedly cut jack off in traffic the cars come
01:00:07to a stop jack gets out of his car holding a golf club goes to the other car and strikes
01:00:13the windshield
01:00:14with his golf club as the public is aware he doesn't hide his emotions there have been instances
01:00:22when he has shown that to a fault maybe he's very honest about himself in that area it's not like
01:00:27he's conceived a persona that this is what the public will know and this is who johnny is the other
01:00:37driver pressed charges for assault and vandalism he sued jack for damages nicholson was contrite he made
01:00:45a public statement later saying he had a very bad day uh and he acted out in an us magazine
01:00:51interview
01:00:51jack called the february 1994 incident a shameful experience and added i don't like to lose control
01:00:58or to be angry it's jack it's an emotion you know the same guy that you see jump out and
01:01:04scream at a
01:01:05referee for something that the referee has done wrong it's the same thing about his emotions of
01:01:11pulling the golf club on but he's honest about it the lawsuit was settled out of court and all charges
01:01:16were dropped meanwhile jack's already lofty status in hollywood cranked up another notch on march 3rd 1994
01:01:27the american film institute honored nicholson with its most prestigious award
01:01:32it may have been a little daunting to accept the afi life achievement award he wasn't at the
01:01:38equivalent point that say jimmy stewart or henry fonda were when they got their awards from the afi
01:01:46but in terms of duration and durability and excellence he was he just got there a little sooner at 56
01:01:54jack
01:01:55became the youngest actor ever to receive the tribute later in 1994 jack starred in the horror
01:02:02flick wolf he followed that up with the crossing guard directed by pal sean penn jack's uh prince
01:02:09one of the greatest actions we ever had and uh i got blessed by having him jack starred alongside
01:02:17ex-girlfriend angelica houston you always learn something new with a as good an actor as jack
01:02:24then in february 1996 jack's daughter jennifer put her fashion design career on hold to become a mom
01:02:32the eternal playboy all of a sudden becomes a grandfather when jennifer nicholson gives birth
01:02:36to her first child sean jack of course has two young children of his own at the same time
01:02:41but jack wasn't about to slow down six months after the birth of his grandson nicholson went to work on
01:02:48his next project as good as it gets with co-star helen hunt i had read the script a few
01:02:54years before a
01:02:55very different version of the script and i loved the story and then when they told me that it was
01:03:00jim brooks
01:03:01and jack i just wanted it so much jack played obsessive compulsive writer melvin udall
01:03:08come on come on no you monkey you have pissed your last four i bet you wish you were real
01:03:20oh you you dark monkey this is new york if you can make it here you can make it anywhere
01:03:31the gig added millions more to nicholson's already hefty bank account
01:03:36it's hard to imagine any other 60 year old actor pulling in 15 million dollars for a movie at this
01:03:42age but jack draws in the audiences and even as old as he gets people still want to come see
01:03:47him
01:03:47he's still a box office draw the accolades kept coming in late december 1996 nicholson received a star
01:03:56on hollywood's walk of fame surrounded by family and admiring fans jack quietly stole the show
01:04:02i want to thank all my friends for coming down here at such an early hour
01:04:10and they're not being a casket around and all my fans who i assume you are it's lovely of you
01:04:19to come
01:04:19out and support me in this nicholson also reflected on his years in los angeles the first time i ever
01:04:26came
01:04:27to hollywood right over here i came right here to grauman's chinese directly from the shores of new
01:04:35jersey i'm sure somewhere on this street is somebody exactly like me who's going to wind up standing
01:04:43exactly where i am and that's that's the tradition that i uh i'm very proud to be a part of
01:04:50jack's
01:04:51phenomenal success in the movie business gave the actor the means to pursue another passion his
01:04:56impressive art collection jack is one of the biggest private art collectors in the world and
01:05:04i was sitting in his living room interviewing him and right behind me were a picasso a bernard
01:05:09a magritte and a bacon hanging up there like posters his home is the most modest home
01:05:16on the walls of that modest home uh millions and hundreds of millions of dollars of paintings
01:05:21i think he's a picasso under his bathtub but he doesn't tell anybody about it doesn't brag about it
01:05:26no one even knows it he's that modest i came in one one day and he had uh this painting
01:05:33he's
01:05:33staring at it staring at it's a doc what do you think i think it was two two rats looking
01:05:37at a piece
01:05:38of cheese i said it looks like two rats he says doc that's a van gogh jack's reverence
01:05:44is very different from other people's for instance if he throws his hat over his oscar or hangs a
01:05:48picasso in the bathroom to jack because that home is his castle and his inner soul he's put it in
01:05:56exactly the right place he's not looking to impress you jack didn't just admire his picasso's and
01:06:02magritte's he took a shot at expressing himself with a paintbrush he did a painting for me by the way
01:06:08for my birthday what a wonderful birthday present he painted it himself nicholson proved to be as savvy
01:06:14negotiating for collectibles as he was cutting deals with studio execs a woman had two tiffany
01:06:20lamps very close friend he told me what she wanted for the lands and i said jack i think they're
01:06:25over
01:06:26price he said i don't care he said do you think that these lamps will increase in value over the
01:06:32years i thought that it would take 10 years 20 years maybe never but within a very reasonable amount
01:06:41of time one of those lands is probably worth a million dollars today you hear a lot about actors
01:06:47who throw their money away don't understand the practical world jack is that unique combination
01:06:55of a brilliant artist and a very practical man who understands the world you have to understand jack
01:07:01was buying most of these pictures 20 and 30 years ago but jack's collection is certainly worth you know
01:07:08in the very high hundreds of millions of dollars in december 1997 nicholson proved himself a box office
01:07:16powerhouse once again as good as it gets opened in theaters and went on to gross nearly 150 million
01:07:22dollars jack was also nominated for his 11th academy award the performance in everybody's mind that jack
01:07:29would give is not the one that's on the screen he worked hard and created it from the ground up
01:07:34to
01:07:34get this character going and that's what's on the screen the big night rolled around on march 23rd 1998
01:07:40jack was a bundle of nerves i dropped about three quarts of water the minute they said
01:07:45my name and up until then i was numb we know it's very nervous tonight you know usually i just
01:07:52come
01:07:52out because i like seeing movie stars and have a good time and all that but i was real nervous
01:07:58tonight
01:07:58i suppose you could tell i don't know jack's third oscar proved to be the sweetest of all i like
01:08:04a career
01:08:04that covers three decades you know it's nice one one in the 70s one in the 80s and this is
01:08:10the 90s i i'm
01:08:11happy and i'm really happy you know one of the things i meant to say in my speech is you
01:08:16know if
01:08:16you have young children uh you you always wish they get to see you do something big you know so
01:08:22i know
01:08:22they were sitting home having a ball you know they don't they don't know the difference between this and
01:08:27bowling but they know you know they know dad won and that was great for me
01:08:34coming up jack be nimble jack be quick they were two irish fiery people who had a lot of fun
01:08:45together
01:08:50celebrate the new
01:08:56by 1999 jack nicholson stood alone as hollywood's most celebrated actor with three oscars and 11
01:09:04nominations
01:09:07but 62 year old nicholson did meet his match off screen her name lara flynn boyle 29 year old lara
01:09:16earned
01:09:16her stripes as a hard-boiled da on the hit tv series the practice she says that she came up
01:09:23to
01:09:23him and just totally charmed him and won him over and he went and told all his friends it was
01:09:29reported
01:09:29that he was just a teenager in love in 2000 with boyle it aside nicholson began his sixth decade in
01:09:36the
01:09:36movie business jack has a unique position of his early films being legendary and anybody looking at films
01:09:43on all the channels sees him and recognizes his talent and suddenly they see him in a new film being
01:09:50released so he has the older audience that embraced him when he was very young he has the new audience
01:09:56who embraced him as an icon a film icon who's been able to not really survive but triumph all these
01:10:02decades in march 2001 jack went to work on his 56th film the dark comedy about schmidt nicholson wowed
01:10:11critics and fans with his portrayal of a retired insurance man trying to rebound after the death of
01:10:16his wife i take a certain amount of pride in the fact that i don't play the same thing and
01:10:24i always
01:10:24made it a point early on to change that from the very beginning i always tried to do a movie
01:10:31that i
01:10:31thought was more accessible and then do something very very different from that
01:10:39and so therefore create your own peaks and valleys because i don't think you can dictate
01:10:44to audiences what they like you know the great thing about about schmidt was that it reminded us
01:10:49that jack nicholson is first and foremost an actor and second a movie star and a legendary character and
01:10:56in retrospect you realize it's one of his best performances of the last two decades co-star kathy
01:11:00bates also sang jack's praises primo he's terrific i had never i'd met him socially but didn't know
01:11:07what it was like to work with him he's incredibly professional and focused and it was just a dream
01:11:12to work with him however portraying the balding pot-bellied warren schmidt forced jack to put his ego
01:11:19aside well i don't know if anybody would have noticed i threw out my vanity if i didn't tell him
01:11:26yeah no it was a little difficult getting out of it in all honesty the reason he was worried about
01:11:31about schmidt was this was not a sexy role this was not a crazy eccentric this was a a colorless
01:11:37retiree a drone and jack was sort of worried as to how to play such a seemingly boring character
01:11:43you know i mean you think am i you know well i make it a point not to talk about
01:11:48age but uh you know
01:11:50i walked by that mirror every morning and wondered what it would be like back in l.a you know
01:11:55they
01:11:56didn't want the comb over when i when i started the picture the movie was in part of road trip
01:12:03kind
01:12:03of like easy rider all those years ago but this time jack's in a winnebago and he's a retiree
01:12:08facing the end of his life and jack told me too you know the roles he's getting are getting fewer
01:12:14and far between and this movie brought that home for him that he too really is getting older still age
01:12:20didn't curb jack's irreverent behavior nicholson turned the location shoot for about schmidt into
01:12:26his own late night show i apologize to omaha if they're here but apparently that i was walking
01:12:34around nude at all hours of the night and then in the house that i rented and then omaha is
01:12:41all up and
01:12:42arms over it but you know and to them in all honesty i i didn't think omaha was awake four
01:12:51o'clock
01:12:53in the morning when i go down for my pie to stay in character you know nicholson's legend continued to
01:13:01grow in december 2001 jack accepted the prestigious lifetime achievement award bestowed by the john f kennedy
01:13:09center for the performing arts when jack was in washington he stood up at the highest honor that
01:13:15an american artist can get but flashed through my mind he's telling ethel may nicholson uh don't worry
01:13:23jack's going to be a big star he has a lot of talent and i didn't believe a word of
01:13:27it meanwhile jack's
01:13:29relationship with lara flynn boyle continued to be a wild ride they had their ups and downs and they
01:13:35would break up and get back together and so forth in 2002 jack took to the stage for the first
01:13:41time
01:13:41in 40 years in a benefit for the painted turtle a california camp for kids with life-threatening
01:13:47illnesses jack helped to attract other big-name celebs to appear in a production
Comments