“It’s a wonder I’m alive”: the 1976 Jack Nicholson movie where everyone was “stoned out of our minds”
Seeing as this is Jack Nicholson in the 1970s that we’re talking about, the idea of the legendary actor being under the influence on set doesn’t exactly narrow things down.
After all, the ‘New Hollywood’ icon was one of the industry’s most infamous party animals, with sex, drugs, and alcohol making him one of the period’s definitive hedonists, and if anything, it’s remarkable that he also used that time to reiterate himself as one of his generation’s finest actors.
Nicholson was knocking out masterpieces like it was nothing throughout the decade, from Five Easy Pieces and Chinatown to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Last Detail, despite spending almost every waking minute where he wasn’t acting, either drinking, snorting, or shagging his way around town.
You know the three-time Academy Award winner must have been high as a kite for the duration of one production when those are his overriding memories, even though it was also the once-in-a-lifetime experience that saw him working with his inspiration, hero, and ultimately close friend, Marlon Brando.
1976’s The Missouri Breaks may not have lived up to expectations as the first and last pairing between two top-tier talents of different generations, but Nicholson had a blast. Not only because he got to spend so much time with Brando, but because there seemed to be an inordinate amount of cocaine around.
A decade later, on John Huston’s Prizzi’s Honor, sound mixer Dennis Maitland, who’d also worked on Arthur Penn’s western, told Nicholson that it was a pleasure to be working with him again, which would have been fine, had he remembered. “Did we work together before?” he asked him. “What film did we do together?”
When he was informed of the movie, he realised why it had slipped from his memory. “Missouri Breaks, Jesus Christ!” he suddenly recalled. “We were out of our minds on that film, holy shit! It’s a wonder I’m alive. There was so much drugs going on, we were stoned out of our minds!”
Maitland also discovered that the leopard hadn’t yet changed its spots, with Nicholson’s hilarious quick wit on display. The actor was getting changed at the time, and when he folded his trousers, an eighth of cocaine dropped out of his pocket. Without missing a beat, he looked Maitland right in the eye and deadpanned, “Haven’t worn these pants since Missouri Breaks.”
It wasn’t the most memorable film, although its reputation has grown over time, but Nicholson must have had fun making it, with his recollections based entirely on how wasted he was.
