Jack Nicholson is unlikely to return to acting, according to his close friend Michael Douglas, who said the Oscar-winning actor is no longer working but is “well”.
Douglas, 82, made the comments while appearing at the Swansea Building Society Arena in South Wales to promote his memoir, One Helluva Ride. He said he would have liked the chance to act alongside Nicholson.
“He’s not working any more. He’s well. He has disappeared. I know that,” Douglas said.
He added that he still saw Nicholson, describing him as being “up there by his house and walking around in his slippers”. Douglas said the actor, who is 89, was “a few years older than me” and that he understood his decision.
The comments appear to contradict hopes raised last year by filmmaker James L. Brooks, who directed Nicholson in his most recent film, the 2010 romantic comedy How Do You Know.
Brooks had said Nicholson had received scripts and was reading them, adding: “I’m sure we’ll be seeing them.”
Nicholson has never formally announced his retirement, but gradually withdrew from public life. He made a rare appearance last year as an audience member at the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special, prompting renewed speculation about whether he might act again.
He was due to appear in a remake of the German comedy Toni Erdmann in 2017, but later left the project. In a 2013 interview, Nicholson said he did not regard himself as retired, but was simply less driven to “be out there any more”.
His film career includes Oscar-winning performances in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which was produced by Douglas, Terms Of Endearment and As Good As It Gets.
