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Richard Rush
- The University Press of Kentucky
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45 rIChard rush Richard Rush was an integral part of Jack Nicholson’s development as an actor. Very early in Jack’s career, Rush directed him in a controversial film about abortion, Too Soon to Love. Though this film went virtually unnoticed (as many of Jack’s early films did), it was the first in a trilogy of freespirited , socially conscious appraisals of then-current phenomena. Producers tend to label this genre “now movies.” In 1967 Rush directed Nicholson again in Hells Angels on Wheels, a much better film than the title suggests. It was at this point that Nicholson first suggested glimpses of a future role, Jonathan Fuerst in Carnal Knowledge. Rush’s fine-line direction offered Nicholson freedom to search inside his character, but he was still being guided toward a definitive end result. Psych-Out concluded the trilogy with an intense performance from Nicholson and calculated craziness from Bruce Dern. Richard Rush had the same levels of energy and complexity that pervaded the seemingly simple characters in his films with Nicholson. He was totally in control of his thoughts and words and their directions, but he still permitted himself to be in awe of something well done. The feelings we received from him carried over from our first phone conversation to our interview at his office at the Burbank Studios, where he was preparing to direct Freebie and the Bean, his first film since the enormously successful Getting Straight. The appearance of his office suggested that he would be stationed there only temporarily (he had only recently moved from the old Columbia Studios on Gower Street in Hollywood). The wood-paneled walls were sparsely decorated, and our attention focused on one section featuring newspaper ads of all sizes for Getting Straight. Rush was completely at ease as he ushered us into his office, and we quickly began the interview. Question: How many films have you done with Jack Nicholson? Richard Rush: Well, we did Psych-Out, and Hells Angels on Wheels, and in JACK NICHOLSON: THE EARLY YEARS 46 1959, my first film, one of those little low-budget wonders called Too Soon to Love. It was an exploitation film made for about fifty thousand dollars, which we were pretty successful with. We sold it to Universal for a couple of hundred thousand, and it hit at just that magic time when the critics had invented the “New Wave,” invented it in the sense that they had decided to call that whole wave of creative work in Europe that. It was sort of elevated out of the genre critically. It was talked about at the time as the first American New Wave. It was a good little combination serious-exploitation picture, with some excellent performances in it, and Jack played a secondary role in it. Aside from the two leads it was perhaps the most important role. I ran the film after several years, and it was stunning to see Jack as a kid, twelve years younger, with almost a butch haircut, and a very strong hint of the style, and techniques, and character that emerged later. Question: How did you decide to cast Jack later in Hells Angels and Psych-Out? Rush: I had liked Jack’s work as an actor when I worked with him then. It wasn’t a twelve-year span between that and Hells Angels; it was only six. I had kept in touch with him vaguely during that time, but it was strictly from my knowledge and memory of him as an actor, and his heavy Actors Studio work, and his style and technique that very much appealed to me about Jack. Question: How closely do you think Jack identified with his role of the gasstation attendant looking for something else in Hells Angels on Wheels? Rush: In personally developing the things he could use for the role, Jack always was the same kind of iconoclastic rebel that that kid was. He was the same kind of askew, hip, romantic hero. However, Jack is a much, much brighter man than that kid was. It’s always been one of Jack’s most unique abilities to almost lower his IQ by grade points according to a meter. He has a way of dropping it without becoming less interesting, and it’s a very difficult trick. There are a lot of fine actors who simply aren’t tuned in to that ability. Question: Then do you think that went along, too, with the...