"I’ll continue the Jack Nicholson theme and go to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Of its era, the great American novel. R.P. McMurphy is probably the defining Jack Nicholson character, if you had to pick one. It’s actually the first film I ever saw. I don’t remember it, but I was a little baby and my mom took me. It’s one of those movies I’ll watch whenever I’m feeling lost or alone in the universe. Something about McMurphy and the Chief throwing the sink through the window makes life worth living. [Director] Milos Forman was a really incredible storyteller. He knew how to tell a big story where the characters feel… Part of it has to do with the level of supporting acting. He creates a full world. Christopher Lloyd and Danny DeVito and Louise Fletcher and Brad Dourif — it’s just such an incredible cast. The world feels so real. That’s what so many epic movies get wrong. They feel important in the way that it’s in italics. They just feel like they’re about the director, and not about the characters."

"Chinatown sort of has this classic Hollywood vibe to it, or — not vibe — feel to it. I was always fascinated with sort of the old Hollywood, old architecture, the way Hollywood was back in the ’20s and the way that it captured all that, as well as the story and the acting. It’s just one of those films that I find myself watching over and over and over. I love seeing Jack Nicholson when he’s young — and his voice. All that stuff about him is so interesting to watch."

"And I’d put One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on the list. I think it’s one of the great performances of Jack Nicholson. And also, kind of being up against the system, and trying to fight the system, the power structures that exist around him, and his fight for integrity and to bring some positivity to the other… I guess you’d call them inmates, in a sense, in the loony bin. I mean, to me, it’s just some of the best acting and some of the most inspiring — you know, with Milos Forman at the helm — one of the most inspiring stories."

"One of the first ones I remember my jaw being on the floor. You know, that idea of who’s running the asylum [laughing]? And who’s really crazy and who isn’t? It was a spectacular film to me. Jack Nicholson — it was my first [time] being introduced to him in such an unbelievable way, and he didn’t seem like he was acting to me. He seemed like a crazy man. And he wasn’t acting, because I’ve subsequently met him and he is a crazy man! All the characters were — you know, I don’t need to say it. One of my favorite films. And I’ve always wanted to play Nurse Ratched."

"This is a journey of a film, which ends where we couldn’t have imagined it would. A lesson in complexity, pain, fun, and beauty. Karen Black comes off as a worse actress than she is, and Jack Nicholson comes off as a better actor than he is. I think I saw this on VHS in the mid 1980s and then again at the Cinema Village in New York City in 1989. Throughout both viewings, but more so during the second time, I felt: grateful, grateful. This movie keeps on giving. A month or two ago I remembered the scene between Nicholson’s character and the mute father. I’m grateful for that."