Jack Nicholson names his favourite superhero of all time
There are few actors you would put ahead of Jack Nicholson when talking about the greatest movie stars of all time. Starring in such classic movies as Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Dennis Hopper’s and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Nicholson has proved himself time and time again, so much so that he rubs shoulders with the best actors ever to grace the silver screen, including Robert De Niro, Daniel Day-Lewis and Marlon Brando.
Nominated for 12 Oscars throughout his career, Nicholson took home three statuettes over the years, winning for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1976, Terms of Endearment in 1984 and As Good as It Gets in 1997. Still, the actor isn’t only known for his critically acclaimed roles, lending his talents to a number of Hollywood favourites, including Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! and Anger Management with Adam Sandler.
No Hollywood role was bigger for Nicholson than when he played the caped crusader’s biggest adversary in Burton’s 1989 comic book movie Batman. Appearing beside the likes of Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger and Billy Dee Williams, Nicholson played the Joker, fully dedicating himself to the role that has since been made famous by the late Heath Ledger, who won an Oscar for playing the same character in 2008’s Dark Knight.
Although you wouldn’t put superhero movies and Jack Nicholson together, the actor has exclaimed his fondness for such flicks, stating: “I was a comic book fan in that era, and the Joker was my favourite,” whilst reflecting on his role in the 1989 film.
“No one had worked a mask in the movies in a very long time, and of all characters to whom these ideas might apply just academically, the Joker is one of them,” Nicholson added, “I didn’t want this to go through the normal, ‘let’s brighten it up for the kids’…to this day I always took this performance more seriously than probably anybody in the world”.
Speaking about his role in the movie, Nicholson added: “You know I was as entertained as almost the rest of the audience by what he did elsewhere that I wasn’t involved in. He caught the spirit. It’s that balance of Grand Guignol and understanding the difference between being ‘really bad’ and being ‘really bad’, you know what I mean, we hit the right flavour. They were totally unprepared for the level of the success”.
Although Nicholson’s Joker hasn’t gone down as the greatest cinematic version of the character, with this prize going to Heath Ledger, his depiction is far from being the worst. Indeed, the very worst Joker was Jared Leto’s depiction, with the Oscar-winner appearing as the sinister clown in 2016’s Suicide Squad.
Speaking about Nicholson’s role in the 1989 project, director Tim Burton stated: “I mean, before I got involved with the project, people were talking about Jack Nicholson. So the great thing about Jack is he can fulfil everybody’s expectation and still go way beyond that”.
