He has embodied the life force itself, and the conflict between the urges for freedom and connection.

Nicholson used to unapologetically declare his fondness for mind-altering substances and encouraged his reputation as an incurable ladies man.

This is a guy who worries about humanity during bouts of insomnia at three in the morning.

Q:The Bucket Listis about two guys facing deathnot your usual Hollywood subject matter.

A: The adventurous part, for me, was how do you make death funny?

Because I dont think its very funny myself!

Ive got more than your average amount of fear of the unknown.

Q: Youre 70 now.

How do you feel?

A: Well, Im an accentuate-the-positive person.

And, you know, there are a lot of things that improve.

Definitely aging has improved my charactertheres no doubt about thatsimply because of the things you cant do.

Q: Which of those things do you miss?

I always felt that I could stand up longer than almost any actor that ever lived.

Well, comes a point where you cant.

Q: You do yogadoes that offset some of the effects of aging?

A: Well, I dont do anything to offset anything.

Q: Would you say youre a person who looks forward, rather than backward?

A: My ethics basically are to live in the now, and that requires tremendous discipline.

Its as close to a religious sentiment as I have.

Q: You used to say that years agoand youre still living by that?

A: Yes, I am.

Sidney Poitier said something about aging to me that gave me the most positive vibe.

He says, Jack, youre not going to believe it.

When I turned 70, I got a burst of energy.

I do not know where it came from.

Sure enough, he certainly was right, where Im concerned.

When I was 70, I thought, Geez, Im doin great!

Q: Now youre young for your age!

A: I felt that way.

We got a lot of this intoThe Bucket List.Its a pretty personal film, you know.

A lot of the dialogue came from anecdotes of friends of mine.

Q: Morgan Freeman said that you were constantly tweaking the script.

Theres a line in the movie where the hospital tycoon says, Ive never been sick before!

Which I found amusing and was in fact true of me.

Id never been in bed for six to eight weeks.

Talk about the loss of recuperative powers as we get older.

I was worried: Am I ready to get on my feet and do a movie?