by Paul Fischer
by
Paul Fischer
He might have turned his back on Hollywood but as Eric Bana's
dad in Hulk,
Nick Nolte 
may
well give one of his best performances. That, at least, is the opinion of our
Paul Fischer -- we found Nolte all over the place and the fundamental
flaw in Ang Lee's Hulk. But, hey, the sman is a star and there's always room
to take a look at what a star actor says about creating a performance, even
if it is one we thought was off-kilter. Paul found Nolte to be "outspoken,
funny, and most assuredly unique and never conventional. We turn the floor
over to him.
CrankyCritic: What was the key attraction for you to do this
movie?
Nick Nolte: Ang Lee. He came out to the house and he said, "I don't
know how to make a comic book," he said, "I do know how
to make a Greek
tragedy." Hulk is much different than most comic book heroes.
It's,
essentially, a father/son story steeped in the Greek tragedy in the sense that
the hero, the son, had
something done to him that he had no conditions to stop and then he has to
live up to a responsibility. But he goes a little farther. It's mythic in
the proportions but it's an
old ancient theme. Ang knew he needed a real solid base
underneath this character, the cartoon on the top.
CrankyCritic: In order to heighten the comic book feel
of the movie against the back drop of the tragedy you talk about, did Ang come
up with a
specific type of acting to play it that way?
Nick Nolte: Yeah, well, you know Ang came from theatre himself, so
the last scene is a stage play. The stage is set, the spotlights are on it,
and it's a four page scene. Who does a four page scene before the final big
effect of the movie? But Ang, he came to me that day and he said, "I'm
going to start with your close up". Well, that's an entire reversal
of the process, but I knew exactly what he wanted me to do. He wanted me
to set
the tone of this drama, this stage play and I decided to go beyond anything
I do. So after 3 hours, all the producers had left because I hadn't strung
two sentences together, because I would actually faint and get dizzy. I
wouldn't fall down but I would get so dizzy that I would start to faint,
hyperventilating, fainting and Ang came over to me and all the producers
were gone and I was on my haunches rocking back and forth and Ang said, "Do
you think it's time to string two sentences together?" And I thought
about it and I said, "Not quite, not quite," and he walked away
and I had a
momentary moment of doubt, you know, because there were many ways to
approach that last scene and I said, "Ang, you know there are many ways
to
approach this, are we going in the right direction? Is this the right
approach?" And he said Oh, yes, I sucker for big." He used it.
Sometimes Ang
would use a broken English and start speaking in his native tongue when the
producers were around, and it was very clever because they couldn't speak
Chinese, or whatever he speaks and he got do anything he wanted.
CrankyCritic: Can you relate to this character on a personal level,
do you think?
Nick Nolte: Oh yeah, yeah. You do. You find something in yourself
that relates to the character. Curiosity certainly. [Banner] finds his
position with a full lab and underwriting the cost and
military wants me to increase immune system here and there
against certain pathogens. Well that's impossible to do. He soon realizes
he has to increase the entire immune system and what he ends up doing is
he wants to, he increases it by ten thousand-fold. It could be done. It would
mean immediate capillary cells swelling, immediately release of T killer
cells, white cells, get to the wound immediately where already maybe a billion
bacteria reside, eat
them up and continue to eat the bacteria as fast as they come and the wound
would close. And that would take ten thousand times to create a second of healing.
You would probably explode you know, with so many free radicals in that kind
of a metabolic process. The free radicals would be, you would just be riddled
with electrons, extra electrons, so but I make genetic alterations on myself
because I must know how it would work in a human and its not enough to cause
me any harm but it alters some genes. That's a research scientist, they're
totally obsessed.
CrankyCritic: That's not part of you?
Nick Nolte: Oh yeah, I'm obsessive. I'm obsessive and compulsive.
CrankyCritic: Does Ang Lee remind you of any other
director that you've worked with and what is his greatest asset?
Nick Nolte: Well, Ang Lee is like the great directors, the ones that
I have worked with. Scorsese, Terry Mallick. They all have a similar quality.
It's in different shape and different form. Ang's concentration is so fierce,
so solid that you can't help but be infected by it and these kinds of directors
don't have to say anything and you know you're going to give him the absolute
best that you can, by which you'll go to any limits to satisfy the story
and the role and Ang has that quality. You know, when he said he didn't know
how to make a comic book but a Greek tragedy, I turned around and I said, "Was
'eat, man, drink, woman partially based on Lear?"And he said, "Oh
yes" you know. So there isn't a scene or an image in the film that doesn't
relate to something. It is all interconnected. Like for instance the oldest
living organism on earth that has never died. Jelly fish are a Greek name,
a root of medusa. You know, it's Abraham, I'm going to have to kill my son,
you know? And maybe it's Gods voice or the wife's
steps in...
CrankyCritic: What are the reasons you do movies and
not go further into science or research?
Nick Nolte: Well it stems way, way, way back from the first
time I stepped on stage. I never felt comfortable in real life very
well. It's always been an awkward kind of thing for me and so when
I hit the stage I just sensed freedom. I sensed here's a place that
I can have all the
experiences of life and not feel uncomfortable about it.
CrankyCritic: Do you have a fear of getting older?
Nick Nolte: No, no, no. I like getting older. I like every stage
of life. I'm in my sixties and it's an entirely different view than when
you're in your forties
CrankyCritic: In what way?
Nick Nolte: Well, you're in the last quarter and when your last parent
dies there is no more buffer. You know you're next. My mother died three
years ago and she did it the way she wanted to die. She told us even, 'I
am going to die in my own home and that's it and I will stockpile my pills
that I need to get help with that'. Well, she did die in her own home. I
had damaged my leg really bad and I got to her four days before she died.
CrankyCritic: How old was she?
Nick Nolte: She was eighty-six
CrankyCritic: And what was she suffering from?
Nick Nolte: Old age. She probably died of pneumonia, because after
the fourth day I sat with her, many times I would think she was dead. She
would stop breathing for twenty minutes and all of a sudden she would go
ahhhhhh, take a breathe
CrankyCritic: She knew you were there though?
Nick Nolte: Oh yes. Because you see what the dying need, I realize
now, is you need a witness You need a witness. You don't need a son. You
don't need a daughter and you don't need somebody who's going to tell you" You're
going to live. You're going to make it through." You just need a witness
that will sit there like, you need a witness for when you're born. And we
all cheer don't we? "Yeahhhh, the baby, the baby." And when you
go out you need a witness too and you don't need a lot of grieving at that
time or rehashing of life. I found all the issues with my mother were settled
in that four days.
