The one role Jack Nicholson was furious he couldn’t reprise with a “genius” director
People are quick to label filmmakers as geniuses, leaving actors to be left in the shadows as mere iconic ‘figures’ and ‘celebrities’ when their talent is undoubtedly worth a lot more. Don’t get me wrong, I consider the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola utter masters of their craft, but let’s give some credit to actors like Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Jack Nicholson too.
Some icons in cinema can stand the test of time, and Nicholson is undoubtedly one of them. He has not only worked with some legends, but he has also defined many aspects of the cinematic landscape. Nicholson’s resume is one absolutely full to the brim with legendary movies.
Nicholson, who came to the industry in the 1960s, would make a name for himself in the following decade, appearing in the Roman Polanski movie Chinatown in 1974, Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger in 1975, and the Best Picture-winning Miloš Forman flick One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the very same year. Finishing the decade with four Best Actor nominations and one win, Nicholson was very much an actor at the top of his game.
This was by no means the end of the actor’s supremacy, however, starting the 1980s in style by starring in the Kubrick horror classic The Shining with Shelley Duvall. Three years later, Nicholson won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the James L. Brooks movie Terms of Endearment before he took his skills to mainstream Hollywood for the superhero flick Batman, directed by the gothic auteur Tim Burton.
Taking on the role of the Joker in Burton’s Batman, Nicholson inspired audiences to imagine the possibilities of a whole DC Universe on the big screen, where viewers could see the caped crusader take on his whole roster of enemies.
It was for this reason that Nicholson was peeved that he was never asked back to reprise his villainous Batman role, even going so far as to tell the media that he would never watch Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight upon its release in 2008. “I’m furious. I’m furious,” Nicholson told MTV in 2007 regarding the upcoming release of the Batman movie, explaining: “They never asked me about a sequel with the Joker. I know how to do that! Nobody ever asked me”.
Voicing his frustration, he adds: “Not asking me how to do the sequel is that kind of thing. Maybe it’s not a mistake. Maybe it was the right thing, but to be candid, I’m furious”. A little bitter about his lack of involvement, Nicholson says of The Dark Knight: “I’m not inclined to watch it because of what I said. But if it’s a good movie”.
Dreaming of Nicholson as part of Nolan’s epic movie is the stuff of salivating cinematic dreams. Nicholson’s weird and villainous portrayal changed the entire comic book movie style. To see him work with Nolan in the extension of his inspiration would have been something truly magnetic. But the truth is, Nicholson only really wanted to work with his original director.
Going one step further, the actor even criticises past interpretations of the Batman universe, taking aim at the likes of Joel Schumacher and Christopher Nolan. “I don’t think they ever really captured Tim Burton’s spirit [since he stopped being involved],” he told the publication, adding: “They kind of drove the franchise into the ground. Tim Burton’s a genius. He had the right take on it. That’s why I did the movie. I did the movie based on a single conversation with him”.
Many of Burton’s best movies came in the 1990s, making Edward Scissorhands in 1990, Ed Wood in 1994 and Sleepy Hollow in 1999. Aside from the gothic tone that was present throughout each of these movies, film star Johnny Depp was also a permanent fixture of each release, receiving much praise from critics as he steadily grew into an influential figure in the contemporary industry.
