Jack Nicholson and pal Morgan Freeman give a master’s clinic on acting and death

By Amy Asmuth

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 12/28/07 — Who would have ever thought that the 1954 Class Clown of Manasquan High would turn into one of the most recognized Oscar winners in the world?

Few people know more about the craft of acting than Jack Nicholson. But he had to start somewhere and he chose to pass some insights along to the readers of Hollywood Today. “My first acting teacher Jeff Corey said that your job is to provide a stimulating point of departure, this is what you must do in a theatrical experience,” Nicholson commented on the acting process itself.

Nicholson was there with another revered thespian, Morgan Freeman, to talk up their latest movie “The Bucket List.” But like any two guys into their work, the veterans soon started to talk shop.

“Acting educates you about life. You’re not going to take a test but if you are of medium interest and intelligence you are to learn about everything in life no matter what part it is, you go on learning,” Nicholson said. Freeman chimed in “The greatest part of the acting profession is the amount of reading you do and I don’t mean research, I mean scripts.”

Listening to Nicholson chat is like hearing John Madden announcing a football game. His colorful sentences don’t always make grammatical sense, but you know exactly what he means. “Acting is hopefully that everyday what you study, you’ll have an idea about what this is and what that is. And then your deepest yearning is to come in and be shocked out of your system about what actually occurs,” Nicholson said. You can add your own expletives and whisky-voiced Jack imitation.

“Eighty-five percent of whoever you play is you, who you are” Professor Jack told Hollywood Today. “It’s the fifteen percent that is the character that you have to find, isolate and act, so to speak.”

He added his years of acting experience count for a lot — but most of what he knows he learned from his earliest teachers. “I approach it from the same point of view as I did when I was in my 20s.”

When the pair of vets remembered they weren’t being paid by the studio to give an acting class that day, but promote a film, we could at least bend the conversation towards acting and death – after all, “Bucket List” is about two old men with very young hearts doing everything they want to do before they kick the bucket.

“I think what you are doing always in any acting situation is acting. You are not trying to live the character. If you are, you are going to get into deep trouble,” stated Freeman when asked what it was like creating a character who had to deal with his own mortality.

“I reject any thoughts of my own mortality,” he stated. “What’s to think about? I like the premise of the movie — it’s about living.”

The movie deals with the subject of death and how two strangers who did not know each other end up in the same hospital room together, faced with the same frightening situation – death. It’s a topic that every person on earth thinks about and the burning question has crossed everyone’s minds: “How will I handle it should it happen to me?”

Jack answers that with “These are interior private conversations that we all have with ourselves and that we haven’t really seen on film before. We’ve all been to a funeral and said, ‘how do I want my passing to be dealt with?’” This movie pretty much sums up the “high road” to deal with such a matter. Through love, adventure, and friendship two men deal with the delicate problem like a beautifully choreographed dance. It’s directed by Rob Reiner on a screenplay by Justin Zackham.

“It’s a good story in my opinion,” mused Jack. Along with Freeman audiences are given a wonderful spin on a positive and hopeful approach that takes the fear right out of the bleak and scary scenario.

Nicholson has been accused of playing himself in many of his films, but he shrugs it off. Yet these iconic thespians are very clear that once you reach a certain point in your career you become a brand that should not be imitated by another, even yourself.

“Anybody can be good once, twice if they’ve got some talent,” said two-time Oscar winner Nicholson. “But once you have to Un-Morgan the part or Un-Jack the part, that’s when you’re in the pro game,” he said. “When you can suspend who they think you are and re-involve them in a new story, this is really our job, in our body of work.”

“Did the movie stay with you?,” questions Jack right back at this questioner. That’s his test of whether or not he did his job. And yes, the movie did.