Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman Interview, The Bucket List

MoviesOnline recently sat down with Academy Award winners Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman to talk about their new comedy drama "The Bucket List,” a touching, no-holds-barred adventure directed by Rob Reiner that shows it’s never too late to live life to its fullest.

A long time ago, Carter Chambers’ (Morgan Freeman) freshman year philosophy professor suggested that his students compose a "bucket list,” a collection of all the things they wanted to do, see and experience in life before they kicked the bucket. But while Carter was still trying to define his private dreams and plans, reality intruded. Marriage, children, myriad responsibilities and, ultimately, a 46-year job as an auto mechanic gradually turned his concept of a bucket list into little more than a bittersweet memory of lost opportunities and a mental exercise he occasionally thought about to pass the time while working under the hood of a car.

Meanwhile, corporate billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) never saw a list without a bottom line. He was always too busy making money and building an empire to think about what his deeper needs might be beyond the next big acquisition or cup of gourmet coffee. Then life delivered an urgent and unexpected wake-up call to both of them and against doctor’s orders and all good sense, these two virtual strangers hit the road together for the adventure of a lifetime.

Jack Nicholson, one of the most honored actors of all time, has worked with many of the film industry’s most esteemed directors during his career, which has spanned five decades and encompassed more than 60 feature films. In 2002, Nicholson received his 12th Academy Award nomination for his performance in the title role of Alexander Payne’s "About Schmidt,” giving him the distinction of having earned the most Oscar nominations of any male actor. He has won the Academy Award three times: twice for Best Actor, for his work in Milos Forman’s "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and James L. Brooks’ "As Good As It Gets”; and one for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Brooks’ "Terms of Endearment.” Nicholson has also been Oscar-nominated for his performances in Rob Reiner’s "A Few Good Men,” Hector Babenco’s "Ironweed,” John Huston’s "Prizzi’s Honor,” Warren Beatty’s "Reds,” Roman Polanski’s "Chinatown,” Hal Ashby’s "The Last Detail,” Bob Rafelson’s "Five Easy Pieces” and Dennis Hopper’s "Easy Rider.”

Morgan Freeman won an Academy Award in 2005 for his supporting role in Clint Eastwood’s "Million Dollar Baby.” He is also the recipient of three additional Oscar nominations, the first in 1987 for his chilling performance as a homicidal pimp in the drama "Street Smart.” He earned his second Oscar nomination in 1989 for recreating his award-winning Broadway role in "Driving Miss Daisy” and his third for Frank Darabont’s 1994 drama "The Shawshank Redemption.” Among his upcoming projects are the next chapter in the Batman saga, "The Dark Knight,” and the crime drama "The Code,” both set for a 2008 release.

Just before our press conference begins, Jack lights a cigarette, turns to Morgan, and says in a hoarse but instantly recognizable voice, "The one I don’t smoke I count. I don’t count the ones I smoke.” Morgan nods and laughs. Like their characters in "The Bucket List,” they know how to find the joy in the moment and the easy rapport they display during our interview informs their on screen performance as well. Here’s what these powerhouse veteran actors had to tell us about their new movie and what it was like to finally work together:

MoviesOnline: You don’t have laryngitis today, do you?

Jack: No. It’s too early, that’s all. Where’s ‘ol Rob?

Morgan: I think they just kicked him out.

Jack: Well that’s good. We’ll be able to talk about him.

Morgan: Okay. Good.

Jack: Without it being…

MoviesOnline: Do you need a mic?

Jack: Menu?

MoviesOnline: Not a menu, a microphone.

Jack: Oh. [adjusts the mic] That one’s working.

[Laughter]

MoviesOnline: Can you talk about getting on board and which one of you was on first?

Morgan: It’s who’s on first?

MoviesOnline: I’m sorry?

[Laughter]

Morgan: It’s who’s on first. [Abbot & Costello routine]

MoviesOnline: We’re not going to start ‘Who’s on first,’ are we?

Jack: He’s on first, let him talk. [Morgan laughs]

MoviesOnline: Morgan, can you talk about signing onto this and what inspired you to do it?

Morgan: I got a call from Rob Reiner. How long ago? Some time ago.

Nicholson: Yeah.

Morgan: This was a script that I had read before and had turned it down. It was a bit maudlin the idea. Rob said I’ve got this great script and I want to do it but I want to do it with you. I said alright. I read it and thought in the right hands, this is going to be terrific. So I called him up and I said, ‘It’s nice, but there’s a caveat here. You need to get one actor,’ and he said, ‘Who?’ and I said ‘Jack Nicholson.’ So he said, ‘Jack? Alright. Let’s try it.’ Now it’s his story.

Jack: Well, you know, it was easy for me. I’d worked with Rob and I liked working with him and Morgan and I have known one another at a distance for a very long time and had always known we wanted to work together, and that’s pretty much all it took for me. That was that and off we went. Plus, it’s a tough little puzzle. This is why I’m wary. You know Rob found the tone for this. Early on we said, ‘Look. We’re not going to make this movie nine times; let’s try and get it right.’ To deal with this subject, one of the most fearsome subjects, in a comic manner is a creative puzzle really. Until I saw it with the first audience, you can’t really know if you veered on or off. My impression from the first screening I saw was that I was impressed by how long the audience was moved at the end of the picture. It wasn’t just they were moved but when you’ve got an audience going for somewhere between 10-15 minutes, that’s a long time. And I don’t think you can do that if you’re sentimental, particularly these are semi-professional audiences. It has sentiment, but if you get sentimental you’re going to lose them. So hats off. We kind of throw it at the wall and Rob got it good. He did a great job really. It’s the kind of job you don’t necessarily get credit for as a director. It’s what they call a two-hander. It’s not pyrotechnical in that sense. There’s a lot of scenes between Morgan and I which of course we enjoyed tremendously. But a director, you’ve got to have things blowing up, very odd story progressions and so forth.

Morgan: But we did have a car chase.

Jack: We did have a car chase.
[
MoviesOnline: Have either of you made a bucket list?

Morgan: For me, no. I think that your bucket list is your bucket list. I don’t think it’s one you wrote down, but it’s written somewhere on you, in your heart. There are things that you check off as you go through life, doing the things that you want to do, if you get to do the things you want to do.

Jack: That’s the thing: if you get to. I just did an interview and I told the man I was going to lie more so I didn’t repeat myself but I’m going to anyway. The third element in this was to see the pyramids, which was kind of on my silent list. Pavarotti was going to do "Aida” at the pyramids, and Lorne Michaels was going to (produce it?). I signed up for that a year and a half early and then of course he didn’t, bless his soul. So winding up on a rooftop in the middle of Los Angeles (to shoot that scene) was a mild disappointment to me. I still want to see the pyramids.

MoviesOnline: What did each of you bring to your character that wasn’t already on the page?

Jack: Depends.

Morgan: That’s like an actor question. What does an actor bring to a part that wasn’t on the page? The actor brings the actor. It sounds kind of glib as an answer but that’s the only answer there is. Let’s say there were two other actors doing these roles, then what you would get would be two other actors doing the roles. It’s not easy to answer a question like, what do you bring to it. I don’t know. You tell me.

MoviesOnline: Was there a backstory you developed to help you?

Morgan: No.

Jack: We certainly brought an extra affinity because of what we said earlier. We wanted to work together.

Morgan: That’s a good answer.

Jack: I’d gone to school on Morgan. I know he probably has a little bit on me too.

Morgan: A lot.

Jack: Not meeting in raw like two actors meeting, you don’t get to throw in freckles if you’re uptight with the actor or if he is with you. That’s why we did it. It’s a two-hander. We get to do what actors like to do: act. You can feel the difference when you’re pulling or pushing a scene or when it’s just going along. We certainly hoped for and counted on it and we got it with one another.

Morgan: That question about what’s on your bucket list? This (pointing to Jack) has been on my bucket list for a long time.

Jack: He’s a mysterious man, Morgan. I sort of wondered since we got on so well. We hadn’t seen as much of one another over the years and I know now. Where have you been Morgan? Well, I was in Belgrade. The man moves. He flies. You never know where he is. He’s a man of mystery. No doubt about it.

MoviesOnline: You’re two acting legends who are just working together for the first time.

Morgan: Legends!

MoviesOnline: What were the surprises you discovered working together? Also, Jack, you were cheated out of an Oscar last year for a brilliant piece of work. Do you curse the heavens and say, ‘It’s never enough I deserved that nomination.’?

Jack: That’s a very multi-part question. [Laughter] I certainly have felt robbed many times at the Oscars. [More laughter] But you know it kind of goes with the territory. I like the Oscars but I think there are too many awards show, like everybody else. It covers five months now and I think it dilutes it. But generationally, it’s like jeez there’s Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor or whatever when you first start going to them and you develop a relationship with Bob Hope and it has all that glamour that I wish we still had in that way. So does everybody else. Like anything, it’s your own fault. [Laughter] But about that, I wasn’t even sure I gave the best performance in the picture no less in the world. How can you separate them? And here’s Morgan and I, we’re in every scene. You’re supposed to do it a certain way and it comes a certain way. It’s just another way of talking about it. It’s kind of a pleasant conceit the idea of the best this or that. But somehow the criteria gets it right a lot of times. Mainly for me, it’s something good for everybody so why worry about it, other than to support it, which I did. [Dramatic voice] Robbed though I may have been. [Laughter] How come I don’t get an old-age sentimental Oscar like several people did?

Morgan: You’re not old yet.

Jack: That’s it, my man. See what I’m saying. ‘You’re not old yet.’ Perfect.

MoviesOnline: What surprised you working with each other? What did you find out about Jack?

Morgan: I found out that he was a writer. I didn’t know he was a stinkin’ writer. I knew he was a great actor. He came up to me and said, I’m probably going to drive you crazy because when I work, I’m up nights sort of angsting over little things in the script. I will be doing that and coming back and talking to you the next day. (I said) ‘Fine, my joy is you. What you do in your off time is your business.’ [Laughter]

Jack: I’m a worrier. He’s not.

MoviesOnline: Would Jack write lines for you?

Morgan: No! No! He writes lines for himself. He will change minute stuff. He’s a great shaper, I think, of material, because he looks at commas, periods and colons and semi-colons, and they make a difference.

Jack: There’s nothing wrong with "She hates me.” [Pause] "Do you hate me?”

Morgan: Nothing wrong with that at all.

Jack: Not yet. You know I wrote some good scenes. (He chuckles.)

Morgan: He did.

MoviesOnline: At what point in your life were you able to cut through the clutter of life and say ‘this is what’s important for me’?

Morgan: 21. I knew as a young teenager what I wanted to do. I got sidetracked because I also thought I wanted to be an adventurer. I joined the Air Force in order to become a jet pilot. A fighter pilot. A killer. And I was 21 years old when I had the opportunity to sit in a plane and say, this ain’t it. There was only one other choice in my life and that was acting. So whatever else was going to happen after that, I’m blazing in on acting. I think that answered your question about cutting through the clutter.

Jack: That was pretty early on. I tell you for all actors, things didn’t get clear for me until after I didn’t have to audition anymore. That cleared things up for me.

[Laughter]

MoviesOnline: Was that after "Easy Rider”?

Jack: Yeah. Right. Overnight maybe. [Laughter] 12 years of…

MoviesOnline: Both of your characters have to undergo a difficult and humbling medical treatment. Did you talk to people who’ve experienced this?

Jack: I’ve spent more time in hospitals and I’ve only been in there on my own behalf once. I even worked in a hospital once, sort of. So I’ve had a lot of experience with it. That doesn’t mean it informs you; but you do pick up a lot of impressions about them. When I did this little stint (in the hospital) before I did this picture and kind of panicked out, I used to always go into hospitals and think it was my job to kind of up the vibe and make people feel better. Walking down those corridors at night and looking at those men there sitting in those chairs looking like this (he looks down and glum), I suddenly felt a little less antic and I’m sure I’ll behave quite differently. I don’t think I was wrong to want to cheer people up but [dramatic voice] you gotta know your audience, ya know?

[Laughter]

MoviesOnline: Did either of you try the Kopi Luwak?

Jack: Kopi Luwak. Another tip of the hat to Rob Reiner. I kept saying Kopi Luwak? This better work, baby, because we gotta lot going on. What’s with the Kopi Luwak? It held together in there very well.

Morgan: (To journalist) Have you ever tasted the stuff?

MoviesOnline: No. But I had weasel vomit, and it was disturbingly good.

Jack: Eagle vomit?

MoviesOnline: Weasel vomit.

Jack: Oh.

Morgan: Weasel vomit coffee. Disturbingly good. Meaning you got some sort of high.

MoviesOnline: Not really.

Jack: She started weaseling around. No is the short answer. I didn’t feel it was necessary for the research.

Morgan: Right. No, here too.

MoviesOnline: Now that you’ve worked together, what would you do for Jack and what would you do for Morgan to celebrate knowing each other?

Jack: There’s something kind of final in that statement. I’m not ceremonial in those ways. We’re both golfers a bit and I’d love to go out and play golf with him. We’ve talked about that. We went to a ballgame together. Morgan works a lot more than I do lately. He’s been very busy. I’d just like to see more of him. On his behalf, he’s doing fine. [Laughs] I don’t know if he needs anything from me.

Morgan: Not unless you can figure out a way to get me to break 90 (in golf).

Jack: Oh yeah. I’m a good coach, but I can’t play.

[Laughter]

MoviesOnline: Did you know each other before this movie started? You seem to have a good rapport in real life as well as in the film.

Morgan: I’ve known him ever since Easy Rider. I’ve seen just about everything he’s ever done.

Jack: We were acquaintances of longstanding and mutual admiration. We’ve gone through a lot over this period of time. We weren’t quite so distinguished when we first met. We had a few…

Morgan: I thought you were. I thought you were very distinguished when we first met.

Jack: You thought I was distinguished? Isn’t that wonderful?

Morgan: I was nearly ready to kneel down and say, ‘I’d give anything for the chance to work with you.’

Jack: We’d run into one another, crossing backstage at the Oscars, for instance, and talk about all the women. This kind of relationship; it’s changed over the years. It’s certainly very different now. At last we got to spend a protracted amount of time together and Morgan—this is the only film you’ll ever see where Nelson Mandela was cut out. Morgan going over there got some footage (with Nelson) but Rob decided we weren’t going to shoot it.

Morgan: We couldn’t fit it in seamlessly.

Jack: There were a lot of reasons. I just thought it might interest you to know that we had Nelson Mandela in the picture and he got cut out.

MoviesOnline: What happens when seasoned pros like you finally do get together on set? Did you have to work scenes out, does Rob give you some direction, or do you guys just let it happen?

Jack: My impression after was everything was pretty much three takes, two prints, not all but some things are more difficult.

Morgan: Quite a lot of it was just ‘cut it.’

Jack: One thing we did share in common. We loved starting every day’s acting lying down in bed. Fantastic.

[Laughter]

Morgan: And the good thing about working with Jack is that he doesn’t get up early in the morning. The day would start at about 10 a.m.

Jack: And that’s early.

[Laughter]

Morgan: Because we worked fast, all three of us.

Jack: I’ve never worked with a movie crew that outran me. This movie crew—I would be just easing back into the chair and they were like, ‘C’mon, we gotta get going.’ It was good. Halfway through I thought, geez, I hope they’re not kicking this movie out just to do it. It’s going pretty fast. We were out of continuity. I had that kind of anxiety but it was great for me, because I worried about energy from being in bed for eight weeks before. So getting it like that, I expected it of Morgan. We don’t make a lot of mistakes. We can do it in two (takes) or we can do it in 82 (takes).

MoviesOnline: You were in bed for eight weeks before this movie?

Jack: Yeah.

MoviesOnline: What happened?

Jack: I had this—it wasn’t a big thing—it wasn’t… I had a saliva gland where I had to have this operation. It was infected. All those antibiotics. I panicked a little bit, let’s put it that way, because I was tired. I didn’t know. It takes a lot of energy to do a movie and I wasn’t sure (I could do it). I did what I should do: I worked harder. I didn’t want to self-prophesize catastrophe and then not make a full effort. It really worked for us. I expected it. You don’t even know it but you can feel when you’re trying to *make* something happen. It never came up with Morgan as far as I’m concerned. He’s the guy and that’s that, from the beginning.

MoviesOnline: You gentleman have reached the status of, I suppose, Hollywood’s senior citizens.  How do you deal with it apart from collecting your social security?

Jack: You bet I collect. [Laughs]

Morgan: Me too. You know, I think a lot of senior citizenship is a mental thing. I don’t feel senior. Of course when I look at a mirror in the morning, there it all is. But, thank heavens I don’t…Well, for instance, I don’t know what it feels like to be 70, except to feel the way I feel which isn’t 70, but is.

Jack: I’ll tell you one thing. 

Morgan: Okay.

Jack: When I look in the mirror in the morning, I can’t see myself. [Laughs] I am like Monet. [Laughs] But you know I don’t like to repeat myself. I was going to lie all day today. But when I turned 70, it was actually the first time since 50 that I felt young for my age. I know, me, as Morgan said so. Y’know, 50 scares you to death. Numerical and so forth and then so forth, but the day I just noticed, I feel pretty young for my age. That’s tremendous.

Morgan: Well alright!

Jack: I’m going to put my glasses on. [Laughter] But you know, we are fortunate in that other than ‘Spider-Man’ and so forth, the movie audience is also moving along so to speak. Hence I think the resonance of this picture – ‘Bucket List.’ At my screening, I was telling Morgan on the way down, an artist couldn’t get a better result than this.  I have a friend’s screening so to speak.  And I was telling Morgan, four or five people reconciled in the lobby after this screening that I had. So, you know, it’s nice to. And the question I’ll ask you now: did the movie have resonance for you?  Did you think about it later after you saw it? That was one thing I wanted to know subjectively as a person involved and the other thing was the tone which the audience itself answered that. Because you don’t know. This was the first movie when I got done… We worked hard or constant – hard might not be the right word – every day and the problems and the matchings and the this and what about that, but it was very out of continuity. More than usual. More than the usual cliché of, ‘How do you do this?’ The result of that was I didn’t know…Well, normally by the time you are done shooting, you got some sense, but I really didn’t know. ‘Well, I wonder what?’ When I got done, you start saying, ‘Geez, we did that? I wonder if that fits…’ and so forth and so on. The first review came in with Morgan’s response, when he saw it. I said, ‘What did you think, Morgan?’ And he said, ‘Astonishing.’ So, I thought, ‘Ah, okay. That’s all.’

Morgan: But you gotta take that with a bucket of salt.

Jack: Bucket of salt…(Laughs.)

Morgan: To me, [to Jack] You can close your ears [Jack puts his fingers in his ears], it wouldn’t matter if they had taken the whole thing and tossed it into the toilet. I was working with Jack Nicholson. You are never going to know what that’s like until you do it. Primo. Okay. [Laughs.] [to Jack] Okay. [Jack unplugs his ears.]

Jack: Thank you. Thank you very much.

MoviesOnline: Do you know what your next project is going to be?

Morgan: I’m in a picture with Chris Walken and William H. Macy. We’re doing ‘The Lonely Maiden.’ It’s a very nice little comedy.

Jack: I never go to a next until I’m done.

MoviesOnline: You both gave heartfelt performances.

Jack: Well thank you. I’m glad you feel that way. It was daunting. I don’t want to make a mess of this particular topic but there’s nobody who’s really done it. I thought my friend’s audience would run me out of the place because I took so many things and put them in this script that were anecdotes from my own life, you know, the things that people have said about this subject and I think it’s not so much originality in this movie but things that have been undiscussed until now. I mean I know everybody. ‘Well do I want to be buried…?’ You just know in your heart, you may not have talked to somebody about it but you know everybody’s thought [about it] every time you go to a funeral. ‘What do I want?’ All these kind of things untapped from before, this was a vehicle to get all of them into. So I’m very proud of that.

MoviesOnline: It’s like make every day count.

Jack: I’m boring everybody to death. I’m a live in the now guy from A through Z. That’s as deep as I get. I read one of my own interviews today. That’s why I vowed not to repeat myself. But the thing about that is you don’t know when you’re doing it. When you’re successful living in the now, there’s no ‘you’ over there. You don’t think, ‘Oh, I’m living in the now’ because then you’re not.

MoviesOnline: You’re just having a good time doing what you want.

Jack: Yeah. You don’t know.

MoviesOnline: Thank you.

Jack: Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure.

"The Bucket List” opens in theaters on December 25th.