When Jack Nicholson stormed off the set of ‘Chinatown’ in the nude
Film sets aren’t always conducive to smooth collaboration. Werner Herzog once said, “I would travel down to Hell and wrestle a film away from the devil if it was necessary”. It would seem that many movies have, indeed, endured that journey. One of which is the 1974 noir classic Chinatown.
Jack Nicholson has often been fabled for his fiery temper. In fact, the Mulholland Drive scene whereby Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux) smashes the windshield of a producer’s car with a golf club is said to be based on one of his escapades.
Back in 1994, Anger Management star Jack Nicholson was accused of doing the exact same. The Oscar-winning actor was charged with misdemeanour vandalism and assault for allegedly smashing the windshield of a car with a golf club because he believed the driver cut him off in traffic. Presumably, the most disturbing moment for the victims was when they realised that the man attacking their car happened to be one of the biggest names in cinema history.
This detail makes one thing very clear: you shouldn’t get on the bad side of Nicholson… and you certainly shouldn’t get between him and the Lakers. The condemnable director Roman Polanski found this out to his cost.
Nicholson had been waiting to do a scene for hours while tweaks were being made. During that time, his beloved Lakers had taken to the court. So, when Polanski tried to suddenly summon him, Nicholson refused to leave until the game had finished. As assistant director Howard Koch Jr recalled: “Roman says, ‘Where is Jack?’ I went back to Jack and he went, ‘Howie, it’s overtime. I’m not leaving now. Just tell Roman I’ve been waiting an hour-and-a-half. Let him wait for a few minutes’.“
So, Koch bravely went to relay this message. It didn’t go too well. “So Roman has a cow, and then the game goes into double overtime,“ he recalled. “We’re all basketball fans, so nobody’s upset except for Roman who could give a fuck about the Lakers. ‘Where is he?’ I said, ‘Roman, it’s double overtime.’ He’s like, ‘WHAT THE FUCK IS DOUBLE OVERTIME?!’”
In a furious rage, Polanski took matters into his own hands. “I grabbed a mop and ran inside Jack’s trailer to smash the TV,” Polanski once said. “But I didn’t have enough room and the damn thing wouldn’t break, so I grabbed the TV and tossed it out the trailer.” For some reason, Nicholson’s retort only half makes sense; he decided to storm off set, but as some form of unknown double retribution, he decided to remove all his clothes and leave completely naked.
