5 Crazy Behind-the-Scenes Stories About Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson turned 88 this April, which marks another year gone by when the most screen time the actor’s gotten has been courtesy of people annoying him with cameras. This year also marks the 45th anniversary of The Shining, one of Nicholson’s best-remembered performances, which was released on May 23, 1980.
And though you’d be hard-pressed to find a more convincing portrayal of a madman on film, Jack was a consummate professional on set when the cameras weren’t rolling. In fact, The Shining is one of the only Nicholson films with behind-the-scenes footage available to the public, which gives us a rare glimpse at his process:
But Nicholson, who has been semi-retired for 15 years, starred in over 60 movies (and probably twice as many Knicks broadcasts). With an output like that, you can’t expect to wrap up every production without a hitch. And thankfully for us, even when the chips were down, Jack did not disappoint. That’s why we’ve decided to take a look back at a few of his more memorable offscreen movie moments for a change, some of which are arguably more entertaining than some people’s entire filmographies. For example…
1He got in a near-nude fight with Roman Polanski on the set of Chinatown
Everett Collection
Director Roman Polanski‘s brief encounter with Jack Nicholson in Chinatown made for a noteworthy cameo, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the actual fight the two of them had behind the scenes one night. Eager to film the final shot of the evening so he could rush off to a party, Polanski was not pleased to find out that Jack was more interested in watching a basketball game in his trailer than shortening anyone’s workday. Even better, the game went into overtime. Then, as luck would have it, double overtime.
Fuming and fresh out of patience, Polanski proceeded to toss Jack’s TV on the ground, breaking it into a million pieces. Cue a whole lot of cursing and a whole lot of stripping. Yeah, you read that right. First Jack took his jacket off and threw it at Polanski, then Polanski did the same with his sweater. Before long, they were both down to their underwear and running off to their cars in a huff. It wasn’t until they spotted each other half-naked out on the road that they realized how ridiculous things had gotten and made amends — hopefully without exiting their vehicles.
2He had a rough time working with John Belushi on Goin’ South
© Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection
To say that Jack’s experience shooting Goin’ South went poorly would be a wild understatement. For starters, he fell off a horse in a shot and injured himself. If that wasn’t enough, he also had a severely dry throat from the excessive Mexican heat, which, for some reason, he opted to soothe with tequila rather than water. And to make matters worse, John Belushi—under the influence of god only knows what substance—was causing trouble before he even arrived on set.
Back at his hotel room, an angry Belushi pulled out a knife in front of one of the producers, because he was unhappy with his accommodations — which, shockingly, didn’t cause his involvement with the film to come to an end. Nicholson, who was indulging a bit himself and not exactly unfamiliar with partying, was in no position to be giving any pro-abstinence speeches, so clearly, a more reasonable solution was needed. That solution? According to Nicholson biographer Marc Eliot, after finding Belushi sleeping during working hours, Jack simply “threatened to fire him, kill him, or both.”
3He literally got crap from one of his co-stars in The Raven
Everett Collection
Despite claims of Jack Nicholson not getting along with his Raven co-star Peter Lorre, Nicholson seemed to have nothing but good things to say about their time working together, referring to Lorre as “one of the most sophisticated men I ever knew.” And although Vincent Price and Boris Karloff would joke about Jack getting his role due to nepotism (they both believed he was related to the production company’s co-founder), he didn’t harbor any resentment toward them, either. “I loved those guys,” he said of the trio of horror veterans. “They were wonderful.”
As a matter of fact, it was only the titular raven who attracted Jack’s ire on this particular set. He reportedly once said “I hate that bird!” and he didn’t mince words when it came to explaining why: “It just shit endlessly,” he recalled. “My whole right shoulder was constantly covered with raven shit!” Needless to say, that was not the quote they decided to go with for the back of the Blu-ray.
4He pulled a real gun on Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed
Nicholson’s knack for improvising on set cannot be understated. “Here’s Johnny”? All Jack. “Hello, Mildred”? You guessed it…Jack. Pointing a gun at an unsuspecting Leonardo DiCaprio? Also very much Jack.
Wait, what? Yeah, so, as it turns out, Martin Scorsese felt that the scene in The Departed where Jack’s character confronts Leo’s about being a rat was lacking excitement. So he encouraged Jack to come up with something to put DiCaprio “on edge.” In response, Jack showed up with a gun without telling anybody. That look of horror on Leo’s face the moment he finds that out on camera? Genuine fear. That thing the raven kept doing to Jack years earlier? Suddenly sounding a lot more justified than we previously thought.
5He almost drowned while filming The Terror
Everett Collection
Of all the movies Jack Nicholson appeared in, 1963’s The Terror was surely one of the most unforgettable for him. Not only was his first child, Jennifer, conceived during production, but Jack came very close to drowning while filming one of his scenes off the coast of California.
As Jack put it, in the area where they were shooting, “The water never gets deep. So in order to look disappeared—I made this up as I was going out there—I sort of crouched down to my knees so that when the first white water waves hit me, it did not hit me in the dick but all over. ‘Cause that water was freezing. And the water knocked me under.” The weight of his costume ended up pinning him to the ground to the point that he couldn’t stand up, but luckily he was able to narrowly escape before it was too late. Between this and the raven incident, it’s a wonder he didn’t semi-retire a lot sooner—or stop making movies with Roger Corman, at the very least.
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