00:00You know, I got bad press for this crazy thing.
00:04I'd like to say to those people, I like smoking bans,
00:10because I like to get up from the table and walk around.
00:13But here, when I do it, I've got a lot of photographers taking the same picture,
00:21and if I didn't wear dark glasses, I'd be blonde.
00:25But no option anymore.
00:28I have the same driver all the time here.
00:31And I said, that's all right.
00:32You don't have to block them and know you're in the car.
00:35He says, no, no, no, Jack.
00:36I didn't know it wasn't legal to smoke in a car.
00:39That's pretty extreme.
00:41But does it bother you when you're photographed all the time?
00:43You must be used to that after all this time.
00:45No, I'm not.
00:46I'm bothered by the fact that, well, for 20, 25 years, 99% of the time,
00:52I never go in and out of a doorway when I'm traveling,
00:55that there are not photographers there.
00:58But if it is that, what do you want to doom yourself to be bothered the rest of your life?
01:03It's not going to work for you.
01:04It doesn't work for me.
01:06Let's talk about...
01:07I know a lot of their first names.
01:09I'm so familiar with it.
01:11I bet you have conversations with them about their families sometimes.
01:14Every once in a while.
01:15More about their girlfriends.
01:17Well, we might get on to that subject later, but we better talk about the film first.
01:21Bucket List.
01:22Yeah, Bucket List.
01:23I tell you, explain the title.
01:25That's a good place to start.
01:25The Bucket List refers to a list, and it's described in the picture that you make up
01:31of things that you would like to do before you kick the bucket.
01:36And my research turned up that this had to do with hanging, you know,
01:40when they just kick the bucket out from somebody.
01:43So I did my homework there.
01:45But it's already into the jargon in the American political scene.
01:49McCain, they asked him why he wanted to be president.
01:52He says, well, it's on my bucket list.
01:54So apparently it's a good title, why they change it in every other country.
01:59But English speaking is a mystery to me, but they do.
02:02Ah, that's the wonders of the film industry.
02:05When I'm in charge, I'm the wonder of the film.
02:07And they wouldn't, they would not be changing it.
02:11Listen, Jack, I know that you are Hollywood royalty.
02:13And I'll tell you now, I get nervous about talking to nobody when I do this job.
02:17But you, I'm a little on edge with you, Jack.
02:19Oh, come on.
02:19Well, you can tell I'm a little bit on edge.
02:21I'm the most relaxing guy you've ever met.
02:23Oh, I was going to bring some booze.
02:25I thought we'd make an afternoon of it.
02:26But that's...
02:27Drink.
02:27You don't drink.
02:28That's true.
02:28It's essentially a film about two guys who are dying.
02:34And it's a comedy.
02:35Right.
02:35That's not easy to do.
02:36No, sometimes the simplest things are daring.
02:39When they say that you're a risk taker, this is not about external factors for me.
02:46It's how difficult is the piece.
02:48Well, when you know it's what they call a two-hander, there's not going to be a lot of camera
02:53pyrotechnics,
02:54which always support the performance, that is going to be on you, Jack.
02:58You know, you've got no place to run, no place to hide, so to speak.
03:03And I'd always want to work with Morgan before we were such distinguished gents.
03:08We were kind of wild when we first met in the 70s.
03:11And like a lot of things in the movie business, there's so many people you would love to work with.
03:17So it's that kind of thing.
03:20And then, as Rob said...
03:22This is Rob Reiner, the director.
03:23Yeah, Rob Reiner, who directed the picture, said,
03:26Look, you know, we've got to get this right because we're not going to make this movie again.
03:30This is a subtle thing.
03:32Incidentally, this movie is the second highest test-scoring movie in the history of Warner Brothers.
03:38I wasn't expecting it, but it's very reinforcing.
03:42You know, you don't like to say, Oh, the audience will like it.
03:45I'm always afraid I'll jinx myself or something like that.
03:48But when these statistics are so good, I feel confident that the...
03:52And they do, you know, that we're out against the storm here.
03:55We're not a darling.
03:56We're not in the awards picture.
03:59What we're in is we're the movie they all hope to make next year.
04:03When they say, What's wrong?
04:04All these depressing movies.
04:06We've got to make more uplifting movies.
04:08And I think, Well, why don't you put that in your review?
04:12I'll get a tattoo.
04:13Is that the sum of your ambition?
04:16Edward, I've taken bath deeper than you.
04:18It's easy to be deep in freshman philosophy.
04:21What's Dr. Holland say?
04:23We got months, right?
04:26A year, maybe.
04:27We could do this.
04:28We should do this.
04:30No, I...
04:31Don't think about money.
04:33That's all I got is money.
04:35But I don't know.
04:36What don't you know?
04:37It was meant to be metaphorical.
04:40Just trying to get a handle on...
04:41Blah, blah, blah.
04:43You're the one crying you never took a shot.
04:45Here's your chance.
04:47My chance to what?
04:48Make a fool of myself?
04:49Never too late.
04:51I was surprised you guys hadn't worked together before.
04:53And what a great rapport you have.
04:54And also, bear in mind that the two of you spend a lot of time on your backs,
04:59in bed, in hospital, trying to get this rapport going.
05:02This was another thing I analyzed closely when I did the script.
05:08There's that old actor saying,
05:09if you can sit, don't stand.
05:12If you can lay, don't sit.
05:14So we both know, ooh, that lull at the beginning of the morning.
05:18We'll be laying down.
05:20And, you know, Morgan never got out.
05:22I'd look under the camera.
05:23He's laying there looking dead.
05:26You know?
05:27Fantastic.
05:28And, of course, you both got to go skydiving as well, didn't you, Jack?
05:31Yeah, we sure did.
05:36It's a feel-good movie.
05:37That's not easily done when the subject is death.
05:39I feel like, technically speaking, the success we have had to date with it
05:45is based on you can't be sentimental with this kind of movie.
05:50You can have sentiment, but if you're sentimental, you lose the audience.
05:56You know, too much violins for me, Jack.
05:58Sorry, I don't want to be told how to feel.
06:01So lines in it like, I believe more people die from visitors than diseases,
06:08or how do you want me to treat your ultimate demise as though it were your own.
06:13These are not character lines to get people to like you.
06:17They have two meanings, don't they?
06:19Yeah, they're zippy in there.
06:20And I think it's a very fine line.
06:22It's a very high-wire act, other than you're not going to die from a movie,
06:27but it's that kind of thing.
06:30We're both in the same boat.
06:32Now, that for a metaphor.
06:34We got a real opportunity here.
06:37Opportunity?
06:38That is real twisted, even by your standards.
06:41We still feel good, right?
06:44Energy's coming back a little bit asymptomatic, the doc says.
06:48The way I see it, we can lay around here hoping for a miracle in some science experiment,
06:54or we can put some moves on.
06:57Skydiving, huh?
06:58All right.
07:00Do you know what my favorite line in the film is?
07:03I think you say, the last 45 years have flown by like smoke through a keyhole.
07:09That's a fantastic line.
07:10And what I wanted to ask you, Jack Nicholson,
07:12has the last 45 years, for you personally, flown by in that fashion?
07:16Well, there's a bit more lingering there.
07:19That last hasn't come yet.
07:21It wasn't implying that.
07:23Yeah, no.
07:23And I stole the line, incidentally.
07:27It was a description of a running back.
07:30Is that right?
07:31Is that right?
07:31Yeah.
07:32He runs like smoke and slips by like smoke through a keyhole.
07:35And I remember this 30 years ago in some sports article.
07:38Fantastic.
07:39But when you look back over your career, I mean, what roles are you most proud of?
07:43What parts do you wish you'd said yes to or what roles do you wish you'd said no to?
07:47Well, when I'm trying to dispel the fact that people think I'm intelligent, I told them I turned down the
07:53Godfather and the Sting in the same year.
07:57But I'm very finely tuned to what movies are, which is the art form of the possible.
08:03You know, I didn't turn those films down because I didn't think they were good.
08:07I turned them down because I was doing something else.
08:10Do you still arrange your filmmaking schedules around the L.A. Lakers and where they're playing and when they're playing?
08:16I never did that.
08:17Is that a fallacy?
08:18Yes.
08:19And I don't believe that.
08:20In fact, I get mad at them.
08:21I say, what do you think?
08:22I'm not a serious person.
08:24This is entertainment to me.
08:26Win, lose, or draw.
08:27It's over when it's over.
08:29And I got an important job here.
08:31I'm kind of a fan.
08:32What, you don't think I'm serious?
08:34I'm going to care about a ball game?
08:36This, you know, we got a lot riding here.
08:38You may have forgotten, you know.
08:40I know you're serious about golf because I read about this, so it must be true.
08:44Do you still have that rather intriguing practice routine where you just, you fire balls out the back garden into
08:49the canyon, or is that not true either?
08:50The canyon is littered with balls.
08:53Littered.
08:55And I don't know if obsession is passion, but if it bites you, you're bit.
09:01And are you sick now of people coming up to you in the street and saying, go on, Jack, just
09:06once, say, here's Johnny.
09:07In the street, out of the street, I look them in the eye and say, my rate is about $100
09:12,000 a day.
09:15I don't do amateur theatricals.
09:18And that keeps them quiet.
09:20Jack Nicholson, what a pleasure.
09:21Thank you very much indeed.
09:22Good luck with the bucket list.
09:23Bucket list's a dilly.
09:24An absolute pleasure.
09:25Thank you very much indeed.
09:27Pretty crisp, Tim.
09:29Pretty good yourself, Jack.
09:30Hey!
09:31Can't afford you for any longer though.
09:32All right.
09:33See ya.
09:33See ya.
09:33Bye.
09:34Bye.
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