(Audio) Rob Reiner on What It's Like to Direct Jack Nicholson

Rob Reiner: 

And I remember when he did that famous speech where he does that, "You can't handle the truth!" We have a lot of angles, and I said to Jack, I said, "Look, we can do one of two things, either I can shoot you first, or I can shoot all of the reactions, and I can save you if you want to rehearse doing it. He said, "Yeah, why don't you shoo the reactions, and that way, by the time you turn around and shoot me, I'll be ready." Okay, so now we're shooting reactions from Tom Cruise and Kevin Bacon, and he (Nicholson) giving this full-out performance every time. Every time! And at one point, I go up to Jack and say, "Jack, maybe you should take it easy because we're gonna come around to you." 

And he says, "Rob, you don't understand. I love to act." 

From Reiner's interview with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast, 2016; Photo by Sidney Baldwin

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