Jack Nicholson
Q: Part of the appeal of this film is the shock comedy. How do you pitch the performance of a character who has to be brutally frank but still win over an audience?
JACK NICHOLSON: You know, I’d like to take credit for it, but it’s pretty well written in the script. Jim is the best writer I know, and of course the actor never looks at it like that. I look at it as he’s a man who tells the truth, and he’s a New Yorker. That’s that.
Part of the directing technique of the picture was that since it was not a straight out drama, Jim didn’t always want a clinical performance of a [sic] Objective Compulsive. I would just do it and he would photograph what he thought was right. If there was something too prevalent for the image of the scene he would say ‘too much disease’. If I’m counting on my fingers down here [out of frame] you don’t see that part, but it’s helping me act it nonetheless.
Q: Melvin’s rituals were fascinating, but is there anything you are obsessional about?
JN: Yeah. Well, I carry my own ash tray, that’s about the only one. I’m not phobic at all, just a regular person.
Q: Melvyn is a very rude, intolerant man. What’s the rudest thing you’ve ever done?
JN: I rather jump from immaculately polite, to violent. There’s not much rudeness in between. Rude is for amateurs.
Q: You have worked with James Brooks many times before. Does such familiarity improve your performance?
JN: I’m just a solution rather than a problem for a director. I pride myself on being low-maintenance. Jim and I are also very close friends, and in that you can just throw things open: call one another a shit, or kiss them, and don’t have to worry it will affect a future relationship because we have a very enduring dialogue as friends, as well as people who collaborate.
Q: There seem to be elements of your character imported from Randle in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Do you constantly revisit past roles to inspire a current performance?
JN: I never see it that way. Every character I’ve ever done is separate. That me be self-aggrandisement, but that’s the way I see it. You know, I suppose text can sound the same when it comes from the same person. I used to do accents, but no one noticed. Now, people like Meryl and Marlon have taken it to such an extreme level. Ten years ago no British actor could do American accents. Literally none of them could do it. Now Amanda Richardson [could he mean Miranda??] lives there, and plays nothing but Americans.
Doing an accent or changing the voice is not important now. I’m like a fashion designer, its de rigeur. It’s kind of like whistling to me, it doesn’t mean that much. A lot of the parts that I play really carry the narrative and a lot of times I think I don”t have the most interesting part in a movie, but I think I’m good a telling the story, so these questions about characterisation is not where I’m centred at the moment. I had to find the tone to make the greatest writer, who makes comedies about Cancer, Obsessive Compulsive [sic] Disease, single mothers and abandonment, it’s a very special tone you have to find, and I like to service the writer. After all, that’ s what we do.
Q: You are in the comfortable position of being able to pick and choose any role. How do you choose which projects to take?
JN: The reality of that is that I don’t really pick parts. I pick when I want to work and the best movie I can become involved in, because pretty much if the script is good, your part is good.
Q: Yet you seem to have a preference for devilish roles?
JN: This is question that’s asked often. I always think about Eugene O’Neill [his character in REDS] or Jimmy Hoffa, who were a little bit devilish themselves, but I don’t know. I’m attracted to devilish parts.
Q: Do you ever look back at your past work?
JN: Even though Mr Brooks went into the television Hall Of Fame last month, I don’t see much of work on TV. Sometimes I get caught by something – in Carnal Knowledge, for instance, I’m struck by how simply it is directed.
Q: I was thinking about the Corman movies…
JN: Those I never watch, and I recommend no one else does.
Q: So how much influence did Corman have on your career?
JN: When I worked with Roger – and thank you to him for that, because no one else would hire me – his formula was that a horror movie or science fiction movie with someone who had been in bigger movies. In science fiction you didn’t even need a big name, and I see the whole industry has now followed him.
Q: How difficult is it to fight the cliched, preconceived image of you?
JN: It’s not hard, but it is a constant thing. At the same time it’s academically been my technique. I like to think of myself as Lamont Cranston: I’m right here, but you can’t see me. That’s what’s'attractive about the job to begin with – you get to vent a lot of things within the acting situation that you may not become conversant with in real life.
Q: Is it getting more difficult to find worthy roles?
JN: I wouldn’t say so. I’d like to take the credit [for Melvyn], but after all this is one of the best parts I’ve ever been offered. That’s when I wanted the work and that’s when the work came along, so I can’t say that it is more difficult. The only thing is I can’t be thirty years old any more, and this that is after all the centre of the movie-going audience and so in that way there are certain limitations. I don’t want to play the judge – there’s no devil in him.
Q: Has the quality of writing declined in recent years?
JN: It’s hard to answer these questions, but when somebody has a script that has some literary resonance, but when I could play everybody, most directors, because of the way I design what I do, would be interested in working with me because I did not eliminate something for them. I brought only a character actor to the part. When somebody has a script that has some quality, I would be one of the dozen or so actors they would think of. I really only read those. I know both Scott’s [Directors Ridley and Tony] very well, but they don’t send me the Alien or something like this.
Q: What is your idea of the neighbour from hell?
JN: Let me see, Liz whatshername from the New York Daily News…Smith would be my idea. [puts head in hands] Why did I name names?…Just don’t mention I couldn’t remember her name.
Q: How important are awards which give recognition of your work?
JN: It would be tremendous for Greg if he was nominated. It does help you in your work – getting parts is of course the first thing you have to do. We won a few Golden Globes for this movie just as the movie was being released alongside some very big blockbuster films, and that attention helped bring an audience to the picture. So they always have that professional leverage thing, and depending on what the award is and who voted it there is always a complimentary thing about them. Basically all awards are false. After all I’m a clown, not a mystic and I enjoy the glamour and the evenings themselves. My idea of a great evening is to be nominated for an Academy Award and know that you’re not going to win – just have a fantastic night with people you don’t see together that often.
Q: If nominated, you will be approaching Katherine Hepburn’s Oscar-nomination record. Is this an ambition of yours?
JN: No, because I don’t compete with women, and if I was going to pick someone to beat it would not be Katherine Hepburn. I can assure you of that.
Q: Why do you continue to act?
JN: Well, I’m a labourer. That’s why I played Jimmy Hoffa. Unlike the striking Frenchmen I achieved the four day week on this picture.
Q: So why keep going:
JN: I figure you’d miss me.
Q: How do you deal with press intrusion?
JN: It’s just a part of life. You can’t get near me when I’m at home. I’m really good at sneaking around. If someone knows you’re at a certain hotel and they are waiting around, it doesn’t intrude.
Q: Is there anyone you would like to work with?
JN: With two exceptions, I ‘d like to work with all of the people I’ve worked with before. It’s a very impressive list of directors, actors and so forth. I started out with Bernardo Bertolucci at film festivals. We were pals, and that’s someone I’d like to work with. I wish Billy Wilder had one more film in him because I’m very fond of him as well. I’d be happy to work every six or seven years and do Jim’s movies.
Q: Finally, you get to play the piano in this movie. Has Hollywood ignored your musical side?
JN: You know, they always make me do it a little worse than I can do it. You’re always in character. You didn’t comment on my dancing: I think I’m the greatest improvisational dancer in the history of the movie business. I danced in a lot of movies – they rehearse for two weeks, I just say ‘let’s start dancing’…
Peter Hill