Jack Nicholson names the greatest actor of all time: “My favourite film actor or actress”
Jack Nicholson is one of the most revered actors of all time, becoming an integral member of the Hollywood elite after critically acclaimed performances in The Shining, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Chinatown. Whether it be his work with Stanley Kubrick, Michaelangelo Antonioni or Martin Scorsese, the actor is inseparable from the New Hollywood movement and the films that whipped the world into a creative frenzy, startled by the daring voices of the filmmakers and performers who pushed the limitations of the medium to create bold and uncompromising art.
However, while he seems to be the kind of actor who is in a league of his own, Nicholson still finds inspiration from the other greats and once named his favourite actor of all time.
Imitation is famously the highest form of flattery, and many artists have honed their own craft by studying the work of others they admire. While Christopher Nolan is at the top of his game, his style of filmmaking would not be possible had it not been for the influence of filmmakers like Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg. The likes of Luca Guadagnino would not exist without Eric Rohmer, and Kelly Reichardt perhaps might not be making the kind of films she loves without the pioneering footsteps of Chantal Akerman.
In the case of Nicholson, while he was operating on his own unique level and mostly preferred to improve his craft by looking inwards instead of outwards, he couldn’t help but be inspired by the work of Bette Davis.
Davis is one of the ultimate old Hollywood movie stars, starring in historically and culturally important films like All About Eve, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane and Death on the Nile. During a time in which the roles for women were extremely limited, Davis found fame through her ability to play complex and unconventional female characters, breaking boundaries at a time when women were typically pegged down into one box or stereotype. It is perhaps this very quality that Nicholson took inspiration from, imitating her chameleon-esque ability to pull the rug out from under you and shift into an unsuspecting role.
When describing this, Nicholson said, “When I started out in this business, I took a lot of the conventions of the moment and went dead against them. I’ve always been a smart, calculating person. And one of the things I really believed was what Bette Davis, my favourite film actor or actress, said: ‘You play the same part over and over again, otherwise they will not know who you are. And that’s how you get to be a movie star’”.
It’s an interesting piece of advice and one that is slightly contradictory yet completely sensical when looking at Nicholson’s work. While each of his characters feels completely different in scope, they each carry the same darkness and slightly erratic nature. In films like Five Easy Pieces and The Passenger, the actor plays men who are lost and disillusioned by life, drifting through an aimless existence in their search for meaning and fulfilment.
In The Shining and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nicholson plays men who are plagued by madness and insanity. While all of them exist in very different worlds, it is through this general character that he forged his reputation and became a star, something that might not have progressed the way it did if it hadn’t been for Davis’ wise words.
