Title: Jack of all
trades; Jack Nicholson has made his name playing off the wall characters, and
his latest roll is no different, finds Robin Walker.(Features)
Date: 6/6/2003; Publication: The Birmingham Post (England);
Byline: Robin Walker
Jack Nicholson is now eligible for a pensioner's bus pass but
The 66-year-old actor - the mostnominated in the history of the Oscars with 12 mentions, including three wins - is even dipping his toes into new waters these days.
Fresh from looking his age, complete with comb-over, in the bittersweet drama About Schmidt, he has now done an openly physical comedy with Adam Sandler in Anger Management. And the consummate professional with the wisecracking exterior says he likes to shake up his screen image so it doesn't go stale.
Ever since he burst onto the scene 33 years ago with Easy Rider, followed by the groundbreaking One Flew Over the Cuck-oo's Nest, Nicholson has always tended towards unusual screen characters who reflect his own wild individuality.
'I think it's the extreme things in life that make good cinema,' he says. 'Every character is different, that's what makes it interesting. Otherwise I wouldn't keep doing it.'
In Anger Management he plays an unorthodox therapist who has to treat Adam Sandler's character. Sandler's kind of goofball comedy is unfamiliar territory, admits Nicholson.
While his co-star's mild-mannered executive character is all pathos, Nicholson was allowed to do the farcical slapstick.
'This is kind of antic comedy, as opposed to dark, wry comedy, so working with Adam in this picture, in a way, defies myown conventions,' he says. 'Every once in a while you have to do this otherwise you begin to settle in.
'Sometimes when you have success it traps you and I think this is something specific to the movie business. You don't even know it until you're in it. Once I had choice I understood you have to make a lot of different choices.
'As an actor you have to keep growing, it's part of the craft,' adds Nicholson. 'You really have to learn the devices that keep you from just relying on what works for you.'
According to Marisa Tomei, who plays Sandler's supportive girlfriend, it's the combination of the two actors which makes it a success.
'These two intertwined and made this movie really eccentric. It's not typical broad comedy or even sort of character comedy, it's really about a rhythm.'
Somehow comedy seems to have found him in the autumn of his acting career, admits Nicholson. 'I always wanted to join the clowns and now coincidence has presented me with comedic material.
'I'm aware of the very limited nature of the stories about people who are at my age in life,' he adds.
'I was also curious about Adam's kind of comedy because it's something I didn't know about. I approached it as a learning experience. The minute you stop learning I believe you're dead.'
The great thing about Jack Nicholson is that after three decades in the
spotlight in
Through all the ups and downs he never lost his love of it all.
'I'm still pretty precocious as a person,' he grins when the topic of retirement is raised.
As a well-liked
It's evident in the respect being shown to his often bumpy private life - which includes marriage, a 17-year relationship with Anjelica Huston, several children by different women, and most recently a relationship with actress Lara Flynn Boyle, over 30 years his junior.
'I like being private because it's a luxury I've won for myself and I take advantage of it,' he says.
'But anytime I draw attention in public, I just look at it as part of the job. There's nothing wonderful or horrible about it.
Nobody knows the real Jack anyway.' A devoted Lakers basketball fan,
His imposing mansion on
It was his looking-his-age performance in About Schmidt which highlights one of the appealing qualities about Nicholson. He still has that twinkle in his eye but he seems to accept growing old. Rumour has it the old wild Jack has even toned down his partying.
'I haven't had any cosmetic surgery and I wouldn't think about it. I don't have any plugs or tucks, but people do what they want. I'm an actor who they said was wrinkled and balding and everything else when I was in my 30s,' he says.
'Most of the people who wrote that are now bald and wrinkled.'
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. Anger Management is released today