WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.299 Imagine building an entire, like, legendary career 00:00:03.299 --> 00:00:06.339 around hiding in plain sight. For Jack Nicholson, 00:00:06.740 --> 00:00:08.759 wearing sunglasses indoors wasn't a defensive 00:00:08.759 --> 00:00:11.000 move to block out the world or, you know, just 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.919 to nurse a hangover. Right, right. It was a carefully 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:17.219 calculated invitation to look closer. He puts 00:00:17.219 --> 00:00:20.059 on those signature dark shades and suddenly he 00:00:20.059 --> 00:00:23.300 isn't hiding at all. He's performing. The sunglasses 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:25.559 essentially are the character. It is a brilliant 00:00:25.559 --> 00:00:28.640 paradox, honestly. By covering his eyes, he forces 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:31.760 you to focus on the famous grin, the arched eyebrow, 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:34.539 the entire physical attitude he projects. Oh, 00:00:34.619 --> 00:00:37.320 absolutely. It is a way of creating a distinct 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:40.100 boundary while simultaneously demanding your 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:42.460 absolute attention. And that deliberate paradox 00:00:42.460 --> 00:00:45.119 is exactly what we are getting into today. Welcome 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:48.229 to this deep dive. Today we have a massive comprehensive 00:00:48.229 --> 00:00:51.250 biographical profile of Jack Nicholson, arguably 00:00:51.250 --> 00:00:53.490 one of the most vital actors of the 20th century. 00:00:53.649 --> 00:00:56.490 Without a doubt. And our mission for you, the 00:00:56.490 --> 00:00:59.469 listener, is to really unpack how he built the 00:00:59.469 --> 00:01:02.850 ultimate Hollywood antihero brand. Because when 00:01:02.850 --> 00:01:05.930 you look at these sources, you see this masterful, 00:01:06.109 --> 00:01:08.989 almost unbelievable blurring of the line between 00:01:08.989 --> 00:01:12.090 his seemingly chaotic, impulsive real life and 00:01:12.090 --> 00:01:15.230 his meticulously calculated acting craft. Yeah, 00:01:15.310 --> 00:01:17.150 that distinction between the man and the myth 00:01:17.150 --> 00:01:20.250 is where the real story lives. Because to understand 00:01:20.250 --> 00:01:22.689 Nicholson, we have to look past the surface level 00:01:22.689 --> 00:01:25.019 trivia. Right, the stuff everyone thinks they 00:01:25.019 --> 00:01:28.060 know. Exactly. What makes him endlessly fascinating 00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:30.340 isn't just what characters he played on screen, 00:01:30.659 --> 00:01:33.659 it's why he remains such a massive cultural touchstone. 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:36.680 He is the lens through which audiences have come 00:01:36.680 --> 00:01:39.019 to understand the rubble archetype over the last 00:01:39.019 --> 00:01:41.579 50 years. Okay, let's unpack this because before 00:01:41.579 --> 00:01:43.560 he ever stepped on a movie set to play these 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:46.680 complex, unpredictable guys, his own life started 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:49.120 with a foundation that is genuinely mind -boggling. 00:01:49.239 --> 00:01:51.239 It really is. I mean, I read the first few pages 00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:53.140 of this biography and thought I was reading movie 00:01:53.140 --> 00:01:56.939 script. It genuinely defies fiction. Let's look 00:01:56.939 --> 00:01:59.319 at the facts as they were recorded. Nicholson 00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:02.739 was born in 1937 in New Jersey. His biological 00:02:02.739 --> 00:02:05.819 mother June was a showgirl and she was only 17 00:02:05.819 --> 00:02:08.159 years old and unmarried when she had him. Which 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:11.560 in the 1930s was a huge deal. A massive social 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:15.120 stigma. So her parents focused. Jack's grandparents 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:17.740 made a radical decision. They agreed to raise 00:02:17.740 --> 00:02:20.680 him as their own son, keeping his true parentage 00:02:20.780 --> 00:02:23.479 a total airtight secret. Wait, I need to stop 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:25.939 you right there. A total secret. Like, for how 00:02:25.939 --> 00:02:28.280 long? For almost four decades. Wow. Yeah, he 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:30.120 grew up fundamentally believing his grandparents 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:32.560 were his mother and father, which meant he believed 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:35.280 his actual biological mother, June, was his older 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:37.740 sister. That is just wow. And he believed his 00:02:37.740 --> 00:02:40.580 Aunt Lorraine was also his sister. He built his 00:02:40.580 --> 00:02:42.939 entire formative identity on a family dynamic 00:02:42.939 --> 00:02:45.939 that was an absolute fabrication. That is just 00:02:45.939 --> 00:02:47.900 staggering. I want you, the listener, to just 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:50.099 imagine that for a second. Imagine living your 00:02:50.099 --> 00:02:52.699 entire life establishing who you are in the world 00:02:52.699 --> 00:02:55.300 only to find out your family tree is a lie. It's 00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:57.960 heavy. And the way he found out, it wasn't some 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:00.979 quiet, private deathbed confession from a relative? 00:03:01.180 --> 00:03:03.860 No, not at all. It was deeply public and entirely 00:03:03.860 --> 00:03:07.139 out of his control. It was 1974. Nicholson is 00:03:07.139 --> 00:03:10.080 37 years old. He's already an established, famous 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:12.830 movie star at this point. Right. Researchers 00:03:12.830 --> 00:03:15.689 for Time magazine actually uncovered the truth 00:03:15.689 --> 00:03:18.689 while digging into his past for a cover story. 00:03:19.310 --> 00:03:20.810 They are the ones who call him up and drop the 00:03:20.810 --> 00:03:23.509 bombshell. It is exactly like the central plot 00:03:23.509 --> 00:03:26.710 twist out of his own film Chinatown, which ironically 00:03:26.710 --> 00:03:29.229 came out around the exact same time. Yes, the 00:03:29.229 --> 00:03:31.110 whole she's my sister, she's my daughter thing. 00:03:31.289 --> 00:03:33.729 How does someone's reality not completely fracture 00:03:33.729 --> 00:03:35.650 in that moment? I just don't understand how he 00:03:35.650 --> 00:03:37.710 shrugged that off and kept working. What was 00:03:37.710 --> 00:03:40.300 fascinating here is his reaction. Because you 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:42.960 would fully expect a person's world to shatter. 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:46.060 By the time Time magazine told him, both June, 00:03:46.099 --> 00:03:48.419 who he thought was his sister, and his grandmother 00:03:48.419 --> 00:03:50.580 had already passed away. Oh, so he couldn't even 00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:52.500 ask them about it. Right, he couldn't confront 00:03:52.500 --> 00:03:55.840 them to ask why. But his reaction was remarkably 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:59.240 clinical. He later said it was a, quote, pretty 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:01.759 dramatic event, but it wasn't what I'd called 00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:05.270 traumatizing. He added, I was pretty well psychologically 00:04:05.270 --> 00:04:07.969 formed. He just absorbed a reality -altering 00:04:07.969 --> 00:04:10.629 earthquake like it was like a minor speed bump 00:04:10.629 --> 00:04:13.509 in his week. Exactly. And that highlights his 00:04:13.509 --> 00:04:16.389 profound psychological resilience. If we connect 00:04:16.389 --> 00:04:18.709 this to the bigger picture, this is a man who 00:04:18.709 --> 00:04:20.810 discovered that the most fundamental traditional 00:04:20.810 --> 00:04:23.649 structures of his life were an illusion. Right. 00:04:23.750 --> 00:04:26.370 He learned how to navigate chaos without breaking. 00:04:26.810 --> 00:04:29.629 That exact psychological makeup perfectly positioned 00:04:29.629 --> 00:04:32.490 him to become the cinematic face of the counterculture 00:04:32.490 --> 00:04:35.550 movement. He already knew, intimately, that the 00:04:35.550 --> 00:04:37.850 rules society takes for granted are entirely 00:04:37.850 --> 00:04:39.910 constructed. Yeah, that resilience was definitely 00:04:39.910 --> 00:04:42.069 put to the test because despite the later fame, 00:04:42.370 --> 00:04:44.759 he did not become a superstar overnight. The 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:47.939 biography details a truly grueling decade where 00:04:47.939 --> 00:04:49.920 he was just scraping by in Hollywood. It was 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:52.060 a long road. He originally came to California 00:04:52.060 --> 00:04:55.899 in 1950, when he was just 13, to visit his sister, 00:04:56.220 --> 00:04:59.240 June. Eventually he gets a job as an office worker 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:02.540 at the MGM Cartoon Studio, working for the legendary 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:05.620 animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. And 00:05:05.620 --> 00:05:07.500 they actually saw a lot of potential in him. 00:05:07.779 --> 00:05:10.220 They offered him an entry -level job as an animator. 00:05:10.459 --> 00:05:14.379 which was a secure, highly coveted path in that 00:05:14.379 --> 00:05:16.819 era. But he turned it down because he was just 00:05:16.819 --> 00:05:18.879 dead set on acting, though the acting roles he 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:21.480 was getting were far from glamorous. Very far. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.259 Throughout the late 50s and most of the 60s, 00:05:24.259 --> 00:05:26.620 he was stuck working with producer Roger Corman 00:05:26.620 --> 00:05:29.560 on these ultra -low -budget B -movies. We're 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:32.040 talking quick, cheap exploitation films like 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:34.740 The Crybaby Killer and playing a masochistic 00:05:34.740 --> 00:05:36.839 dental patient in The Little Shop of Horrors. 00:05:37.300 --> 00:05:39.579 His acting career was stalling out so badly. 00:05:39.930 --> 00:05:41.870 that he essentially gave up on being a leading 00:05:41.870 --> 00:05:44.069 man. He pivoted to working behind the camera, 00:05:44.290 --> 00:05:46.449 writing screenplays just to stay employed in 00:05:46.449 --> 00:05:48.129 the industry. Which a lot of people don't know 00:05:48.129 --> 00:05:51.790 about him. Yeah. He wrote the 1967 counterculture 00:05:51.790 --> 00:05:54.370 film, The Trip, starring Peter Fonda and Dennis 00:05:54.370 --> 00:05:57.050 Hopper. And he co -wrote a surreal avant -garde 00:05:57.050 --> 00:05:59.990 movie called Head for the Monkeys. By the late 00:05:59.990 --> 00:06:02.529 60s, he was heavily resigned to a future as a 00:06:02.529 --> 00:06:05.110 writer and director, not a movie star. But then 00:06:05.110 --> 00:06:08.569 comes 1969 and a film called Easy Rider. Peter 00:06:08.569 --> 00:06:11.149 Fonda and Dennis Hopper are making this gritty, 00:06:11.250 --> 00:06:14.069 low -budget road trip movie about two bikers 00:06:14.069 --> 00:06:16.990 riding across America. A classic. The role of 00:06:16.990 --> 00:06:19.949 the alcoholic, disillusioned ACLU lawyer George 00:06:19.949 --> 00:06:22.089 Hanson was originally written specifically for 00:06:22.089 --> 00:06:25.189 the actor Rip Torn. But Torn gets into a massive 00:06:25.189 --> 00:06:27.470 argument with Hopper and completely walks away 00:06:27.470 --> 00:06:29.689 from the project. Right, leaving this huge gap. 00:06:29.810 --> 00:06:32.470 Exactly. A void opens up, Nicholson steps in, 00:06:32.509 --> 00:06:34.879 and suddenly he gets his first Oscar nomination. 00:06:35.339 --> 00:06:38.480 The movie cost about $400 ,000 to make and grossed 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:41.100 $60 million. Critics constantly refer to this 00:06:41.100 --> 00:06:43.860 as his massive lucky break. But I have to push 00:06:43.860 --> 00:06:45.839 back on the idea that this was just pure luck. 00:06:46.060 --> 00:06:48.079 Oh, I agree completely. It wasn't just right 00:06:48.079 --> 00:06:50.500 place, right time. If you look at his time with 00:06:50.500 --> 00:06:53.420 Roger Corman in his years writing scripts, he 00:06:53.420 --> 00:06:56.360 was essentially in a decade long boot camp. Exactly. 00:06:56.439 --> 00:06:59.079 He spent 10 years writing, directing, acting 00:06:59.079 --> 00:07:02.180 in B movies and observing the emerging counterculture 00:07:02.180 --> 00:07:04.600 figures in Los Angeles. He didn't just stumble 00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:06.879 onto the set of Easy Rider and wing it. No, not 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:09.839 at all. That decade gave him the exact observational 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:12.120 tools and the narrative chops he needed to perfectly 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:15.040 capture the zeitgeist of the late 60s. He was 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:17.139 entirely ready for the moment. And if we look 00:07:17.139 --> 00:07:19.240 at the cultural context of American cinema at 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:21.579 that time, Nicholson didn't just play a lawyer. 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:24.319 He stepped into a massive cultural void. Right. 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:27.120 For decades. audiences had been fed classic, 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:30.620 morally pristine heroes. Even the older anti 00:07:30.620 --> 00:07:33.100 -heroes like Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:35.660 operated on a very strict, understandable moral 00:07:35.660 --> 00:07:40.040 code. But the late 1960s was an era of assassinations, 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:43.379 the Vietnam War, and immense social upheaval. 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:45.720 The pristine hero just didn't make sense anymore. 00:07:46.120 --> 00:07:48.970 Precisely. Biographer John Parker notes that 00:07:48.970 --> 00:07:51.370 Nicholson took the baton from those classic anti 00:07:51.370 --> 00:07:54.670 -heroes and updated the archetype for a generation 00:07:54.670 --> 00:07:57.350 that was rejecting the establishment. He became 00:07:57.350 --> 00:07:59.730 the overnight number one hero of the counterculture 00:07:59.730 --> 00:08:02.689 movement because his brand of cynical relaxed 00:08:02.689 --> 00:08:05.410 rebellion was exactly the antidote audiences 00:08:05.410 --> 00:08:08.089 were craving. And once he established that brand 00:08:08.089 --> 00:08:10.949 as this unpredictable anti -establishment rebel, 00:08:11.069 --> 00:08:14.149 he spent the entire 1970s proving that he wasn't 00:08:14.149 --> 00:08:16.870 just some charismatic guy playing himself. He 00:08:16.870 --> 00:08:19.009 set out to prove he was actually a rigorous, 00:08:19.250 --> 00:08:22.509 world -class craftsman. The 1970s was an absolute 00:08:22.509 --> 00:08:24.769 golden run for him. It's the decade where he 00:08:24.769 --> 00:08:26.970 defined the parameters of modern screen acting. 00:08:27.410 --> 00:08:29.269 Absolutely. Let's look at the mechanics of his 00:08:29.269 --> 00:08:32.230 acting in five easy pieces from 1970. He plays 00:08:32.230 --> 00:08:34.830 an oil rig worker named Bobby Dupea. There's 00:08:34.830 --> 00:08:37.350 this incredibly famous scene in a diner where 00:08:37.350 --> 00:08:40.009 he argues with a rigid waitress over a side order 00:08:40.009 --> 00:08:42.169 of wheat toast. Oh, the toast scene, yeah. It's 00:08:42.169 --> 00:08:44.389 explosive, it's hilarious, and the sources note 00:08:44.389 --> 00:08:46.750 it was partly improvised. It feels so raw that 00:08:46.750 --> 00:08:49.049 audiences just assumed Jack Nicholson was actually 00:08:49.049 --> 00:08:51.289 that angry and rebellious in real life. But the 00:08:51.289 --> 00:08:54.070 reality of his process was quite different. His 00:08:54.070 --> 00:08:56.570 co -star in that film, Karen Black, pointed out 00:08:56.570 --> 00:08:58.789 something vital. She noted that the character 00:08:58.789 --> 00:09:02.429 of Bobby was deeply subdued, a man who was alienated, 00:09:02.590 --> 00:09:05.129 closed off, and had given up on love. Right. 00:09:05.289 --> 00:09:07.429 But she said the real Jack Nicholson was the 00:09:07.429 --> 00:09:10.730 polar opposite. He was highly curious, vibrant. 00:09:11.129 --> 00:09:14.190 always reading, always ready for a new intellectual 00:09:14.190 --> 00:09:17.509 idea. He wasn't playing himself at all. He was 00:09:17.509 --> 00:09:20.269 meticulously constructing a persona. Here's where 00:09:20.269 --> 00:09:22.269 it gets really interesting because Nicholson 00:09:22.269 --> 00:09:24.370 himself explicitly talked about this friction 00:09:24.370 --> 00:09:27.350 between perception and reality. Everyone assumed 00:09:27.350 --> 00:09:29.570 he was a wild natural talent who just showed 00:09:29.570 --> 00:09:31.850 up on set and acted crazy. Yeah. But Nicholson 00:09:31.850 --> 00:09:34.629 claimed, I'm still fooling them. He said, I consider 00:09:34.629 --> 00:09:36.370 it an accomplishment because there's probably 00:09:36.370 --> 00:09:38.789 no one who understands method acting better academically 00:09:38.789 --> 00:09:41.389 than I do or actually uses it more in his work. 00:09:41.629 --> 00:09:44.190 That word academically is the key to his entire 00:09:44.190 --> 00:09:46.950 genius. Traditional method acting, developed 00:09:46.950 --> 00:09:50.009 from Stanislavski's system, is often about raw, 00:09:50.309 --> 00:09:52.909 emotional recall actors dragging up their own 00:09:52.909 --> 00:09:56.330 past traumas to produce real tears or real anger 00:09:56.330 --> 00:09:59.049 on stage. Which can be very messy. Very messy. 00:09:59.570 --> 00:10:01.789 But Nicholson approached it like a psychological 00:10:01.789 --> 00:10:04.779 mathematician. He understood the formulas of 00:10:04.779 --> 00:10:07.519 human emotions so well that he could deploy them 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:10.679 with clinical precision. making a highly calculated 00:10:10.679 --> 00:10:13.059 choice look completely spontaneous. It reminds 00:10:13.059 --> 00:10:15.779 me of a master close -up magician. The magician 00:10:15.779 --> 00:10:17.960 desperately wants you to believe the car trick 00:10:17.960 --> 00:10:20.960 is real, spontaneous magic happening right there 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:22.460 in the room. Right. They don't want you to see 00:10:22.460 --> 00:10:24.679 the work. Exactly. They don't want you to see 00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:27.720 the thousands of hours of practice, tedious sleight 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:30.139 of hand they did in front of a mirror. Nicholson 00:10:30.139 --> 00:10:32.779 wanted us to believe the rebel was real, not 00:10:32.779 --> 00:10:35.919 the result of intense academic study. That is 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:38.669 a very apt analogy. And we see that academic 00:10:38.669 --> 00:10:41.629 preparation explode in his first Oscar win for 00:10:41.629 --> 00:10:44.789 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Playing 00:10:44.789 --> 00:10:46.990 Randall McMurphy, he strikes this incredibly 00:10:46.990 --> 00:10:49.409 delicate balance. It's an amazing performance. 00:10:49.570 --> 00:10:52.330 He brings this anti -authoritarian, smart -ass 00:10:52.330 --> 00:10:55.330 demeanor, but he pairs it with a genuine, deeply 00:10:55.330 --> 00:10:57.269 felt empathy for the other patients in the mental 00:10:57.269 --> 00:11:00.639 hospital. The director, Milo Forman, actually 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:03.039 trusted his underlying structure so much that 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:04.820 he let Nicholson improvise most of the group 00:11:04.820 --> 00:11:07.740 therapy sequences. Really? Just let him go? Yeah, 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:09.879 allowing him to drive the rhythm of the entire 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:13.000 ensemble cast. But if we want to talk about extreme 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:15.000 preparation, we have to talk about The Shining 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.240 in 1980, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen 00:11:19.240 --> 00:11:21.720 King's novel. A production legendary for being 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:25.389 psychologically grueling. Kubrick was an infamous 00:11:25.389 --> 00:11:28.149 perfectionist who demanded absolute control. 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.340 Right. And Nicholson matched that intensity. 00:11:30.500 --> 00:11:32.720 For the famous scene where his character is talking 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:36.600 to the ghostly bartender, Nicholson shot it 36 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:40.340 times. Wow. 36 takes of the exact same dialogue. 00:11:40.919 --> 00:11:43.220 And to prepare for the role of the unhinged writer 00:11:43.220 --> 00:11:45.799 Jack Torrance, Nicholson didn't just wing it. 00:11:46.039 --> 00:11:49.100 He actively drew on his own painful background 00:11:49.100 --> 00:11:51.960 as a frustrated screenwriter in the 60s. Tapping 00:11:51.960 --> 00:11:54.919 into that real frustration. Yes. And he intentionally 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:57.759 slept very short hours for weeks just to keep 00:11:57.610 --> 00:12:01.330 his body in a constant, raw, physically agitated 00:12:01.330 --> 00:12:03.950 state. Oh, and that terrifying, iconic, here's 00:12:03.950 --> 00:12:05.809 Johnny line as he chops through the door. Totally 00:12:05.809 --> 00:12:07.549 improvised. Totally improvised by Nicholson in 00:12:07.549 --> 00:12:09.690 the moment, but born out of months of that academic 00:12:09.690 --> 00:12:12.429 preparation. Which goes to show how deeply he 00:12:12.429 --> 00:12:14.549 internalized a character's psychology before 00:12:14.549 --> 00:12:17.909 letting go. He famously idolized Marlon Brando. 00:12:18.590 --> 00:12:21.549 In his youth, working at a movie theater, Nicholson 00:12:21.549 --> 00:12:25.029 watched Brando in Modder. on the waterfront 40 00:12:25.029 --> 00:12:28.289 times. 40 times? That's dedication. He absorbed 00:12:28.289 --> 00:12:30.950 that intense, immersive style of acting, but 00:12:30.950 --> 00:12:32.970 filtered it through his own hyper -intelligent, 00:12:33.110 --> 00:12:36.129 calculated lens. He achieved what Kubrick himself 00:12:36.129 --> 00:12:39.679 described as the X factor, magic. But as we move 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.279 into the 1980s and 1990s, things take a very 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:44.759 distinct shift. It feels like the line between 00:12:44.759 --> 00:12:47.379 Jack the actor and Jack the character completely 00:12:47.379 --> 00:12:49.360 dissolves. It really does. The persona we've 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:51.019 been talking about, the chaotic rebel, begins 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:54.059 to fully consume the man. Off screen, his real 00:12:54.059 --> 00:12:56.139 life becomes just as theatrical and dangerous 00:12:56.139 --> 00:12:58.879 as his movies. Yes. The calculated boundary he 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:01.159 maintained early in his career started to fray. 00:13:01.500 --> 00:13:04.100 You see this total blur between reality and fiction. 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:07.440 On one hand, he is achieving untouchable professional 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:11.330 dominance. Exactly. In 1989, he plays the Joker 00:13:11.330 --> 00:13:14.169 in Tim Burton's Batman. He called the performance 00:13:14.169 --> 00:13:16.730 pop art, and he was sharp enough to negotiate 00:13:16.730 --> 00:13:19.549 a legendary, unprecedented contract where he 00:13:19.549 --> 00:13:21.809 took a massive cut of the box office gross. It's 00:13:21.809 --> 00:13:24.009 estimated to be between 60 and 90 million dollars. 00:13:24.210 --> 00:13:27.110 Just astronomical money. And he continues to 00:13:27.110 --> 00:13:29.470 dominate the Oscars, roaring as the untouchable 00:13:29.470 --> 00:13:31.789 Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men, and then delivering 00:13:31.789 --> 00:13:35.509 a highly clinical, researched portrayal of OCD 00:13:35.509 --> 00:13:38.629 in As Good As It Gets. But at the exact same 00:13:38.629 --> 00:13:41.049 time he's negotiating these brilliant, calculating 00:13:41.049 --> 00:13:43.769 career moves, his personal life is taking on 00:13:43.769 --> 00:13:46.970 the chaotic, violent hues of a comic book villain. 00:13:47.090 --> 00:13:49.669 It becomes a total whirlwind. He fathered six 00:13:49.669 --> 00:13:52.309 children by five different women. His house on 00:13:52.309 --> 00:13:54.450 Mulholland Drive became infamous for its wild 00:13:54.450 --> 00:13:58.019 atmosphere. In 1977, the director Roman Polanski 00:13:58.019 --> 00:14:00.139 was actually arrested at Nicholson's home for 00:14:00.139 --> 00:14:02.559 the sexual assault of a 13 -year -old girl, Samantha 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:05.379 Geimer. A very dark chapter. Yeah. Now Nicholson 00:14:05.379 --> 00:14:07.440 wasn't in town, but his girlfriend at the time, 00:14:07.580 --> 00:14:09.500 Angelica Houston, had dropped by unannounced 00:14:09.500 --> 00:14:11.820 and was there when Polanski and Geimer came out 00:14:11.820 --> 00:14:14.860 of another room. It was an incredibly dark cloud 00:14:14.860 --> 00:14:17.600 over his orbit. And his own personal behavior 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:20.759 could be highly erratic, bordering on the absurd. 00:14:21.419 --> 00:14:24.500 In 1994, there was a major road rage incident. 00:14:24.620 --> 00:14:27.500 A man named Robert Blank accused Nicholson of 00:14:27.500 --> 00:14:29.419 cutting him off in traffic at a red light in 00:14:29.419 --> 00:14:32.419 Los Angeles. OK, pretty standard L .A. traffic 00:14:32.419 --> 00:14:34.899 stuff so far. Right. But Nicholson's response 00:14:34.899 --> 00:14:37.879 wasn't to yell. He got out of his car wielding 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:41.460 a golf club and repeatedly bashed the roof and 00:14:41.460 --> 00:14:45.059 windshield of Blank's Mercedes Benz. Just casual, 00:14:45.539 --> 00:14:47.919 terrifying golf club rage in the middle of traffic. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:50.139 And Nicholson eventually apologized and they 00:14:50.139 --> 00:14:52.139 reached a settlement, which reportedly included 00:14:52.139 --> 00:14:54.509 a five hundred thousand dollar check for Nicholson 00:14:54.509 --> 00:14:57.230 just to make the criminal charges go away. And 00:14:57.230 --> 00:14:59.309 his celebrity lifestyle was equally larger than 00:14:59.309 --> 00:15:01.909 life. He lived right next door to his idol Marlon 00:15:01.909 --> 00:15:04.769 Brando on a stretch of road people actually nicknamed 00:15:04.769 --> 00:15:07.570 Bad Boy Drive. The fitting name. When Brando 00:15:07.570 --> 00:15:10.720 died Nicholson bought Brando's derelict, mold 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:14.299 -infested bungalow for $6 .1 million. He didn't 00:15:14.299 --> 00:15:16.259 flip it, he just demolished it, reportedly out 00:15:16.259 --> 00:15:18.419 of respect for Brando's legacy, because he didn't 00:15:18.419 --> 00:15:20.700 want anyone else living in it. Add to that his 00:15:20.700 --> 00:15:23.240 legendary status as a permanent fixture at Los 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:25.759 Angeles Lakers games. Sitting courtside in his 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:28.179 sunglasses, aggressively yelling at referees, 00:15:28.259 --> 00:15:30.419 he was almost ejected from a playoff game in 00:15:30.419 --> 00:15:39.669 2003. paints a picture of a guy whose worldview 00:15:39.669 --> 00:15:42.809 was just as unorthodox as his characters. He 00:15:42.809 --> 00:15:45.710 identified as a quote, lifelong Irish Democrat 00:15:45.710 --> 00:15:50.009 and famously met Fidel Castro in 1998, referring 00:15:50.009 --> 00:15:52.889 to the dictator as a genius of survival. But 00:15:52.889 --> 00:15:55.350 his views on social issues defied neat party 00:15:55.350 --> 00:15:57.970 lines entirely and were deeply tied to his own 00:15:57.970 --> 00:16:01.009 unique origin story. Yes. The biography notes 00:16:01.009 --> 00:16:03.309 a very specific nuance regarding his stance on 00:16:03.309 --> 00:16:05.769 abortion. He stated he was generally pro -choice 00:16:05.769 --> 00:16:08.070 politically, but personally against abortion. 00:16:08.230 --> 00:16:10.629 Right. And his reasoning wasn't based on religion, 00:16:11.029 --> 00:16:12.850 but directly tied to the circumstances of his 00:16:12.850 --> 00:16:15.009 own birth. He argued that as an illegitimate 00:16:15.009 --> 00:16:18.250 child to a 17 year old girl in the 1930s, if 00:16:18.250 --> 00:16:20.590 his mother had made a different choice, he literally 00:16:20.590 --> 00:16:22.570 wouldn't exist. That makes total sense given 00:16:22.570 --> 00:16:26.409 his background. Exactly. He expressed total profound 00:16:26.409 --> 00:16:28.610 gratitude for the strength of the women in his 00:16:28.610 --> 00:16:31.190 family who made the difficult decision to keep 00:16:31.190 --> 00:16:34.830 him. It's a completely unfiltered, highly individualistic 00:16:34.830 --> 00:16:37.230 way of looking at the world. So what does this 00:16:37.230 --> 00:16:40.350 all mean? I want to ask you, the listener. Why 00:16:40.350 --> 00:16:42.649 do we let certain celebrities get away with this 00:16:42.649 --> 00:16:45.309 kind of behavior? A guy who smashes cars with 00:16:45.309 --> 00:16:48.210 golf clubs, refuses to settle down, operates 00:16:48.210 --> 00:16:51.429 by his own bizarre moral compass, and yet remains 00:16:51.429 --> 00:16:54.250 almost universally beloved by the public. I think 00:16:54.250 --> 00:16:56.850 the answer lies in synthesizing everything we've 00:16:56.850 --> 00:16:59.129 discussed about his persona. The film critic 00:16:59.129 --> 00:17:01.690 David Thompson framed it beautifully. He suggested 00:17:01.690 --> 00:17:04.069 that Nicholson is like a character in an ongoing, 00:17:04.329 --> 00:17:06.690 sprawling novel of our times. Ooh, I like that. 00:17:06.809 --> 00:17:08.970 Yeah, audiences forgive his recklessness because 00:17:08.970 --> 00:17:11.430 he serves as a necessary cultural touchstone. 00:17:11.869 --> 00:17:13.849 When we watch Nicholson, whether he's terrorizing 00:17:13.849 --> 00:17:16.509 a hospital ward on screen or sitting courtside 00:17:16.509 --> 00:17:19.150 in his sunglasses, we are looking into a mirror 00:17:19.150 --> 00:17:22.670 of total unapologetic freedom. He acts out the 00:17:22.670 --> 00:17:24.970 impulsive, chaotic eye that the rest of us suppress 00:17:24.970 --> 00:17:27.710 to function in polite society. We've gone on 00:17:27.710 --> 00:17:29.940 quite a journey today. We started with a boy 00:17:29.940 --> 00:17:32.900 in New Jersey whose entire family structure was 00:17:32.900 --> 00:17:35.779 a literal secret, a plot twist that would break 00:17:35.779 --> 00:17:38.240 most people. Absolutely. We watched him grind 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:41.539 through a decade of B -movie failures utilizing 00:17:41.539 --> 00:17:44.200 his sharp intellect to write scripts just to 00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:47.460 stay afloat. And then we saw him meticulously 00:17:47.460 --> 00:17:50.599 architect the most iconic anti -hero persona 00:17:50.599 --> 00:17:54.240 in Hollywood history, hiding an intensely academic 00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:57.539 method acting brain behind a devilish grin and 00:17:57.539 --> 00:17:59.900 a pair of dark shades. But before we wrap up, 00:17:59.980 --> 00:18:02.279 I want to introduce one final lingering detail 00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:04.339 from the biography that adds an entirely new 00:18:04.339 --> 00:18:06.890 shade of meaning to his legacy. OK, what is it? 00:18:07.109 --> 00:18:09.710 Despite all his staggering success, the Oscars, 00:18:09.910 --> 00:18:11.950 the 90 million dollar paychecks of the legendary 00:18:11.950 --> 00:18:15.009 cultural status, Nicholson stated in 1995 that 00:18:15.009 --> 00:18:16.630 the greatest, most heartbreaking frustration 00:18:16.630 --> 00:18:18.990 of his career was an unfulfilled passion project. 00:18:19.690 --> 00:18:21.430 For decades, he desperately wanted to make a 00:18:21.430 --> 00:18:23.710 sweeping historical film about Napoleon Bonaparte. 00:18:23.890 --> 00:18:27.650 Wait, Napoleon, the French Emperor? Yes. He actually 00:18:27.650 --> 00:18:30.490 personally owned the film rights to a book called 00:18:30.490 --> 00:18:33.490 The Murder of Napoleon. He tried for years, pouring 00:18:33.490 --> 00:18:35.150 his own money into getting it off the ground, 00:18:35.390 --> 00:18:37.349 but he just couldn't secure the massive studio 00:18:37.349 --> 00:18:40.170 funding required. That's wild. He told a critic 00:18:40.170 --> 00:18:42.150 that he considered Napoleon to be one of the 00:18:42.150 --> 00:18:44.849 greatest, yet most profoundly misunderstood men 00:18:44.849 --> 00:18:48.549 in all of human history. He said it was maddening 00:18:48.549 --> 00:18:50.970 to have all this power in Hollywood and still 00:18:50.970 --> 00:18:53.009 not be able to make that one specific movie. 00:18:53.410 --> 00:18:56.349 Wow. I want to leave you, the listener, to mull 00:18:56.349 --> 00:18:59.630 that over. Why was the ultimate Hollywood rebel, 00:18:59.670 --> 00:19:02.490 the poster child for the 1960s anti -establishment 00:19:02.490 --> 00:19:04.670 counterculture, so deeply obsessed with playing 00:19:04.670 --> 00:19:07.670 the ultimate European emperor? Nicholson always 00:19:07.670 --> 00:19:09.809 said he liked to play cusp characters, people 00:19:09.809 --> 00:19:11.990 who existed on the edge of two different eras. 00:19:12.069 --> 00:19:14.470 Perhaps behind the sunglasses, behind the courtside 00:19:14.470 --> 00:19:16.650 seats and the chaotic headlines, the man who 00:19:16.650 --> 00:19:19.670 spent his life playing these cynical anti -heroes 00:19:19.670 --> 00:19:21.970 actually saw himself as a misunderstood emperor 00:19:21.970 --> 00:19:25.009 of his own making. A man who conquered his industry 00:19:25.009 --> 00:19:28.539 through sheer intellectual force, but still felt 00:19:28.539 --> 00:19:31.660 the need to hide his true self behind the shades. 00:19:32.420 --> 00:19:34.660 This raises an important question about how much 00:19:34.660 --> 00:19:37.880 of the rebel was a brilliantly executed performance 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:40.640 and how much of the Emperor was who he truly 00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:43.380 was in the dark. It completely changes how you 00:19:43.380 --> 00:19:45.440 look at him. The next time you see a photo of 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:47.599 Jack Nicholson with those dark sunglasses indoors, 00:19:47.940 --> 00:19:49.700 you have to wonder what he's really looking at 00:19:49.700 --> 00:19:51.339 and what he's carefully making sure you don't 00:19:51.339 --> 00:19:54.119 see. Thank you for joining us on this deep dive. 00:19:54.359 --> 00:19:56.099 We warmly invite you to keep questioning the 00:19:56.099 --> 00:19:58.279 narratives you're handed and keep exploring the 00:19:58.279 --> 00:20:00.339 fascinating complicated layers behind the world's 00:20:00.339 --> 00:20:02.240 most enduring cultural icons.