Jack Nicholson’s son, Ray Nicholson, offered a rare glimpse into his relationship with his father, revealing that although they “can’t talk about a lot,” sports are their shared “love language.”
Ray, 34, sat down for an interview with his sister, Lorraine Nicholson, for Interview magazine in a new story published this week, where they discussed his acting career, love for football, and their family.
“I love sports so much. It’s also the language of love that me and dad share. We can’t talk about a lot, but we can talk about the f–king Lakers until kingdom come,” Nicholson said in the piece, as he was describing his sports career.
Ray played football in high school, and was so serious about it that he thought that he was going to play the sport at Boston College.
However, his career ended abruptly after a severe staph infection in his arm turned into MRSA, and they nearly had to amputate.
“They put a mark on my arm that was like, ‘If it gets past here, we’re cutting your arm,’” he said during the interview.
But after his injury, the “Smile 2” star described having a “voice-of-god moment” that led him into his true passion in life — acting.
However, he admitted that he was nervous to share this news with his father.
“I was really scared to tell dad,” Ray admitted. “But I went to USC and learned to love everything about filmmaking. My education really taught me that dad isn’t god. He’s not the only thing in this film industry. He’s a beautiful part of it, but a very small part.”
“Yes, of course, making dad proud is high on my list, but this is really a way of finding who I am. And I feel that I’m on the right path to that,” he said.
Ray’s interview with his sister comes on the heels of his role in the new Netflix film “The Mosquito Bowl.”
In the movie, Ray plays football player Tony Butkovich, who was a college football star at the University of Illinois and Purdue University.
He was drafted by the Cleveland Rams in the first round of the 1944 NFL draft, but instead enlisted in the US Marines and fought in World War II.
The film follows four elite college football players who enlist in the Marines to serve in the war, based on Buzz Bissinger’s 2022 bestselling nonfiction book.
It was directed by Peter Berg.
Last month, Ray admitted that he felt like acting was the “thing” that took his dad “away from [my] home.”
“I think I had every right to be a little trepidatious. I grew up around it. It was the thing that made my family different,” he told USA Today.
“It was the thing that took my dad away from my home. So, of course, I had different feelings about it.”
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