1974. It was the year when Hollywood was on its way to creating masterpieces, and the year in which Jack Nicholson starred in Roman Polanski’s iconic film Chinatown.
Starring alongside veteran actress Faye Dunaway, Nicholson (who would later find fame with The Shining) had a complicated relationship with his co-star and director Polanski’s workplace behavior added more fuel to the fire.
Faye Dunaway Was Nicknamed ‘The Dreaded Dunaway’
Roman Polanski was not a gentle director. Of the many controversies that happened on the sets of Chinatown, one seemed to hit hard for veteran actress Faye Dunaway during the shooting of the film.
Dunaway recently starred in a documentary about her career in Hollywood called Faye. The documentary narrated Dunaway’s walk through the alleys of Hollywood to the big leagues.
A sneak peek into the documentary by People revealed that Faye Dunaway had a lot to endure especially while she was filming Roman Polanski’s Chinatown.
We had difficult times, he and I, but he’s a great film director. Roman the terror. But he thought I was a terror also, I’m sure. We had a pretty complicated time. Jack helped, though. Nicholson being there made all the difference.
In one harrowing incident, Roman Polanski was frustrated because a piece of hair kept falling on Dunaway’s face while filming. As per the reports, Polanski got up from his chair, and yanked the hair out of Dunaway’s head!
After that hair incident, Jack [Nicholson] nicknamed me ‘Dread’…. ‘The Dreaded Dunaway’ was his name for me. He still, to this day, calls me ‘Dread.’ And I love it.
However, this was just one of the numerous incidents that took place while shooting Chinatown. On the other hand, Jack Nicholson became good friends with Faye Dunaway but their on-screen roles were quite the opposite.
From giving fake slaps to slapping Faye Dunaway for real, Jack Nicholson had to resort to physical violence upon the orders of Roman Polanski and Dunaway!
When Jack Nicholson Slapped Faye Dunaway
During a confrontational scene, Jack Nicholson’s character of J.J. ‘Jake’ Gittes has to slap Dunaway’s Evelyn Mulwray. Although the co-stars attempted the take with the fake slaps, it wasn’t looking good.
As per the documentary, Faye Dunaway pulled Nicholson aside and said that he would have to slap her for real. The result was an authentic scene that was later used in the 1974 film.
I said, finally, to Jack, ‘You’re going to have to slap me. Just go ahead and do it. He said, ‘You sure, Dread?’ And so I said, ‘Yeah.’ And so we did it again, and it worked.
All of that physical and mental stress was eventually worth it since Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway were nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor/Actress in a Leading Role category!
Chinatown received a rating of 8.1/10 on IMDB and a whopping 98% on Rotten Tomatoes in present times. Starring Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, the film is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
