<p> Jack Nicholson became notorious for his reluctance to be interviewed, but in 1971, as his star was rising after <em>Easy Rider</em>, <em>Five Easy Pieces </em>and <em>Carnal Knowledge</em>, he sat for a pair of interviews with a couple of unknown film students from the University of Southern California. The resulting book by Robert Crane and Christopher Fryer was neither a biography nor a critical analysis but a collection of primary sources. Along with interviewing Nicholas, they taped conversations with many of his co-stars, directors and producers, including Dennis Hopper, Roger Corman, Sally Struthers, Bruce Dern and Ann-Margret. </p> <p>In their introduction to the new paperback edition, retitled <em>Jack Nicholson: The Early Years </em>(University Press of Kentucky), Crane and Fryer are amazed at their guileless good fortune: We, a couple of nobodies, got to interview Jack! It was, as they wrote, “a deranged moment of weakness on his part” and a case of the stars aligning at the precise moment. Their initial interview with Nicholson opened the doors to many of his otherwise reticent associates. </p> <p>Nicholson emerges as an engaging, open figure as he took their questions about LSD, the various directors with whom he had worked and his commercially unsuccessful directorial debut, <em>Drive, He Said</em>. “Their life and their behavior are extensions of my behavior,” he said of the characters he played. “I try to feel what they're doing is what they think is the right thing.” </p>
