Jack Nicholson: A Chat With Jack
Q: You have a reputation for generously doing off-camera line readings opposite other actors even though a script person usually performs that part of the filmmaking process. Why do you bother doing that?
A: I love acting. I really do. To me that's the best way to be. I look at acting as a team effort where everyone's doing their best to try to make the team win. I don't want to sit in my trailer. I'm there to work and have fun. There's also the professional dynamic of it. It's good to disarm people by coming on the set with a non-star, let's-have-fun attitude.
Q: In director Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining, one of the scenes you were in was allegedly shot 147 times. Is that true?
A: Yeah. It was the scene where Barry Nelson took my character and his family on a tour of the hotel. Stanley had a lot of intricate camera work and tracking in that scene, and he obviously had a specific idea of what he wanted. You can't imagine what it was like on the second day of shooting this scene to start with a new slate and the assistant director shouting, "The Shining. Take 84!" Stanley was very precise and wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted. I only had one line in the scene, but I got it right 147 times!
Q: In 1981 you made Reds with your friend Warren Beatty, having already made The Fortune with him earlier. Any plans to work together again?
A: Not at present. Warren keeps his plans to himself until he's ready to act upon them.
Q: Then the following year you starred as a conflicted border guard for Tony Richardson in The Border, which recently debuted on DVD. The plight of illegal Mexican immigrants was nowhere near as well-known back then--what attracted you to the project?
A: A great director, and also the chance to play a lower-middle-class character struggling with his personal morality as it applies to what he faces daily in his work. The film was fairly well-received in its time, but definitely should be looked at now. When we were making it, I saw cab drivers risking their lives for an extra two dollars a day to drive or physically carry someone across the border. I understood almost the entire movie right there.
Q: Back in 1987, there was some outcry over The Witches of Eastwick, particularly the scene in the church where you go ballistic. What do you think made the movie a smash hit?
A: All the feathers in my hair must have made me likable [laughs]. When you have three friendly and funny costars like Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon, you've got something for everyone. In traditional literature, the devil, which I portray in the film in modern times, actually never wins and is a very frustrated character. I spent time thinking, "What does my character want?", only to discover that all he wants is to get laid [laughs heartily]. This didn't require a lot of sense memory lessons, if you know what I mean.
Q: Do you think your acting went over-the-top in that film?
A: What's over-the-top for a frustrated Satan?
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