Jack Nicholson – After Batman

March 15, 2020 127 Comments

February 1995 By Philip Berk

Jack Nicholson has had more ups and downs than any star in movie history. Not even Frank Sinatra can match his peaks and valleys.

After years of anonymity in forgettable quickies, he suddenly arrived full blown in a supporting role in the anti Establishment classic, Easy Rider. He was 32 at the time.

Oscars alluded him for a number of years even though he was considered the frontrunner in l970  for Five Easy Pieces, in  l973 for The Last Detail, and especially in l974 for  Chinatown.

When, in fact he did win  in l975 for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, it looked like the decade would belong to him, but that was not to be; in fact from then on, it was all downhill.

That is, until late in the 80s when he re-emerged as the highest paid actor in the business having cut a deal with Warner Bros. that gave him not only a percentage of the gross but a chunk of the ancillary rights (merchandising) as well. Batman no doubt made him a very rich man.

Nicholson has always shunned publicity. When he occasionally appears in public he is invariably hiding behind dark glasses. In twenty years the only time I ever saw him was at an Orson Welles retrospective I organized for the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.

Because of his acknowledged use of drugs, he’s not one of Hollywood’s better preserved stars — at least that’s the public’s perception of him,  but when he arrives at the press conference for his new movie, without shades and neatly attired, he looks surprisingly healthy.

The movie is called The Crossing Guard, and in it he plays a father avenging the death of his child at the hands of a drunk driver. Sean Penn is the director, and his costar is Anjelica Huston, who shared his life for 17 years until she discovered he had fathered a child by aspiring “actress” Rebecca Broussard. He and Broussard have two children, but they are no longer together.

At his press conference — the venue is the newly refurbished, fashionable Polo Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel — Jack arrives late, but he’s charming, light hearted, and very gracious.

Why The Crossing Guard?

“Because there’s not really a movie like it out there. In l968 or l972 it might not have been thought of as unusual, but in today’s market it’s almost unique.”

In what way?

“I came up during that period; the New Wave is basically when we started making movies. Because of Fellini, Truffaut, Godard,  you went to the movies every week and had your mind blown. Every week there was a film that made you go Wow! It was the form itself that did it. Whenever you can open up the form, you’ve made some kind of a contribution. Sean, I think, has done that here.”

Yet the film hasn’t been well reviewed? 

“The film is being criticized for what I think is its greatest virtue. It doesn’t have a simple melodramatic three-act form. It meanders here and there. This used to be considered an asset. I was at the premiere the other night. Afterwards I went to the men’s room, and in the hallway there was a payphone and six mothers were calling to see how their children were. And I thought, well that’s a very good review.”

For most people this is a film about revenge and rage.

“Which it is not. I’m thinking while I’m sitting here, this movie in a way is saying a very simple thing: Don’t drive when you’re drunk. Yet I haven’t heard anybody mention this. Fifteen years ago that’s all people would have talked about,  but now the critics have gotten deeper than the movie makers. They’ve decided it’s about grief and all those kinds of things.”

Has he ever felt as obsessed or self-destructive as the character he plays?

“Of course mortality affects people deeply, but I’m a pretty cheerful sort. I’ve had loved ones die and that can bring anybody down, but I’ve been fortunate. The problems I’ve had have been about work or a relationship that’s going to hell. I mope about it, that kind of thing, but I haven’t had any clinical depression. I’m very willful so I stew for a while, but then I try to get out of it myself.”

The rage he displays in his movies, does it exist in his personal life?

“Rage is our first emotion. It’s an infant’s only chance for survival. The minute he feels neglected that’s when you hear from his red screaming face. It’s not a question of Will it always be there? It is always there. It’s one of our primary circuits. It’s the first emotion we all feel,  so I have a lot of rage.”  

About what?

“When I was a kid I thought every problem we have today would have been solved by now. Science was there. By now we will have solved it. Race hatred. The fact that we still have it, enrages me. I sit at home in a rage sometimes thinking the only way to eliminate it is to take that word out of the language. Just talking about it, it becomes such coffee table claptrap. I’m in a rage over fifty years of listening.” 

What about  the crisis of the American male?

“I was raised by women, so sociologically, in terms of equality, I’m a feminist,  but in reality we are different animals. Sometimes men don’t really know where to stand on that.  Men will do whatever it takes to get along with women, but unfortunately what’s happening today is almost anything you say is a landmine. I heard a quote form a leading feminist recently who said, ‘Finally, we’ve become those husbands we wanted to get rid of.’ I thought that was sort of putting it in a nutshell. I don’t like generalizing, but when people say let’s give all the advantages to the minorities, I remind them that that the world’s leading minority is the white male.”

Speaking of which, becoming a father again, in his fifties, has that been a new experience for him?

“Obviously I don’t have the struggles of life I had thirty years ago. I’m more receptive now to the simple reality that the birth of a child is a boon in your life. My daughter Jennifer is pregnant right now. I’ve always told her, ‘You know, when you were born I was asleep in the waiting room.’ But when they told me I had a daughter it was a Eureka experience. I call birth nature’s only guaranteed bona fide positive surprise. When women debate whether they should  have a baby or do a picture, they don’t know what they’re talking about. This is the babble of the profession. I hear it all the time. It’s not a small thing.”

What kind of father is he?

“I guess I’m as different a father as I am a person. I get along with most children, not only my own. I read books about parenting so I don’t make mistakes. My children Raymond and Lorraine, I support their feelings. I encourage them to be expressive. There’s no point in telling someone, ‘Don’t be sad.’ which is what they did when I was a kid. ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that.’ I’m following modern counseling in just supporting them so that they develop unafraid of the world. That’s what I try to instill in them and I spoil them rotten.”

His scenes with Anjelica, did they open old wounds?

“Not during the work. As an actor, you just get out of the way and let it happen. Anyone who is aware of our former relationship will bring that (information) to the scene, but I have a long standing pact with Anjelica not to talk about her in this kind of forum.”

For The Crossing Guard he worked for a percentage of the gross. His usual asking price is $10 million dollars.

Does he feel guilty for inflating Hollywood salaries?

“Money is the movie business paint. You have to learn to deal with it. There’s no point ignoring it because it’s like denying reality. If you don’t get a movie company to respect your financial position, they will run over you like a steamroller. Every dollar I ever made was a guarantee against a movie’s gross, and I’ve always made more money than they guaranteed me. Remember, they won’t pay it to you if you ain’t worth it.”

Does it bother him when the film is a flop and he’s taken that  big a chunk up front?

“Why should it? The minute they’ve got me in a film, at least 200 people are making their living for a year.”

Did he outsmart the experts when he struck the deal for Batman, or did it just fall in his lap? 

“Let’s say, Warner Bros. weren’t as savvy. But notice, they never even asked me to be in Batman Returns.”

Did he have any trouble collecting all his money?

“I’ve never had problems with the studios, just as long as you know how to deal with these things in a proper perspective. People talk about relationships. I’m old enough to know every head of every studio for a long time. I’m friendly with all of them, I know their secretaries. I’m nice. People in the movie business like me.  But no one’s given me anything yet. No one gives you anything in the movie business.”

Did the failure of Two Jakes, put an end to his directorial ambitions?

“I still like directing. After it was panned, I didn’t  think there’d be a demand for me to direct again, but I get the occasional offer. But that changes all the time. When Easy Rider came out, I had a commitment to direct my first film (Drive, He Said.) I thought I’d like to do that from then on, but then overnight I became a movie star. Now I’m at a point in my life when I could direct fifteen or twenty movies, but it’s not in the cards. I took off a year and a half, and I hoped I would think of something that would inspire me to direct, but it didn’t happen, so I go looking for an interesting acting job which is what I’m doing now. I just came back from Florida doing a movie with my old friend Bob Rafelson. It’s called Blood and Wine with Michael Caine, Judy Davis, Stephen Dorff, and Jennifer Gomez.”

Although Rafelson directed one of his greatest films (Five Easy Pieces) they’ve come to blows on other projects including their last (Man Trouble), yet they continue to work. Why? 

“Rafelson is the man I’ve argued with the most. I’ve worked with him for a long time. Our differences are he always wants me nicer, and I always want to be meaner. And he’s a much meaner man than me.”

Despite his super star status, Nicholson has played a number of supporting roles in movies, notably in Reds, The Last Tycoon, Broadcast News, and A Few Good Men.

“That’s how I got my second Oscar (for Terms of Endearment.) But people have always called me a character actor, which I am. There are a lot of short parts I could play, but I only play them when they are central to the idea of the movie, and I’m right for the part. Also, if they need me for a movie, such as The Crossing Guard,  I’ll tend to say OK. But I suppose there are fewer roles as you get older.”

Shirley MacLaine suggested he’d be too expensive to reprise his role in the sequel to Terms of endearment. Is that true?

“I’m torn between giving a clever answer and my morality which says it’s rude to discuss money with a stranger. You don’t ask what they made. It’s considered crass by my extremely high minded family.”

As an actor, is there any territory he hasn’t charted? 

“I’d like to take the middle aged actor into really steaming sensuality.  Sex has always been the prime mover in the psychology of the world, but nowadays there is so much fear, less freedom in every sense of the word.  Because of AIDS, there is a repression of sexuality. People are living with the fear of dying. 

“The results of sexual repression are rage, violence and depression. People are always asking what causes violence. It’s not television shows, it’s repression.” 

Has he ever thought about retiring?

“I would never announce it, because in six months everybody would have forgotten, whether you were working or not.”

And is he still friendly with President Clinton?

“I’ve never been a friend. I’m acquainted with him. I’d like to have been his friend, but he’s been too busy. I write the President and his wife an occasional letter, but he has the same problem we all share. He’s done practically everything he said he would do when he was elected, but it’s hard to get that information across. The fact of the matter is, the man has a very good record. It’s hard to put your finger on anything he’s done really wrong. He’s readily admitted his errors. If he could run on his actual record, it would be good for America. As a functionary he knows his job as well as anybody in my lifetime. Whatever you think about him as a person, you have to concede that he really knows his job, and I think it’s good for our country to have someone doing that.”

On the lighter side, when asked if Jack Nicholson impressions annoy him, he replied, “I don’t think anybody likes to watch impressions of themselves. There’s something deathlike about it , yet at the same time it’s flattering. I remember working once with Peter Lorre on a horror film, and he looked up at me one day and said, ‘Do you want to see my impression of Peter Lorre?”

FeFor the record, Nicholson’s starring roles in the 80s were in The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Border,  Heartburn, The Witches of Eastwick, and Ironweed. 

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