Geena Davis details shutting down Jack Nicholson’s sexual advances
Geena Davis is detailing the time she allegedly shut down Jack Nicholson’s sexual advances by invoking advice she had received from her “Tootsie” co-star, Dustin Hoffman.
The Oscar winner, 66, told The New Yorker in an interview published Thursday that she learned quite a bit from Hoffman, 85, after landing opposite the veteran movie star in the pair’s 1982 rom-com.
In addition to encouraging the then-green actress to “read a lot of books,” Hoffman also apparently suggested Davis ward off overly eager men in the biz by saying, “Well, you’re very attractive. I would love to, but it would ruin the sexual tension between us.”
She told the publication she “saved that advice away.”
Davis was a Victoria’s Secret lingerie model living in New York and trying to break into acting when she landed the role of April Page in “Tootsie.”
Shortly after the movie came out, she said her modeling agent took her and “a couple of other actor-slash-models to Hollywood to meet casting directors.”
Davis said her agent “happened to know” Nicholson, 85, who “had dinner” with the budding star and her peers “every single night.”
One day, Davis recalled, “there was a note under the door that said, ‘Please call Jack Nicholson at this number.'”
She said she couldn’t “believe it” and excitedly phoned the “Shining” star.
“So I said, ‘Hello, Mr. Nicholson. This is Geena, the model. You called me?’ He said, ‘Hey, Geena. When is it gonna happen?'” she claimed.
The alleged inquiry took Davis by surprise.
“I was like, ‘Oh, no — why didn’t I realize this is what it was going to be about?'” she told the New Yorker. “But it immediately came into my head what to say: ‘Uh, Jack, I would love to. You’re very attractive. But I have a feeling we’re going to work together at some point in the future, and I would hate to have ruined the sexual tension between us.'”
“He was like, ‘Oh, man, where’d you get that?'” the actress recalled. “So it worked.”
The anecdote, which Davis first spoke about in 2014, is among many featured in her newly released book, “Dying of Politeness: A Memoir.”
Reps for Nicholson have not yet responded to Page Six’s request for comment.
