How “overpraise” made Jack Nicholson vulnerable

In an interview with Martin Torgoff, Nicholson lamented: “I've been so lucky as an actor for so long that I felt overrated. Well, I said that about two films, and they got on my nerves for five years in a row. (…) People started to look at me differently and thought, 'Yeah, that damn guy is overrated. Let's send him to hell!' And they did.”

On one hand, you could argue that with any star status, especially when you're mentioned in the same breath as some of the biggest stars of all time, there will always be critics. Nicholson has the most Oscar nominations of any male actor with 12, and took home three of them. It goes without saying that there were probably one or two people who didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about.

Even some of his biggest admirers have not shied away from criticizing the legendary actor. Director Tim Burton reported his difficulties in understanding Nicholson during filming. Batman Nevertheless, he highly praises the trust he placed in the young director and says Nicholson's support helped him get through the production.

Given some of the larger-than-life characters Nicholson portrayed throughout his career, including the Joker, it's easy to see how this could be misconstrued as over-the-top acting. But a big personality brings big results. Rob Reiner learned this when he directed him A question of honour; in an interview for Jeremy Kagan's book Close-up of the directorReiner describes what it was like working with Nicholson.

He added: “[Jack] knows what he's doing and he gives it his all every time! And that says to a lot of other actors, 'Oooooh, I've got to step up my game here because this guy is coming to play! So I can't hold back; I've got to go after him.' He sets the tone.”

Obviously, Nicholson's opinion of himself is much more modest than that of his fellow actors. To me, any criticism of Nicholson seems to be based on the idea that he comes up with the same slapstick in most of his performances. But when your slapstick is as good as his, it's much easier to let it slide.

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