Veteran star Jack Nicholson has redefined the art of acting in Hollywood. With a wide variety of challenging roles in his impressive filmography, the Oscar winner has proved that he is the yardstick for any aspiring actor in terms of how to approach a performance on screen. The Shining actor has also been known to involve himself deeply in the filmmaking process.
The quintessential perfectionist, Nicholson has vouched for the way his roles have been perceived or edited in films, and has carried this passion to directing as well. In his directorial debut in Drive, He Said, the actor had a heated confrontation with the British censors over one particular scene in the film which was originally going to be cut out.
Jack Nicholson Almost Exchanged Blows For This One Line To Be Included
When you believe in something, you go to any lengths to ensure that your vision materializes. This has been the go-to mantra for Jack Nicholson throughout his illustrious career. The actor whose performances are the reference points for so many aspiring stars in Hollywood, has also been a passionate student of cinema for decades.
Over the years, The Departed actor has proved that his characters, big or small, are extremely important and pivotal to a film’s success, and therefore, are worth fighting for. In 1971, Nicholson entered into filmmaking with his debut directorial Drive, He Said which opened at the Cannes Film Festival.
This drama which dealt with a college basketball player and a professor’s wife who are involved in an affair, did not find favor with audiences and critics. The movie was also panned for its bold s*xual content, profanity, and scenes involving full frontal n*dity which expectedly got the censors sitting up to take notice.
But Nicholson who believed strongly that many of these scenes required explicit filmmaking, was adamant that the film should not be subjected to unfair cuts. The actor got into a heated altercation with none other than the secretary of the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) regarding one particular scene in the film.
The segment involved the climax of a sizzling s*x scene in which the censor board was going to cut one line where one of the characters say ‘I’m coming’. This was deemed to be too provocative for audiences. The As Good As It Gets actor though, was having none of it.
In an interview in the 70s that appeared in BFI, Nicholson elaborated on what went down and why he felt that this particular line in the scene was very important despite the censor board feeling that he was overreacting.
“I believe he thought I was crazy to argue over, in his view, such a small capitulation, but for me, this line is the crystallization of what the whole film is about: the battles of the characters, and their varying abilities, to release this s*xual power. Olive is the freest of the
The veteran went on to add that this scene of intense love-making also went a long way into defining the key personalities of the character that was integral to the plot. Therefore, editing that one line meant that this nuance would have completely been lost. This incident is just one of the aspects that proves Nicholson’s undying passion for cinema.
Jack Nicholson On Why Small Films Need To Be Supported
There is no denying the fact that Jack Nicholson is one of the biggest superstars of his generation. Along with his dynamic charisma, the actor has proved that there is no substitute for performance, and has brought some of the most memorable characters to life on the big screen.
Naturally, the Oscar-winning actor has been part of multiple blockbusters and many mainstream films at the box office. But this fame has not deterred him from accepting off-beat roles in small independent films that have given him a chance to play some interesting characters while tackling some alternative themes.
In 1972, Nicholson starred in The King Of Marvin Gardens in which he played an ordinary radio host who gets into the dangerous world of money-making. The film which was made on a modest budget, had a limited theater release and received glowing responses from critics for its execution and visual style.
But the fact remained that this was not a mainstream commercial film that would draw audiences to theaters. Therefore, it would not bring in the money at the box office. This was also the reason why Nicholson believed that someone like him must back projects of this nature. In an interview that appeared in BFI, he said,
“On a panel I was part of recently we had a lot of questions about the actor’s social responsibility. Now I think that the actor’s responsibility, more than supporting a candidate or something, is to support a film like The King of Marvin Gardens, which otherwise simply wouldn’t get made.”
The Shining star revealed that if actors like him were able to educate people about alternative themes and narratives that deserved recognition, it would go a long way in ensuring that films like these would find audiences across the world.
Drive, He Said can be rented on Apple TV.
