Insider talked to Nolte about why he still wants to act.
He talked about playing a homeless Vietnam War veteran in his new movie.
Nolte talked about the feud he had with Julia Roberts when they made "I Love Trouble."
Nick Nolte is trying to find a story to tell.
He doesn't look the same as he did when he was named People's Sexiest Man Alive in 1992, but he still wants to perform.
Maybe it's necessary to be one.
The latest example of this desire is "Rittenhouse Square," a song by an independent musician. The second feature from director Brandon Eric Kamin features Nick Nolte as a homeless veteran in Philadelphia. He befriends Sharon Jones, an aspiring musician who was kicked out of the house by his pastor mother.
Nolte has captured an intensity in the role that's mixed with charm and chaos. It's a style that made a three-time Oscar nominee a Hollywood star for decades.
His bad-boy antics sometimes overshadowed his talents, like when his 2002 mug shot went viral before that phrase even existed or when he got into a publicized feud with Julia Roberts. His work was captivating due to his flaws.
In 1991, the New York Times wrote of the star, "A Nolte hero is rarely a pretty sight..."
Nolte no longer recognizes Hollywood as it used to be. He has not worked on a studio movie in a year. He voiced the Kuiil character in the first season of "The Mandalorian" He spends most of his time working in the independent film industry.
Nolte told Insider that his connection was to the story itself. I don't know a lot of the stories in Hollywood.
Insider talked with Nolte about what he's still searching for in the roles he plays, why a fire that destroyed his home in 2008 has made him no longer think about his legacy, and whether he's ever reconciled with Roberts.
Over the course of your career, you've played homeless people, alcoholics, and a Vietnam veteran. You do all three in the same role. What makes you want to play them again and again?
I am interested in the scope of the character you can apply to homelessness. The director of "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" asked me if I would spend a few days outside and try to get into a homeless shelter if I went downtown. I went with a friend of Paul's who is an actor and we went downtown and it didn't take long to get that feeling.
You feel like you're out there on a daily basis. We were not aware of the tricks of the street. We weren't accepted into a shelter because we hadn't been on the street long enough. They were able to see that. It was great to be on the streets for a while. It's difficult to play a homeless person.
When you were a baby, your father was in World War II, so you didn't really know him until he returned. Is your father involved in these roles when you play a veteran or someone in the service?
It's true. Having lived through World War II, I wasn't aware of "The Thin Red Line" until I was 41 years old, but it informed the character's franticness in the film. I got a knowledge from it.
Did you remember how your father was after the war when you played the Barry character?
It's in a way. I only had sketches of his stories. He was a military man. He might have been stationed off Australia. They would shoot into the jungle.
I asked him if he'd ever seen anyone get shot, and he said there was one guy. He had red hair. He didn't wear a helmet He was shot in the head because of that. He never told me anything else.
Barry is a guardian angel in this film. Did you bring the shaky hands and drinking to the character, or did it appear on the page?
The homeless lifestyle is being added to by myself and Brandon.
Do you know why so many of your characters drink? I think it's true that when you were playing a character, you would go to the director and say, "I think this guy is a drinker"
That's right, laughing. The average American family grew up in the 1950s in the Midwest and had cocktail hour. They used to smoke. At that time, there wasn't a thought of cancer.
It's just an art to smoke and drink in movies. When you're talking to someone and they stop, that's when you fill those moments of anxiety. Do you do anything? A cigarette or a drink is yours to take. It was taken from living during that time.
What makes you want to keep working? Is there anything you're still looking for?
I'm interested in the stories because I have something artistic outside of myself. I don't know what they are as there are fewer and fewer of them nowadays. I don't like the 80s because you are falling apart. I will keep going until I can't go anymore.
Do you still want to work with a certain director?
My way of working has not been supported by a director in a long time.
You've been known to go to extreme lengths for the characters you played. Is there a game you played that made you want to go into it?
I remember the different stages of the movie. That was the largest area in the last 50 years. The number went from 16 to 45. When I was a sophomore in high school, I weighed 150 lbs. I dropped the weight so I could get that boy back. I ran around that area.
There was a period of time after Tommy was kicked out of the house. He became a boxer and came back to meet his mother. There had to be a change.
I put my ears up so I couldn't hear. When I talked, it was like an echo chamber because I had to concentrate and listen. The noise was loud. I'd make the voice softer to talk.
I played a blind Vietnam vet in the movie "Beautiful Country". I went to the eye hospital in LA to see if there was anything wrong with the people who couldn't see at all. They were looked at in a different way or didn't look right.
I asked the director if I could do the role blind. The doctor put a lens in my eyes that blocked the background and another one on top of it that blocked my iris.
I worked out how long it would take to get to the bed and stove. All that was down. I messed up the steps and ended up in the closet when I got up to shoot a scene. I did not know where I was. Sometimes my method wouldn't work out as planned.
There are many stories about you. There is a behind the scenes drama between you and Julia Roberts. She said working with you was disgusting. Have you ever tried to reach out to her?
I've not. Even though it is buried. We went through so much that it was ridiculous. I was partly to blame and she was partly to blame. Julia got married at the beginning of the film, and I just approached it all wrong.
A representative for Roberts didn't reply immediately.
Let's go further back. You were considered to play the lead in the film. What seriousness were you considering it?
They were interested in me but I said I would only do it if I could play him as a crazy person.
Were you trying to sabotage your chances for the role?
It is sabotage. It would have been weird to play that.
Do you ever think about legacies? How you want to be remembered is something you should think about.
I do not. I haven't had the fire that burned all of my memories in a long time. I didn't think about it because of that.
Did you reflect before the fire?
I had everything I needed. For the past 30 years, I have been collecting books. I have the wardrobe from all of my films.
Wow! Why did you want to keep your clothes out of the movies?
The clothes were nice. I wanted to keep it because it was something that was familiar to me.
It is a different feeling now.
It's true. It feels like starting over again.
The interview has been edited to make it clearer.
You can read the original article.
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