The time Jack Nicholson got high on set when weed was still illegal: “You can do that?”
From terrorising the Overlook Hotel to fronting some questionable rom-coms, Jack Nicholson has led one hell of a life.
Nicholson has been responsible for some of the finest film characters of all time and has done more on screen than most actors can only imagine in their wildest dreams. If you thought his fictional lives were wild, however, you should see what he got up to when the cameras weren’t rolling.
Nicholson was the nucleus of Hollywood’s party scene in his prime. His house on Mulholland Drive was a veritable den of vice, filled with the best and brightest talent doing all sorts of things that would make a priest blush. The triple Oscar winner was no stranger to partaking in illegal substances. He supposedly once offered cocaine to Princess Margaret, and there is a rumour that he kept a stash of the white stuff by his bedside so he could apply it to his penis during sex. You don’t need me to tell you not to try this at home.
Another of the great man’s socially unacceptable habits was weed. Nicholson has been an avid fan of marijuana for decades, most notably on the set of Easy Rider. His character, George Hanson, is a square lawyer who gets introduced to the devil’s lettuce by his rabble-rousing clients. In real life, the actor couldn’t have been more different to his character. Easy Rider famously used real drugs in its scenes. Nicholson claimed to have smoked 155 joints while making the iconic motorcycle movie.
According to a former co-star, this wasn’t the only time the screen legend lit up on a film set. Noah Wyle, who appeared alongside Nicholson in Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men, spoke to Moviefone about some of his workplace habits.
“All I ever heard him say out loud was, ‘Anybody mind if I have a left-handed cigarette?’” he recalled. “He then lit up a joint right there on the soundstage. This is in 1992, back when you weren’t allowed to smoke joints anywhere in California, let alone on a soundstage. I remember just going like, ‘Oh, you can do that?’”
Unfortunately, he couldn’t actually do that. Recreational marijuana wouldn’t become legal in California until 2016. Even medical use of the drug was restricted until 1996, when the state became the first in the country to approve it. However, if you thought this was going to stop Jack Nicholson, then you’re probably high yourself. This is a guy who smoked weed on camera years before the first notion of legalisation was even put forward. Just imagine what he was capable of when no one was watching.
California has always been a refuge for recreational drugs, and Hollywood even more so. Given that Nicholson was an active campaigner for the legalisation of marijuana, it makes sense that he was enjoying its benefits long before the ban was lifted. Although maybe what Wyle saw was just oregano… ten dollars worth of oregano. There’s a deep cut for you.
