Very few Hollywood actors are as decorated as Jack Nicholson. Nicholson is one-third of an exclusive group of male actors to win three Academy Awards and one of only two to receive a nomination for an Academy Award for acting in films made in every decade starting in the 1960s all the way through to the 2000s. But, as it turns out, working with the iconic actor might not be as easy as it would seem, as Tim Burton recently revealed.
In an interview with Empire, Tim Burton disclosed that he could hardly understand the words coming out of Nicholson’s mouth on the set of the 1989 DC film Batman, in which the 85-year-old actor played the psychotic villain, the Joker.
Jack has a very abstract way of speaking. So he would say things to me and I’d go, ‘Yeah, I get it,’ and then I’d go to someone, ‘What the f*ck was he just talking about?’ So there was this weird communication: non-linear, non-connective…But it was very clear to me. I felt like we had a good sort of caveman-style communication.
Regardless of the communication difficulties, Burton was quick to praise Nicholson for the support he gave him, since Burton was rather green in the film industry at that point in time.
[Nicholson] protected me and nurtured me, kept me going, by just not getting too overwhelmed with the whole thing. I felt really supported by him in a very deep way. I was young and dealing with a big studio, and he just quietly gave me the confidence to do what I needed to do. And him being a voice of support had a lot of resonance with the studio. It got me through the whole thing. It gave me strength.
The comic book film went on to become a box-office success as both critics and audiences praised Nicholson’s performance and Burton’s direction. The film earned a little over $400 million with Nicholson earning a percentage of the box office gross, which many estimate is around $60 million to $90 million.
Jack’s co-star, Michael Keaton, also approved of the quality and aura Nicholson brought to the set, saying:
The only thing that happened when I did the first Batman was, I was very nervous and self-conscious about being with Jack, because he’s so strong on film.
Since then, Burton has gone on to direct several more highly acclaimed films and TV shows, the most recent being Netflix’s popular coming-of-age supernatural comedy horror series, Wednesday.
Speaking of Wednesday, the trending series recently surpassed a billion viewing hours and set the record for the biggest-ever opening week for an English show on Netflix, a record that had previously been set by Stranger Things Season 4 last year. However, Amazon’s acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), the studio behind the hit TV series, in a deal worth $8.5 billion, has led to speculation that the second season of the series might make its premiere on Prime Video.
