Jack Nicholson has been a professional actor for over 60 years. Dwight Eisenhower was President when he began his career. He is an actor’s actor, a man who has not been much distracted by the lure of producing or directing. He is first and foremost an actor. Some of his roles have become iconic. Take Jack Torrance in The Shining or his Joker in Batman.
And he’s influenced a fair number of younger actors with his unusual take on the craft of acting. Now 82-years-old and in retirement, Nicholson still commands the respect and admiration of his fellow actors. Here are 10 actors who have been impressed and inspired by Jack Nicholson.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio is one of Jack’s biggest fans. He has said “Out of any actor, I can’t think of anyone who’s got more memorable moments in cinema than Jack Nicholson. He brings terror into what you thought was supposed to be a light moment and makes a light moment out of a cutthroat vicious line. He flips everything on its side.”
They worked together in 2006’s The Departed. In one scene, DiCaprio’s character was supposed to afraid of Nicholson’s character. DiCaprio has talked of how Nicholson went above and beyond, employing extra props like a gun to make certain DiCaprio’s character felt truly threatened. He did.
Morgan Freeman
After he and Nicholson made 2007’s Bucket List, Freeman said that working with Jack was on his private bucket list since seeing him in Five Easy Pieces. Making the movie with Nicholson was a pleasure, “every day was a holiday because I’ve been praying at the temple of Jack ever since Five Easy Pieces”.
Freeman has admitted that he was so excited to work with Nicholson that he had to do a bit of acting off-camera to appear nonchalant. He certainly would welcome the opportunity to work with Nicholson again. Bucket List was a success on every level, cementing a friendship between Freeman and Nicholson.
Duke Nicholson
Duke just happens to be Jack Nicholson’s grandson. His grandfather has been a huge influence over his life, although he will admit to being just a tad bit in awe of him. It would be hard not to. He readily admits that he and his grandfather don’t often talk about acting. They share a love of sports. So if they talk it’s about that.
Duke has said that his grandfather’s legacy is inspiring on a number of levels. Sure, he’s watched many of his movies. And he thinks his grandfather is such a great actor. But, at the end of the day, he is also granddad, the guy he and his family spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with.
Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler made Anger Management with Jack Nicholson in 2003. He didn’t really know what to expect when they started making the movie. What he found was not only a consummate professional but also a funny and smart guy. It was a pleasure hanging out with him, Sandler has said. Nicholson plays Dr. Buddy Rydell, an infuriatingly annoying anger management expert to Adam Sandler’s repressed character, one Dave Buznik.
Sandler found that he focused on Nicholson an awful lot. He had a presence and, as Sandler said, it was fascinating just watching him walk into a room. Sandler came away from the experience having learned a lot about acting and movie making.
Diane Keaton
When Diane Keaton made Something’s Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson in 2003, she was worried. Why? Well, she hadn’t really spent much time with him in over two decades and she was, quite frankly, concerned about pulling her weight against a man she saw as a legend. She saw him as “larger than legendary”. She even called him a “national treasure”.
She needn’t have worried. Things went just fine. And she was also inspired by another of Nicholson’s talents, namely his kissing. She had been nervous about the kissing scenes but afterward said she truly enjoyed it. And we’re betting Jack did too.
Tom Cruise
In 1992’s A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson plays dodgy Colonel Jessup and Tom Cruise is Lt. Daniel Kaffee, a lawyer who is hot on his trail. The pivotal scene when the young attorney betters the corrupt Colonel is magnificent. Cruise was great. Nicholson was magnificent as the in-charge Colonel losing control. Cruise was so impressed, that for the last five or six years he has tried to coax Nicholson out of retirement.
And as a tribute to his legendary acting colleague, Cruise does a pretty good impression of Nicholson in the film. He lovingly captures Nicholson’s movie star bravura.
Matt Damon
Damon worked with Nicholson on The Departed. There is a scene where mobster Frank Costello, played by Nicholson, executes a man. As written, it was around 1/8 of page long. According to Damon, Nicholson said he was going to make it better for free. Nicholson added a female character so that two people are shot on a beach and threw in some ad-lib necrophilia jokes. The scene was transformed. Genius? Yes.
Damon told the story over and over again. It seemed to be a kind of revelation. And surprisingly, a great deal of Nicholson’s ad-libbed performance made it into the final film.
Cuba Gooding Jr.
He called working with Nicholson a gift and a reward, a high point in his career. Gooding Jr. starred alongside Nicholson and Helen Hunt in 1997’s As Good As It Gets, the story of a waitress, a misanthrope, and a gay guy who form an unlikely friendship. In fact, he went so far as to say that Nicholson was the actor he enjoyed working with the most. Why?“Because he’s so Jack. He’s so Jack. You know what I mean?”
Gooding Jr was also in A Few Good Men, with Nicholson and Tom Cruise. The younger actor was in awe of Nicholson and his acting genius.
Greg Kinnear
Actor Greg Kinnear starred with Nicholson in As Good As It Gets. Like many a younger actor, he was actually afraid to act alongside the acting legend. Before he got the part, he was asked to roll up to Nicholson’s house to read a scene or two with the actor. It was a real “Yikes” moment. But Nicholson put him at ease and Kinnear was appreciative.
Jack gave Kinnear the nod and he got the part, in spite of a mega case of nerves at the reading. Nicholson even gave him dinner afterward.
Louise Fletcher
She was a mental nurse. He was just mental. Jack Nicholson and Louis Fletcher starred in 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Of that experience, she has said that acting with Nicholson was so powerfully real that she didn’t want to go home at night. She didn’t want it to be over. He inspired her.
He was professional, kind and giving, she has said. Then, in a joking tone, she said working with Jack was like being in a mental institution. In the nicest possible way.
