The Hollywood star that made Jack Nicholson feel “practically immobilised” in his presence
People would probably expect that Jack Nicholson never gets nervous. By now, the actor sits right at the top of the food chain as one of cinema’s most revered and respected faces. He’s starred in his fair share of blockbusters and depicted some iconic characters. But still, the film star is just as much of a movie fan as the rest of us. Meeting one actor, in particular, left him utterly starstruck.
Nicholson’s career, however, has been littered with huge names. His path into Hollywood came about after a lucky break with two countercultural icons, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda. Nicholson impressed them first as a writer when they starred in his screenplay, The Trip. They say that reputation is everything, and Nicholson’s good reputation quickly earned him his breakout role as Hopper and Fonda went on to cast him in Easy Rider.
From then on, Nicholson has worked with the biggest names around. His is a career to be marvelled at, and one that so many young actors will look up to and admire. He worked with Stanley Kubrick on The Shining and with Tim Burton on Batman. He’s starred in a whole host of cult classic flicks like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and The Who’s Tommy.
But no experience or person has ever left him quite as awestruck as when he found himself starring alongside Marlon Brando, a man Nicholson calls “the patron saint”.
After finding further success with One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the actor had well-established himself as one of the key players in the next generation of talent. That’s when he found himself cast in The Missouri Breaks, a Western flick, alongside the king of the generation prior.
“I remember waking up one morning halfway through the movie, and I couldn’t move because I thought: ‘Wait a minute! I’m in a movie with Marlon Brando, the patron saint,”‘ he remembered to The Guardian. “I was practically immobilised by it.”
It’s easy to see why. Brando is one of the most well-known and influential actors in Hollywood history. Even for people who might have never seen one of his films, he’s a kind of mythical figure as his name is globally known. But beyond being hyper-famous, Brando was a major player in moving Hollywood from the old golden age into a new and exciting era. With films like A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront, he helped studios begin to engage with the countercultural scene by playing complex, dramatic roles with a distinctly more cinematic edge than the male leads that had come before. Alongside James Dean, Brando brought about a different kind of actor with a clear, rebellious edge.
For Nicholson, that was incredibly inspiring. His own career has been just as dynamic, following Brando’s lead by playing complex, dramatic roles that span from moving, emotional performances into dark and twisted characters.
Upon Brando’s death in 2004, Nicholson wrote, “This man has been my idol all of my professional life, and I don’t think I’m alone in that.” He summed up the actor’s impact on both himself and cinema as a whole by declaring, “The impact of movies is enormous, and his impact in the movies was bigger than anybody else’s—ever. Mr. Brando will be there forever—that’s all there is to it.”
