When Jack Nicholson rejected Rob Reiner’s direction
In A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson delivered one of his most famous lines when he yelled out, “You can’t handle the truth”. The 1992 film was directed by Rob Reiner and also starred Tom Cruise, Kevin Pollak, Demi Moore and Kevin Bacon, amongst many other star names.
The film is based on Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 play of the same name and tells of a military court trial where two United States Marines are charged with the murder of a fellow Marine. Much of the story concerns the details of how the lawyers prepare their cases to defend and prosecute the respective military men.
Kevin Pollak once opened up to Rich Eisen on a behind-the-scenes moment noting how Nicholson shot down Reiner when he tried to direct him. The reason is well understood for an actor like Pollak but perhaps not for a director. “Most actors hate line readings because, ‘Woah, are you saying not like that. That I should do it like you’re doing it?'” Pollak said. “It’s an unspoken agreement that directors should not give line readings.”
According to Pollak, Reiner is himself a great actor “who gets caught up in the emotion” of a scene, so to act it out is the only way he knows how to articulate his direction. He continued: “Jack Nicholson joins us to rehearse that soliloquy on the stand. We know what’s coming…we see Jack Nicholson act out the soliloquy on the stand. He is letter-perfect. He’s 92 per cent of what we’re going to see in the film. We’re waiting for him to finish, anticipating it”.
Pollak then explained that Reiner came along and gave his praises to Nicholson but couldn’t help but give him some pointers, delivered by, you guessed it, line reading.
“Rob is giving line readings to Jack, and he finishes acting it out because he can’t stop,” Pollak said. “Rob ends up doing the whole second half of the soliloquy, and Jack’s just staring at him the whole time”. Admittedly, Nicholson must have been a bit pissed that his director was perhaps implicitly suggesting that he could act the scene better himself, not knowing Reiner’s methods as Pollak and the other actors did.
Nicholson then gave a brilliant response, calmly stating, “I guess I’m not there yet,” to which everyone on set burst out laughing. Pollak then added: “That was a cool way of saying, ‘Thanks. I don’t remember asking what you thought’.” It’s fair to say that one should tell Jack Nicholson how to act, such is his immense talent, even if they are a passionate director like Reiner.
