Oscar Nominee: Nick Nolte's Sleepless Nights Over WARRIOR Role
- Details
- Category: Interviews
- Created: Monday, 23 January 2012 16:00
- Published: Monday, 05 September 2011 21:41
- Written by Lupe Haas
Nick Nolte gave a heart-wrenching performance in Gavin O'Connor's WARRIOR and the Academy has acknowledged his work on the family drama with an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He told CineMovie last September the role in WARRIOR was a difficult one for him.
Listen to interview below.
As a recovering alcoholic with two estranged sons (Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton) in WARRIOR, Nick Nolte's Paddy Conlon character caused him many nights of restless sleep. The 70-year-old actors says acting is a 24-hour job of constantly thinking on how to approach a character so complex like Paddy in WARRIOR. He awoke many a night "filtering my own feelings" about the character, thinking he will do it one way and then on set "it doesn't work," he told CineMovie.
What came across the screen in Nolte's WARRIOR performance works so well, some viewers (females) felt the character's pain when both his sons reject him numerous times in his most vulnerable state which brought on the water works (myself included). Nolte himself was moved to tears watching the movie during the final sequence, not because of his performance, but the message of the film.
"I had to split because I was just gone. I didn't want the lights to come up. 'Look at that actor! He's crying about himself.' I said I had to go to the toilet."
When director Gavin O'Connor yelled cut on set, the emotions for Nolte lingered. While he says acting is "fun," it can be detrimental to your personal life when you "circulate around this character" and it hits you to the core. "Its not very good for family members," he said. The veteran actor attributed a famous quote to Katherine Hepburn about the hazards of being an actor.
"I think it was Katherine Hepburn who said no actor should be allowed to be married."
For this role in particular, the Paddy Conlon character hit home for Nick Nolte, himself a recovering alchoholic. Director Gavin O'Connor, who's neighbors with Nolte, wrote the Paddy Conlon character with his next door neighbor in mind. The WARRIOR director along with writer Anthony Tambakis made the right choice to cast the experienced actor who pulls off a marvelous comeback.
WARRIOR is in now on Blu-ray and DVD.
Nick Nolte Audio Interview