Jack Nicholson Left Half of Hollywood A-Listers Stunned With 1 Simple Act While Filming Tom Cruise Movie
Actor Jack Nicholson starred alongside Tom Cruise and Demi Moore in 1992’s A Few Good Men directed by Rob Reiner. The legal drama movie is based on Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 play, which follows the story of a court martial of two U.S. Marines who were charged with the murder of a fellow marine and is considered to be one of the best legal drama movies.
The movie upon its premiere received positive reviews from the critics and the audience for its screenwriting, performances of the actors, direction, and theme. The movie went on to earn nominations at the Academy Awards including the category of Best Picture. But did you know Jack Nicholson surprised the entire set with his one simple act?
Jack Nicholson left everyone on the set of A Few Good Men speechless
On his appearance on The Chris Moyles Show, actor Kiefer Sutherland who portrayed the character of First Lieutenant Jonathan James Kendrick, USMC in 1992’s A Few Good Men alongside Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson shared an incident where Nicholson had left everyone speechless with his moving performance.
He shared,
“Jack Nicholson was scheduled to do the scene where he has that very famous line ‘You can’t handle the truth’ and it’s that the whole final courtroom sequence between him and Tom Cruise. Jack Nicholson is going to start on the coverage on his monologue, and all of his staff and literally all of the other actors on the movie, people that weren’t working that day came in to work and sat in the gallery to watch.”
Sutherland continued that Bruce Willis who was working on a different project across the way had also come in to watch Nicholson perform and noted that he was so brilliant in the first take but the director Rob Reiner told them to do one more shot. Kiefer mentioned that Nicholson’s second take was even better than the first and then the director told them to pack up.
Kiefer Sutherland said he for the first time witnessed two or three days of scheduled work just go out of the window and added that he has never seen an actor kind of command a room like that. The actor said that he was fortunate to watch Jack Nicholson perform.
Jack Nicholson says the open approach has kept his acting style fresh
In Vivian Kubrick’s Making The Shining documentary, Jack Nicholson says;
“When I come up against a director who has a concept that, maybe I don’t agree with, I’d be more prone to go with them than his own because he wants to be out of control as an actor. I want them to have the control otherwise his work becomes predictable and it’s no fun.”
The actor during an interview with The Daily Mail via Far Out Magazine shared that he does not like it when his character are treated differently. He said,
“I hate it. I don’t want to be treated like the Medusa and Lincoln Memorial. People have an idea of me, which is not the reality. I am an actor like every other actor.”
The director shared via Yahoo Entertainment that Jack Nicholson was not saving the best stuff for the last because the actor performed the exact same way when the camera came around to him compared to when the camera was not near to him.
A Few Good Men is available for VOD services.
