Jack Nicholson’s last press conference
The great Jack Nicholson retired from acting 15 years ago, after starring in his final film, the rom-com “How Do You Know.” The movie didn’t fare well with critics or the public, but the release prompted the last wave of publicity from the double Oscar winner, who is now 87 and happily out of the public eye. He was briefly back in it Jan. 3 after his daughter, Lorraine, posted a picture of her dad on Instagram. Nicholson did a press conference in 2010 for “How Do You Know” in New York, which I attended:
Jack Nicholson’s smooch attack
𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐠-𝐚𝐧𝐝-𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐬 𝐠𝐮𝐲. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧.
Dec. 5, 2010
Peter Howell
Movie Critic
NEW YORK—You probably can’t handle the truth about Jack Nicholson being a hug-and-kiss kind of guy.
But he can, although he admits it took some getting used it — and loads of practice.
Nicholson plays Paul Rudd’s father in the new James L. Brooks comedy How Do You Know, which opens Dec. 17 and also stars Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson.
The first thing Nicholson and Rudd do in the movie is exchange a warm embrace and kiss, a big change from Nicholson’s often-intimidating demeanor — which is certainly enhanced by the constant shades he wears, even indoors.
“I thought about kissing Paul a lot,” Nicholson told a press conference Sunday.
“I’m not a kisser, but we’ve gotten into it.”
And how. The pair demonstrated by smooching in front of the astonished press.
The kissing scene in the movie, and others that hit the cutting room floor, took an almost unbelievable number of attempts to get it right, Rudd told the Star earlier Sunday.
“We’re talking hundreds for sure. I sometimes wonder if we started getting into the thousands. It’s possible. There were other times that are actually not in the film. There could be an entire DVD of just kissing scenes between me and Jack Nicholson,” said Rudd.
Rudd had the advantage, since he’d already explored his “bromantic” side in an earlier comedy, I Love You, Man, and growing up, he always used to kiss both his parents goodnight. But getting smoochy with Nicholson didn’t come naturally, especially since Nicholson surprised him with a kiss when they first met.
“I don’t think I’ve ever kissed anybody as much as I’ve kissed Jack Nicholson. It’s a record for me. I told him that, too. I announced it proudly: ‘I think I’ve kissed Jack Nicholson more than I’ve kissed any other person on Earth.’ That’s something to say.”
Another scene in “How Do You Know” involved tears, Nicholson said, and director Brooks suddenly interrupted it, fearing that technicians filming the movie might laugh.
“In this crying scene I had with Paul, I’m doing it like this, and all of sudden (Brooks) comes running out from the back and he says, ‘I don’t think we want the grips laughing. . . in the middle of a scene like this!’
“And I’m thinking, ‘This is a comedy. I’ve never had a direction like this: ‘Don’t make anybody laugh!’ Jesus Christ!”
The father-son relationship in How Do You Know is not your average one, to say the least. Although Nicholson’s Charles and Rudd’s George are physically affectionate, they become antagonists when the business they both run is investigated by the U.S. government. One or both of them could end up going to jail, and Charles begins conniving to have George take the rap for him.
(All this sounds serious, and it is, but How Do You Know actually is a romantic comedy. Rudd gets involved with Witherspoon, and so does Wilson, and things get tangled.)
How did Nicholson manage to reconcile these two extremes in one character? His Charles comes off as sort of a cuddly shark.
“Well, he’s a dad, and he does honestly feel what he says,” Nicholson explained.
“It’s against the law to piss on the sidewalk, but this is spitting on the sidewalk. You go to Egypt, you bribe the Egyptians. That’s it. So I think he thinks he’s doing the right thing for the things he loves — including attempting to send his son to jail. That was a little tough for me. (Charles) thought he could get out of it.
“That’s kind of where I got the keys to reality for the guy. He really didn’t think he was doing that much wrong. I’m glad you found it unique. I was a little worried about that myself, since I feel like a loveable shark.”
The loveable side of Nicholson certainly came through to his fellow actors. Contrary to the public view of him as a fearsome, brutal or aloof figure — in films like Chinatown, Batman, A Few Good Men or The Departed —he’s a regular raconteur on the set.
“I call him The Mayor,” Witherspoon said in an interview Sunday.
“He’s a great ambassador. He loves his job, too. The character work he does in this movie! He came in with all these ideas of what he wanted his costume to look like. He had these glasses he wanted to wear. He really wanted to evoke a certain person.
“He had all these incredible ideas and I thought, how wonderful to be doing this for so many years and to still be inspired. To be still inspired to go to work every day. He was able to talk about his character for hours. It’s fun — and you get to hear about Roman Polanski and Stanley Kubrick and all that.”
People often seem to have a tough time getting to understand him, Nicholson admitted. He’s more of a pussycat than he lets on.
He told a story about how Wilson called him up when shooting began — the film is set in Washington, D.C. but was made mostly in Philadelphia — and asked him if he wanted to blow off some steam by doing some real shooting.
“I didn’t get to work (in the film) with Owen.. . . The only contact I had with him was he called me up when I first got there and all he said was, ‘Hey, do you want to go out and shoot machine guns?’
“I thought, omigod, all these guys think I’m adventurous!”
Nicholson has also had trouble convincing people that he wants to take life easier. This is the fourth film he’s made with Brooks — the others were Broadcast News, Terms of Endearment and As Good As It Gets, the first two of which brought Nicholson two of his three Oscars for acting — but it’s only his first film in three years.
“I’m kind of a guy who likes to prove things. And all my life when I’ve said that, ‘I’m so sick of (acting)’, everybody always said, ‘God, man, you couldn’t not work!’ Well, I’m kind of proving them wrong,” Nicholson said, punctuating his remarks with a mischievous laugh.
“I read a lot of scripts, so I feel like I did a lot of movies. They’re all the same.
“I like not working. Now, I know that’s kind of hideous and blasphemous, but I really do. And I think I’ve started doing that to others. . . I had a conversation with Leo (DiCaprio) and he said, ‘Geez, I love not working!’ And I said, ‘See what I mean?’”
Don’t plan any retirement parties for Nicholson just yet. He still loves acting, as long as the script is right. He lavished praise on Rudd, Witherspoon and Wilson.
“I’d rather be doing something like this. I had a great time here. These are three of the most talented comic talents in the country, and that’s not small. So I’m always learning when it’s comedy, and I learned plenty from these guys.”
Nicholson is in a great mood. Midway through Sunday’s presser, he just leaned back in his chair and laughed, because he’d thought of something funny.
“The Mayor” is still very much in charge.
THE LIFE OF JACK:
So what exactly does Jack Nicholson do when he’s not making a movie?
Well, just ask him.
Here’s how he rolls when the camera isn’t rolling:
“I just like getting up sometime between 11 and 1. “It’s not movie hours, unless you’re doing night movies.
“I play golf. I’ve got a couple of kids in college, so I’m on the phone a lot.
“I see my pals. Chase women around (he lowers his voice).
“Talk to my congressman.
“Go to funerals — that’s more of a job, actually. But I have to be there.”
—Peter Howell
(Originally published in the Toronto Star.)
