A Feeble, Twisted Thought Before Bed: Jack Nicholson

[Laurel]

Just finished watching late-night/early-morning cable movies, and saw that some cheesy second-rate Jack Nicholson flick was about to start. It got me to thinking...he's got this reputation as a tremendous actor, but has anyone noticed that every character he plays is the same fucking guy? He's always a pissed-off man's man. Think about it: The Shining, Five Easy Pieces, The Witches of Eastwick...And from what I've read about him in Entertainment Weekly (which is informative AND entertaining), that's very similar to who he is in real life. So he makes a living playing himself, over and over again. I remember when Marlee Matlin was nominated for an Oscar(TM) for playing a deaf chick, and I though 'how unfair...she's not ACTING like a deaf chick, she's a deaf chick PLAYING a deaf chick'. Which is not to say she's not a wonderful person and all, but is that an Academy-Award-winning(TM) performance? Starring as yourself in a movie? And have you noticed how Jack's got the worst taste in movie projects lately? Or maybe his presence ruins the movie...I'm not sure which. Don't get me wrong - "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is one of my top 10 faves. But some of the pap he's put out lately...c'mon! "Wolf"? Criminy! At least Dennis Hopper has the guts to take on REALLY bizarre stuff, like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Last Days of Frankie the Fly". If you're going to do shitty late-night cable movies, go all the way! Be bizarre! It's just not right, playing yourself in movies and being worshipped for it. Okay, I'm done. G'Night.

 

[Lil-Brandi]

I agree...

Not only does he seem to have no vercitility (sp?)...but where did that sex symbol thingy come from? I'm sorry I see nothing sexy about that man and not much talent either!

 

[Ambrosious]

Yeah, he aint no Eminem or Insane Clown Posse, that's for sure, man.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Damn I was really really starting to like Ambrosious too!!
I like Jack Nicholson and Icp, umm ah well...
oh!! Jack Nicholson did play a good part in As Good as it gets.

 

[Ambrosious]

Cat.

Sarcasm doesn't translate into type well.

These kids today...

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Oh just playin with ya Ambrosious

 

[TonyG]

Originally posted by Cheshire Cat
...Jack Nicholson did play a good part in As Good as it gets.

I was thinking the same thing.

I think with Jack, he makes the part seem like it is him. I think that is his ability as an actor. I do feel he has made some recent schlock but I think he has also had some recent good films in 'As Good As It Gets', 'A Few Good Men', 'Hoffa'. Through in 'Ensign Pulver', 'Easy Rider', Five Easy Pieces', 'Chinatown (original)' and even 'Broadcast News' and he has had some diverse characters.

However, I agree with Laurel that wouldn't it be great to get paid for being who you are in a film. The Marlee Matlin movie, I also agree with Laurel.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Yea I can see Laurel's point. It would be very nice to get paid for being yourself in a movie ;-)

 

[CRaZy]

Aw....in Terms of Endearment, in the hospital scene, he turns to Shirley Maclaine and just gives this wicked, killer smile. If he smiled at me like that I'd do anything. Anything!!! I wouldn't even notice his acting. LOL.

 

[Ally C]

I'm alright Jack

Judging by most of your responses to Jack Nicholson, perhaps we should be grateful that he plays himself in movies - and not with himself? I wonder if he'd get such a big part then?

 

[His Whimsicality]

Re: I agree...

Not only does he seem to have no vercitility (sp?)...but where did that sex symbol thingy come from? I'm sorry I see nothing sexy about that man and not much talent either!

Perhaps you mean versatility?

Anyway, I think an actor can only play what´s within himself, that´s not J.N.´s personal failure imo. Or could you write about something unless there´s some sort of personal connection, something that´s one of your facets?

 

[Madame Pandora]

Any day of the week and twice on Sunday...

There is an old skit or joke about Tom Cruise...can't remember who did it. Two people having a conversation that goes something like this:

"Oh, I saw that Tom Cruise movie last night!"

"Really, Which one?"

"You know, the one where he plays the young cocky guy, who's really the best, but he's got that hang-up, and he meets the girl who he loves, but then they have that problem, but it all works out okay in the end?"

There are a LOT of actors and actresses who, to me, always seem to be playing the same character. Christopher Walken, Ed Harris, Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Joe Pesci, Robert DeNiro (to a degree), Winona Ryder, Tom Cruise, etc. I used to think they were useless (well...okay, I still hate Winona and Tom) but then I realized...

Many times it isn't the versatility of the actor, or the range they choose that gets me. Sometimes it is the depth with which they express themselves. I mean...some writers can only write in one genre, but their stories are still DAMN GOOD in that genre, does that make them less of a writer?

Jack manages to convey emotions to me that wound me to the core. In Terms of Endearment, there is a scene where Shirley is just burned out. The character is at the bottom of an all time emotional low - her daughter is dying, she is exhausted, beleaguered, and feeling the weight of the impending certainty of loss in her shoulders (Shirley, BTW, conveys all this without a word...talk about an amazing fucking actress, but I digress) she walks to the steps of her hotel room and glances up and there is Jack. The arrogant ass. The super masculine jerk. A man running away from any serious relationship in hyperspeed...but there he is when she needs him most, and he looks at her - an aging woman looking her worst if ever there was one - and he gives her a smile.

That one look…that goddamn smile - pregnant with emotion and empathy - THAT look is what acting is all about to me. And in all Jack's movies - even the really shitty ones, there is usually a moment where you get at least a glimpse of one of those looks and you realize WHY the man is fucking amazing. It is what he imparts in those seconds where he wins me over every time.

As Good As It Gets, Cuckoo's Nest, Terms of Endearment, A Few Good Men, Batman (YES! I said BATMAN), Chinatown, Carnal Knowledge, Easy Rider....these are worth a Wolf here and there to me. And...I hate to admit it...but I didn't mind Wolf. It was the kind of movie you can keep on in the background while you're mopping the floor and not worry about missing anything.

And, many times actors take parts for other reasons. Ed Harris made that awful Stepmom film to fund Pollak. And, may times the "vision" of a film is not what the final result turns out to be. Clint Eastwood gave an interview once about what inspired him to make Bronco Billy and it was a very touching snippet. I don't like the film, but I understood what Clint's INTENTION was after that.

God...I love movies. Can we have an "at least one movie thread a day" rule? Purdy Please...with sugar on top? I'll promise to be a good girl?

Aw hell...who am I kidding. I'll just make do with the few I get

MP

 

[Derya]

Pandora

I agree with you on a couple of counts. I LOVE movies; I am a movie freak. So the more threads the merrier on that.

I also agree that there are some actors that no matter what they are in, they are themselves, you don't lose sight of them in the role. Now some of these actors I like and some I don't, but I don't consider them to be as accomplished an actor(that's a personal opinion of course) if you can't forget who you are watching and become wrapped up in the character. A few that I find to be like this:

CLINT EASTWOOD (love him anyway, but he's always Clint)
TOM CRUISE (I like him and his movies, but he's always Tom Cruise with the exception in my opinion of two roles...Born on the Fourth of July and Interview With The Vampire)
JOHN TRAVOLTA
WESLEY SNIPES
SYLVESTOR STALLONE
BEN AFFLECK
JOHN WAYNE
GEENA DAVIS
LAURA DERN
KATHY BATES
DEMI MOORE

Others would come to mind in time. Now regarding Jack Nicholsan I have to disagree. I like some of the movies he's been in, but he's not a drawing card for me. I feel his acting in very similar in all performances. Now my favorite of hiS movies (and there are many of his I have not seen) is A FEW GOOD MEN.

I love to talk movies!!!
http://megsplace.com/dolls/hatnature.gif

 

[CRaZy]

Re: Any day of the week and twice on Sunday...

That one look…that goddamn smile - pregnant with emotion and empathy - THAT look is what acting is all about to me. And in all Jack's movies - even the really shitty ones, there is usually a moment where you get at least a glimpse of one of those looks and you realize WHY the man is fucking amazing. It is what he imparts in those seconds where he wins me over every time.


MP

I'm glad someone else likes the smile.

 

[Siren]

Derya

 

[Svedish_Chef]

Re: Any day of the week and twice on Sunday...

There are a LOT of actors and actresses who, to me, always seem to be playing the same character. Christopher Walken, Ed Harris, Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Joe Pesci, Robert DeNiro (to a degree), Winona Ryder, Tom Cruise, etc. I used to think they were useless (well...okay, I still hate Winona and Tom) but then I realized...

Christopher Walken... gotta be kidding

 

[Whispersecret]

I think you're wrong about Kathy Bates. She played this wimpy housewife in "Fried Green Tomatoes" and a psycho fan in "Misery." I think she's versatile.

Brad Pitt plays the same basic character too. For a while so did Samuel L. Jackson. It was getting to where every movie he made he was the man who was wrongly accused, but who really had a heart of gold and enough integrity to sink a ship.

 

[Juspar Emvan]

It's called 'type casting' folks, and unless the actor/manager/agent makes a dedicated effort to stop it, it's really hard to break out of. If you had a role where you needed some young buck who had some emotional hang ups but could really be the best if he just fell in love and got over it. Who would be the first actor you called? What about a man wrongly accused . . . Get it?

The actors aren't at fault, it's just the spot they fall into.

 

[Madame Pandora]

Re: Re: Any day of the week and twice on Sunday...

Christopher Walken... gotta be kidding

Nope, Chefy, even Mr. Walken himself admits it freely. When he was on Inside the Actor's Studio, he confessed, (I am paraphrasing) "In Hollywood there is even what they call 'the Christopher Walken role.' I am a shoe-in for most of those."

Don't get me wrong. I love Christopher. ("You got me in a vendetta kinda mood...") And he has taken leaps (i.e., Sarah Plain and Tall)

Type casting sucks, but some of these people are making megabucks and are in demand. They have plenty of projects to choose from. I think they just become icons of themselves and have trouble shaking it.

The few I mentioned, I didn't mean to say they had NEVER taken different types of roles - I just mean they tend to drift to familiar territory often.

Again, I don't think it's the immersion into a different type of character, I think it's what the performer imparts to his/her audience. But, all art and artists are defined differently by each person.

Hell, Val Kilmber WAS Doc Holliday and Jim Morrison. But in those INCREDIBLY acted roles where he nailed the character, he didn't impart as much to me as Jack did with that smile in Terms of Endearment.

Just my opinion, though. Just me.

Really, I think the ideal is, of course, the perfect blend of both - an actor who drowns in his/her character and imparts their soul to their audience. No one has been able to top Benini in Life Is Beautiful since I was devastated to the soul with his performance. I've seen a great deal of his other work, and I think that movie was the ideal blending of both. Of course...I also think that movie was a masterpiece.

MP

 

[christo]

Walken is one of my favorite actors to just WATCH. See him in "King of New York", it's like the uber-Walken role. When they did the parody of him on the Simpsons, reading a book to a bunch of children, and they start backing away in terror, and the guy doing his voice says, "No, children...scootch closer...I'm not going to TELL you again, about the scootching...you, in the red, chop chop..."

I think almost all movie actors are typecast to ridiculous extremes. And they let it happen, because they're getting like $20 mil a movie, so why stretch it? Pacino plays the guy who screams a lot, Jim Carrey plays the guy who makes faces & overacts, Nicholson plays the guys who smirks.

I heard that the reason Nicholson keeps getting all these women (other than the money and fame) is that he's hung like Secretariat. Personally, I think it's the fame and money. Jack could have a dick like a Vienna sausage and still get truckloads of women. Damn, need to get me more money and some fame...

 

[Problem Child]

Chef, I gotta agree with Pandora...

...Christopher Walken definitely has a limited range, but the guy is SO fucking evil how can you not love him? Ever see The King of New York? The guy is an amoral animal, but his big goal throughout the movie is to build a children's hospital in the ghetto. Walken is at his best when his character has a little dark humor to him, such as when he play the soldier that carried the watch up his ass in Pulp Fiction.

I also agree with the mention of Val Kilmer. The guy was tremendous in Tombstone.

Now for some actors that do have range:
Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter to Remains of the Day)
Willem Dafoe
John Malkovitch
Kevin Spacey
Edward Norton
Sean Penn

just a few examples....

 

[Derya]

Actors with range?

Problem Child I agree with all those you noted....good array of choices. Now I will have to disagree with Whispersecret (personal opinions of course), but I think Brad Pitt has tremendous range. Now I happen to lust for him immensely, but his acting was good enough to make me despise him in Kalifornia and Too Young To Die. Seven Years in Tibet vs. Twelve Monkeys vs. Devil's Own...all very unique performances. Sometimes I think too it depends on how many of an actor's movies one has seen. See, I couldn't say I could really make comparisons on Nicholsan's performances because I haven't seen enough of his movies.

Other actors that come to mind who do have great range (my humble opinion of course)
DENZEL WASHINGTON
SALLY FIELD
DUSTIN HOFFMAN
MEL GIBSON
PAUL NEWMAN
WHOOPI GOLDBERG
SIGOURNEY WEAVER (I was totally surprised by her role in Galaxy Quest)
MICHAEL DOUGLAS
WILL PATTON
KEIFFER SUTHERLAND

Just a few thoughts there. There are so many movies; so little time.
http://megsplace.com/dolls/hatnature.gif

 

[CRaZy]

Have we mentioned Johnny Depp in the list of acting gods yet?

 

[insideShiraz]

I used to think the same thing, too...

But he plays the things that your favorite Tom Cruise won't dare...

 

[Whispersecret]

Derya, you're right. I haven't seen that many Pitt movies, but of the ones I have, he's always the guy with the attitude and the chip on his shoulder. However, the ads for The Mexican look funny, and I'll admit he looked like he could do comedy, which is damned hard I hear. I'll reserve final judgement for later. (Plus, he does nothing for me sexually. Now, as MP can attest, Alan Richtman (sp?) is hot and versatile (Die Hard vs. Sense and Sensibility)