Kevin Pollak is opening up 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 there’s one moment while shooting ‘A Few Good Men,’ the climactic scene of Tom and Jack going toe-to-toe. Kaffee against the colonel. When Tom’s character, Kaffee, comes in for the kill. ‘I want the truth.’ Well, while he’s coming in and the camera is next to Jack’s face, shooting Jack’s POV of Tom and Jack has to put his face as close as he can to lens,” Pollak, who also starred in the movie, began.
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“And Tom’s coming in, camera shooting, and this is what Tom’s looking at during the scene. Jack is doing this, making the most ridiculous clown face you’ve ever seen,” Pollak added, while mimicking Nicholson’s clown impression.
“And Tom stayed in the pocket and finished the scene and then punched Jack Nicholson in the shoulder. Uh, and they both laughed. So, that was Jack and my experience,” he continued.
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“A Few Good Men” is a 1992 legal drama directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin. The movie follows Lt. Daniel Kaffee, a military lawyer played by Cruise, who is assigned to defend two U.S. Marines accused of murdering a fellow 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. JoAnne Galloway, Kaffee’s determined colleague, while Nicholson portrays Col. Nathan Jessup, a powerful commander whose courtroom testimony leads to the movie’s famous “You can’t handle the truth!” confrontation.
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The movie also stars Pollak, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland and J.T. 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 “great lesson” he took away from filming the movie.
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“The big thing with Rob was just, if we’re not having fun, there’s no point in any of this,” Pollak told People at the time. “And he said that while we’re doing a very intense courtroom drama, and it was a great lesson and a great way to work.”
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Along with a valuable lesson, Pollak told the outlet one of his fondest memories of working with the famed director.
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“One of my most enjoyable moments was [when] we shot a couple weeks in Washington D.C. to establish exteriors, and one night we were walking back from somewhere, just the two of us, and someone passed us and said, ‘Oh my God, Rob Reiner, how are you? Are you here working?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘What are you working on?’ And he said, ‘The Godfather,'” Pollak told the outlet.
“And the guy went, ‘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 didn’t see the Broadway play, you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. So if I say The Godfather, we’re done talking, and you and I can keep going with our lives.’ I’ve used it ever since,” Pollak continued.
