Jeff Daniels reveals what Jack Nicholson was like in ‘Terms of Endearment’: “This ain’t Broadway, this is the pro game”
The A-lister had some words for Daniels, who was just beginning his career, but it was something Nicholson said years later that “really hit home.”
Jeff Daniels was just beginning to cut his chops in the film industry when he was cast for the role of Flap Horton in ‘Terms of Endearment’. He had already been acting for several years on and off Broadway, but he considered himself a relative nobody when Debra Winger introduced him to Jack Nicholson on the set of the film.
During an interview on the Rich Eisen Show, Daniels shared how the A-list actor “was so nice” to him when they met. When Nicholson learned that the then-28-year-old had been working on Broadway, Daniels recalled him saying, “Well, this ain’t Broadway. This is the pro game.”
“He was right,” said Daniels, explaining that when an actor’s career sees explosive growth so too does the amount of money involved.
Also, he noted that while on Broadway an actor has eight shows a week to refine how they portray a role they are playing, in the movies you don’t have that luxury. “When they put the camera on you at 4 in the morning and it’s your speech and we’re losing light, you gotta hit it. All of that. That was the great light,” he explained to Eisen.
Daniels says Nicholson gave review “that actually matters”
Years later, Daniels was back on Broadway appearing in the critically acclaimed production ‘God of Carnage’, which won the 2009 Tony for Best Play. One night Nicholson came to watch the play and afterwards paid Daniels a visit backstage.
There he said something that Daniels found very humble of actor that everyone can recognize who is being talked about just by his first name. “I can’t do what you guys are doing,” Nicholson told Daniels.
Then when the production was on tour in Los Angeles, Daniels shared that Nicholson came to see the play again. Once again he came backstage to chat after the show. This time he told Daniels as he was about to leave, “I’m proud of you.”
“Jack coming back and saying [that] to me meant the world,” Daniels said. “It’s the review you hope to get from somebody that actually matters.”
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