The role Jack Nicholson refused to come out of retirement for: “I went back inside”
Daniel Day-Lewis would be the first person to tell you that the word ‘retirement’ doesn’t mean shit in the acting business, and plenty of others have proven it true, but unless something drastic changes, Jack Nicholson will never appear in another movie again.
If he really wanted to make a return to the silver screen, he would have done it by now. The three-time Academy Award winner never officially announced that he was washing his hands of Hollywood, but seeing as he hasn’t been seen in a feature since 2012, it’s safe to assume he isn’t coming back.
Not even Tom Cruise could change his mind, with the diminutive daredevil trying to coax him back onto set with a co-starring role in the action comedy El Presidente, but he was repeatedly rebuffed. James L Brooks thinks he could do it if he tried hard enough, and he’s got a better chance than most after helming Terms of Endearment, As Good As It Gets, and the star’s flop farewell, How Do You Know.
He was briefly attached to play the title role in an English-language remake of Toni Erdmann in 2017, but the project quickly fell by the wayside. The legend is content to spend his free time doing whatever the hell he wants, and he’s entitled to, since his legacy as one of cinema’s all-time great performers had been secured by the end of the 1970s, and he still kept going for another 30 years.
If there was anything that could be called the least likely thing to lure Nicholson out of exile, then a ten-episode web series hailing from a stand-up comedian would be pretty high up the list. His indiscretions hadn’t been made public by then, but they weren’t far off when Louis CK’s Horace and Pete premiered on his website in January 2016.
Created, written, directed by, and starring the soon-to-be disgraced comic, Alan Alda, was a scene-stealing delight as the foul-mouthed and bigoted Uncle Pete. However, as CK shared during an appearance on WTF with Marc Maron, he initially had his sights set even higher when casting the part.
His first port of call was Joe Pesci, who turned him down. Not to be dissuaded, he thought he could tempt one of the best ever to dust off his acting chops for a supporting gig in an online-only series. Shockingly enough, Nicholson had a valid explanation for why he wasn’t interested: “You know what I did today?” he asked CK after declining. “I went out to the tree in my yard, and I sat under it, and I read a book. And when I was done, I went back inside.”
Nicholson would rather do nothing than do something that didn’t stir his creative juices, and after Christopher Walken became the third Oscar-winning legend to rebuff his advances, the fourth time proved to be the charm when Alda stepped in. How Do You Know isn’t very good, but if Nicholson had agreed, and his final contribution to the performing arts was in a show from Louis CK, of all people, that would have been much worse.
