Ray Nicholson says he feared telling Jack Nicholson he wanted to act

Ray Nicholson said in a conversation published by Interview magazine that, after an arm infection ended his plans to play football, he was "really scared" to tell his father, Jack Nicholson, that he wanted to act.

Nicholson, 34, plays Tony Butkovich in Netflix’s The Mosquito Bowl and spoke with his older sister, Lorraine Nicholson, 36. Their father, 89, is a three-time Oscar winner who has rarely appeared publicly in recent years.

Ray Nicholson said he had expected to play football at Boston College. "I thought I was going to be Jerry Maguire," he said.

His high school team’s defeat on a 4th-and-1 play was a "very Friday Night Lights moment," he said. Afterward, he spent 45 minutes in the locker room, "just devastated that this high school football thing was over," he said.

Once home, he could no longer move his arm and told his mother, Rebecca Broussard, he thought his elbow was broken, he said. A staph infection had developed into MRSA, and he needed 24-hour nurses, he said.

Nicholson said his doctors warned him about the infection’s spread. "They put a mark on my arm that was like, 'If it gets past here, we're cutting your arm,'" he said.

The health scare gave him a "voice-of-god moment," he said, when he realized he wanted to act instead of playing football.

"I was really scared to tell dad," he said.

How Jack Nicholson reacted was not known.

Ray Nicholson said he attended the University of Southern California and came to love every aspect of filmmaking. His education also shifted his view of his father’s position in Hollywood, he said.

"My education really taught me that dad isn't God," he said. He called his father "a beautiful part" of the film industry, "but a very small part."

Nicholson said making his father proud ranks high for him, but acting "is really a way of finding who I am." He said he believes that path is the right one.

Sports remain a shared language of love for father and son, Nicholson said. The two cannot talk about much, he said, but the Los Angeles Lakers can keep them talking endlessly.

Ray Nicholson had reservations about working in show business, telling USA Today in October he was "a little trepidatious" at first because "it was the thing that took my dad away from my home," the Daily Mail reported.

Jack Nicholson spoke about his son’s determination to AARP Magazine in 2008, according to E! News, saying that once he has "got his mind set on something, he's gonna stick to it and take care of business, no matter what me or anybody else says."

One of Jack Nicholson’s last public appearances came at the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special in February 2025. For his 89th birthday in April, Lorraine Nicholson shared his picture on her Instagram Story.

Michael Douglas, who worked with Jack Nicholson on the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, told The Independent in October that Nicholson is well and no longer working. Douglas was promoting his memoir at the time. "He has disappeared," Douglas said.

Douglas said he still sees Nicholson and that he deserves a quiet life. "He is up there by his house and walking around in his slippers," Douglas said.