"Because of living a checkered life, I have a lot of different . . . views about it," says Nicholson. "Really, what you'd better know is, you're in the laps of the gods about it all. I don't think anybody would be unhappy having either of us as a parent, really. I may be flattering myself."
As for what he tells his children about his storied past, he says, "I did it both ways. With my oldest daughter [43-year-old Jennifer], I was totally open about everything I did. And that had a very good result in some ways, and in some ways maybe not. Certain things, because I have been to more school meetings or whatever, I tried to be somewhat mendacious and so forth and so on, because that's what I also erroneously thought might be best, but it does not matter. They find out everything you do anyway. They busted me millions of times. They laughed in my face. I love them for it!"
Freeman's four children range in age from 36 to 48. "As a parent, I think I am possibly very checkered in that respect. Two of my kids were born while I was moving fast. Two of them, I was married and raised. And there is a vast difference in the two sets. A lot of what we do as parents has a lot to do with what we went through as children ourselves. I was raised primarily by women. My mother, I would classify my mother as libertarian. She had few, if any, secrets from me, which made me grow up thinking I am her favorite. We were very close. So to have the same thing, my children, the point is to try not to have secrets. This is the way we are."
Both men insist they still have things on their own personal "bucket lists," though they remain vague on what they are.
For Freeman, he wanted to work with Nicholson before he died. And that included hugging.
After the last shot, Freeman told Nicholson, "This has been a dream come true," recalls Reiner. Before the last shot, "Jack had said, 'We're not hugging.' But Morgan is a hugger. After the last shot, Morgan gave him a great bear hug."
Nicholson, says Freeman, "is still working on kissing the most beautiful girl in the world."
"That's right, I still am working on it," riffs the man who is known as a Lothario.
In reality, though, his "Bucket List" sounds tinged in regret.
"I'm not an adventurer and a traveler like my friend is. . . . I am kind of a home person that way, and I traveled a lot earlier on in my life, but still there's plenty of places I want to go to. There are endless things you want to do, books you wanted to read, corners you wanted to clean, this you wanted to get right, that thing you wanted to put right with, it is endless."
rachel.abramowitz @latimes.com
