JACK NICHOLSON REMINISCES ABOUT REDS

(VIDEO) It’s been twenty-five years but Jack Nicholson still remembers making Reds on his commentary for the DVD.

It’s been twenty-five years since the romantic war epic Reds was in theaters and now it’s available on DVD starring Warren Beatty as journalist John Reed and Diane Keaton as writer Louise Bryant playing two lovers caught up in the Communist revolution in Russia. When Beatty gets wrapped up in changing the world Keaton goes to stay with Jack Nicholson’s Eugene O’Neill. It would be 22 years before Jack reunited with Diane in Something’s Gotta Give but he remembers working with Diane on Reds in 1981.

Jack who has played colorful characters before found Eugene O’Neill’s life most interesting.

“We had a good working relationship. She’s one of the fun people to work with, there’s no drag. It’s all bing and ready. She learns everybody’s lines. She’s ready to roll. And very unpredictable which means you can be alive from moment to moment with her. She would find probably a lot to find fault with in this particular approach to making a documentary and getting poopsie about the period or too much. We made a movie, blah, is sort of the way she is.”

Reds won Oscars for best director Warren Beatty, best Cinematography and best actress for a supporting role went to Maureen Stapleton. The widescreen DVD also features interviews with Beatty, and his interviews with witnesses he began in the 1970s telling their stories of surviving the revolution.

“I found Eugene O’Neill’s life absolutely fascinating, so many things about him that I didn’t know. There are quite a few books written about him. I found quite a few things that I actually used in the movie. One of the more fascinating research jobs I ever had to do on something.”