Kevin Pollak talks about the time Tom Cruise punched Jack Nicholson after a tense moment while filming ‘A Few Good Men.’
Earlier this week, Pollak was a guest on the “Still Here Hollywood” podcast with Steve Kmetko.
“I remember a moment from the filming of ‘A Few Good Men,’ the climactic scene of Tom and Jack confronting each other. Kaffee versus the Colonel. When Tom’s character, Kaffee, comes in for the murder. ‘I want the truth.’ movie.
“And Tom comes in, the camera’s rolling, and that’s what Tom’s looking at during the scene. Jack’s doing this, making the most ridiculous clown face you’ve ever seen,” Pollak added, while imitating Nicholson’s clown impression.
“And Tom stayed in the pocket and finished the scene and then hit Jack Nicholson in the shoulder. Um, and they both laughed. So that was Jack and my experience,” he continued.
“A Few Good Men” is a 1992 legal drama film directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin. The film follows Lt. Daniel Kaffee, a military lawyer played by Cruise, assigned to defend two U.S. Marines accused of murdering another Marine at Guantánamo Bay.
The case centers on whether the Marines were acting under an unauthorized “code red” — a violent disciplinary order allegedly given by their superiors. Demi Moore plays Lt. Cdr. Kaffee’s determined colleague JoAnne Galloway, while Nicholson plays Colonel Nathan Jessup, a powerful commander whose courtroom testimony leads to the famous film “You Can’t Handle the Truth!” confrontation.
The film also stars Pollak, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland and JT Walsh. It was a major critical and commercial success and received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Nicholson, and Best Film Editing.
In June, Pollak recalled working with the late Reiner on the cult classic and the “big lesson” he learned from making the film.
“The big problem with Rob is if we’re not having fun, there’s no point,” Pollak told People at the time.
“And he said that while we were going through a very intense legal drama, it was a great lesson and a great way to work.”
Along with a valuable lesson, Pollak told the outlet one of his fondest memories of working with the famous director.
“One of my most enjoyable moments was (when) we were shooting for a few weeks in Washington, D.C. establishing exteriors, and one night we were coming back from somewhere, just the two of us, and someone walked past us and said, ‘Oh my God, Rob Reiner, how are you? Do you work here?’ And he said, “Yeah. » He said, “What are you working on?” And he said, ‘The Godfather,'” Pollak told the outlet.
“And the guy said, ‘Oh great.’ He kept walking and I said, “Why did you say The Godfather?” And he said, “Well, if I said A Few Good Men, it was a Broadway play, but if you haven’t seen the Broadway play, you don’t know what I’m talking about.” So if I say The Godfather, we’re done talking, and you and I can move on with our lives. I’ve been using it ever since,” Pollak continued.
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