Editor’s Be aware: This story was initially revealed on Dec. 8, 2017. It has been up to date to mirror latest occasions.
From “these go to 11” to “I am going to have what she’s having,” Rob Reiner’s films are a dependable supply of immediately quotable film traces. Should you needed to choose the 5 most well-known phrases in his filmography, although, they might most likely be: “You possibly can’t deal with the reality.” Jack Nicholson uttered that immortal sentence — penned by Aaron Sorkin — within the Oscar-nominated courtroom drama A Few Good Males, which premiered in theaters 30 years in the past, on Dec. 9, 1992.
Taking part in esteemed navy officer Col. Nathan Jessup, Nicholson threw these phrases again within the face of prosecuting U.S. Navy lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) for having the temerity to badger Jessup concerning the mysterious circumstances surrounding the demise of one of many Marines on his navy base. Written in classic high-volley Sorkin trend, the sequence nonetheless crackles with electrical energy three a long time later. Small surprise that it has since been spoofed in all the pieces from The Simpsons to sales-rep coaching movies.
As a lot pleasure as we soak up dropping a great “you may’t deal with the reality” reference from time to time, that is nothing in contrast with how a lot Nicholson loved saying that exact line on set. In a 2017 dialog with Reiner, the director remembered his star — who acquired the tenth of his 12 Oscar nominations for A Few Good Males — fortunately performing the scene again and again solely of his personal volition.
“Earlier than we began taking pictures, I requested Jack if he needed me to shoot his angles first or Cruise’s response photographs first in order that he’d be off-camera,” Reiner explains, including that Nicholson initially requested the off-camera possibility in order that he’d have time to rehearse his supply.
Because it turned out, although, the actor couldn’t resist delivering a camera-ready efficiency on each off-camera take. “Each time we did the scene, Jack did it completely,” Reiner says, laughing. “After a few takes, I mentioned, ‘Jack, possibly you need to save just a little bit for once we’ve bought the digicam on you.’ And he replied, ‘Rob, you do not perceive — I like to act.'”
If Reiner was involved that Nicholson wasn’t saving the perfect stuff for final, The Shining star proved in any other case when it was lastly his flip within the highlight. “When the digicam got here round to him, he did the very same efficiency that he gave off-camera. And it was nice each time.”
Reiner noticed one other aspect of Nicholson — the screenwriter aspect — when the duo reunited 15 years after A Few Good Males for 2007’s The Bucket Record, a mild geriatric comedy about two males (Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) lastly becoming in all of the issues they’ve needed to do as they confront the tip of their lives. In his pre-fame Hollywood days, Nicholson alternated appearing jobs with writing gigs on such ’60s B-movies as Flight to Fury and the Monkees cult basic Head, and he introduced that early expertise to Reiner’s set.
“Each single morning, I might go to Jack’s trailer, and no matter scene we have been engaged on that day, we might go over it and make it higher,” Reiner recalled. “That was a giant kick for me, working with him to enhance the scene for the day. We did not do this as a lot on A Few Good Males as a result of Aaron Sorkin wrote an unimaginable screenplay. However Jack can be a author — he’s written a bunch of screenplays.”
Reiner could not have identified this on the time, however The Bucket Record additionally proved to be Nicholson’s final star flip. Three years later, in 2010, he performed a supporting position reverse Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, and Paul Rudd in James L. Brooks’s How Do You Know, and since then Nicholson has been on an prolonged hiatus from the silver display. For a time, the actor was connected to headline a remake of the Oscar-nominated 2016 German comedy Toni Erdmann, written by Women duo Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner and co-starring Kristen Wiig.
Reiner, for one, will n ever cease rooting for a late-career comeback from Nicholson. “I hope he returns. He is one of many nice American movie actors of all time.” We can deal with that reality.
A Few Good Males is accessible to buy on most VOD providers, together with Amazon.
