Jack Nicholson loves SpongeBob SquarePants
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"MORE good times."
That's Jack Nicholson's famous motto, and everyone's heard about
the parties, the legions of female conquests and the unbridled fun with
his buddies. But what about his wild times with a certain yellow spongy
guy?
It's true.
Finding out that Jack Nicholson is a fan of SpongeBob SquarePants is a
bit like learning that Sir Laurence Olivier studied under Huckleberry
Hound. What would one of America's greatest - if not the greatest -
living actor be doing watching a cartoon?
But then, Nicholson has never been one to do the orthodox thing.
Peter Segal, who directed Nicholson in 2003's "Anger Management,"
says he was understandably intimidated working with someone as iconic
as Nicholson. Then one day on the set, he sat down next to the actor
and heard him humming a familiar tune.
"I thought, wait a minute. Are you f - - - - - g humming
SpongeBob'?" Segal says. "Nicholson said, 'Yes.' [singing] Who
lives in a pineapple under the sea?' I asked him how he knew that song,
and he said, 'I've got kids, too, and that's one of the only cartoons
I can stomach to watch.' That kind of made him an approachable human
being at that moment."
When Nicholson's working on your flick, you know you're going to get
some bizarre behavior on the set. But the difference between your
Lindsay Lohans and Jack is, the results end up on the screen - not the
gossip pages.
There's a method to Jack's madness - and it makes for some of cinema's
most unforgettable roles.
Take "The Departed," opening Friday. In it, Nicholson is Frank
Costello, a violent Boston mob boss whose organization has been
infiltrated by undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio). For
every minute he's onscreen, Nicholson's Costello oozes unstable menace,
inspiring a palpable sense of fear within the audience - not to mention
within the other actors.
And creating this dread among the cast, which forced them to
instinctively react as opposed to artificially act, required Nicholson
to get a little, uh, "creative."
Before one scene, in which Costello interrogates Costigan to figure out
if he's a rat, Nicholson reportedly told director Martin Scorsese, "I
don't think [DiCaprio] is scared enough of me. I have to be scarier."
So scary he got. Jocelyn-Wildenstein-in-the-morning scary.
"I came in the next day," DiCaprio recalls, "and Jack's hair was
all over the place. He was muttering to himself and the prop guy tipped
me off that he had a fire extinguisher, a bottle of whiskey, some
matches and a handgun somewhere.
So I sat down at the table not knowing what to expect, and he set the
table on fire after pouring whiskey all over the place and stuck a gun
in my face."
That scene turned out to be one of the most chilling in the movie.
"Jack really elevates everyone's game," says producer Harry Gittes,
who has known Nicholson for 40 years. "I've never seen anyone any
better than they are in ['The Departed'].
I really mean it. Jack's presence does this. It's like Joe DiMaggio is
all of a sudden on your team. It's big-time."
Unorthodox or not, intimidating or not, pulling a gun on his fellow
castmates or not, Nicholson's performance rarely fails to deliver. He's
built the kind of career that must make big-time pros like Anthony
Hopkins feel like they're just doing dinner theater. Jack has made some
60 movies and been nominated for 12 Oscars, more than any other male
actor. He's taken home three.
His success has a lot to do with his notoriously meticulous
preparation. According to those who've worked with him, few marquee
names spend as many hours thinking about and shaping a character as
Jack does. If we were him, we'd rather be in a hot tub at the Playboy
Mansion, but to each his own.
"One great thing that he does that I've never heard anyone else do is
that he reads the script every week from beginning to end," says
Nancy Meyers, writer/director of 2005's "Something's Gotta Give,"
in which Nicholson played a womanizer who falls for his young
girlfriend's mother. "Most people I feel, once they've shot a scene,
they throw out those pages never to be seen again. Jack reads it to
keep it fresh in his mind as a whole. He's always thinking about the
whole story and the bigger picture."
"I found his way of making the character his own incredibly
unique," director Segal says. No detail is too small for Jack to
obsess over. He decided what kind of hat Dr. Buddy Rydell should wear
in "Anger Management," and on "The
Departed" he spent hours with Scorsese figuring out all his
character's tics.
Those discussions evidently led Nicholson to conclude that his
character should unexpectedly brandish a rubber sex aid at Matt Damon
in one scene set inside a porno theater. "That was a great call I had
to make to the studio that night," says "The Departed" producer
Graham King.
"But Jack was right. It makes his character more out there.
Costello's lost it by that point."
But preparation would be nothing without Jack's oversize personality.
He's got the wit, the sunglasses and a smile you can see from outer
space. He's also, by all accounts, smart, magnetic and charming enough
to talk Janice Dickinson into bed. (Scratch that: Who isn't?) "He was
always cracking one-liners on the set," King says. "He would say,
'I better not see any Celtics hats around here.' "
And it's this natural charisma that helps him own every single movie
he's in - regardless of how much screen time he logs. "I love his big
moves, that he knows how to take over," Meyers says. "He knows how
to put every eye on the theater on him. He knows that a little flicker
of his eye will make the audience go crazy with excitement."
He doesn't even appear in most of "The Departed," yet crowds will
walk away feeling like it was Jack's movie.
"He's one of the few people in this business who, when he walks on
the set, all the oxygen gets sucked out of the room. There's no one
like him," Segal says.
"One of the great memories I have of making the film was the table
read. Everyone was mesmerized by Jack," says Rachael Horovitz,
producer on "About Schmidt."
You think Rob Schneider has that power?
"I remember once I was in a restaurant with my sister 20-some years
ago," Meyers says. "It was a tiny place. Jack walked in with a
friend, and they sat right next to us. My sister and I couldn't eat.
She was rummaging through her purse looking for something to calm her
down. It was so thrilling to be next to the Big Guy."
Nicholson has one other attribute that helps account for his success.
"He's very competitive," producer Gittes says.
"All actors are. You have to be to survive." Gittes recalls playing
softball with Nicholson some 40 years ago and cracking up as the actor
mercilessly heckled the opposition.
"I heard a story that there was this scene with a footrace between
him and Bruce Dern in 'The King of Marvin Gardens,' " Segal says.
"It was supposed to be at movie speed, where you're jogging sort of
fast. The camera always makes
you look faster. Jack wouldn't lose. He had to win.
"Similarly, he was determined to prove that he could stand toe-to-toe
with the physical comics," Segal adds. "He said he wanted to do a
pratfall [in 'Anger Management']. I wasn't sure where to put one, but
he found a place spontaneously.
He was helping Adam Sandler up off the ground, and suddenly Jack
flipped over backwards, ass over teakettle, and I almost shouted
'Cut!' because I thought he was hurt. But he got up, dusted himself
off, and I thought, 'Oh, there was the pratfall.' "
"Jack has not led a traditional life in any form. In any form,"
Gittes says. "I think it's been very helpful to him."
And to whomever sells Ray-Bans.
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK
Our favorite Nicholson moments (and they're not what you think)
"EASY RIDER", (1969)
Drunkard attorney George Hanson, along for the ride, takes up glass of
Jeam Beam: Here's to the first of the day, fellas! To old D.H.
Lawrence." He flaps one arm, chickenstyle.
"CHINATOWN", (1974)
As detective J.J. Gittes, Jack's approached by two men, one played by
Roman Polanski, who could use some lift shoes.
"ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST", (1975)
McMurphy, Jack's skicap-wearing insurgent, has countless memorable
moments in the asylum - but none so devastating as the post-lobotomy
scene in which he's escorted back to his bed, deadeyed and limp.
"THE SHINING", (1980)
Jack Torrance sidles up to the bar in the empty ballroom, then realizes
he has no cash. "Your money is no good here, Mr. Torrance," says
the ghostly bartender, pouring him a bourbon. I like you, Lloyd,"
says Jack with a wolfish grin. "Always have."
"BATMAN", (1989)
"Bob, gun," Jack's Joker commands one of his henchmen after a
plan is foiled. Bob hands the Joker a gun, and he blows the flunkie
away. "I'm gonna need some time alone, boys," he announces with
mock sadness.
"AS GOOD AS IT GETS", (1997)
By way of introduction to the obsessive-compulsive character Melvin
Udall: Jack opens the medicine cabinet in his pristine, orderly
bathroom; he takes out one of many new bars of soap, scrubs his hands
furiously, then throws it away.
"A FEW GOOD MEN", (1992)
Hard-nosed Col. Nathan Jessep attempts friendly banter with Tom
Cruise's attorney: "So, how's your dad, Danny?" "He passed
away seven years ago, sir," says Cruise. "Well," says Jessep.
"Don't I feel like the f - - - ing a - - hole?"
"ABOUT SCHMIDT", (2002)
Jack's widowed retiree, Warren Schmidt, finds renewed purpose in life
when he signs up to sponsor a (possibly nonexistent) starving child in
Africa; throughout the film he narrates letters, starting with, "Dear
Ndugu . . ."