Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Nurse Ratched actress can't stand 'Cukoo's Nest'

FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2012 file photo, Louise Fletcher, a cast member in "Shameless," poses at the premiere of the second season of the Showtime television series, in Los Angeles. Fletcher says she's no longer able to watch the movie ?One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? because the character she won an Oscar for, Nurse Ratched, is so cruel. Fletcher will be in Salem, Ore., on Saturday for the opening of a museum of mental health at the rebuilt Oregon State Hospital, where the 1975 movie was filmed in 1975. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2012 file photo, Louise Fletcher, a cast member in "Shameless," poses at the premiere of the second season of the Showtime television series, in Los Angeles. Fletcher says she's no longer able to watch the movie ?One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? because the character she won an Oscar for, Nurse Ratched, is so cruel. Fletcher will be in Salem, Ore., on Saturday for the opening of a museum of mental health at the rebuilt Oregon State Hospital, where the 1975 movie was filmed in 1975. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

File - In this March 29, 1976 file photo, actress Louise Fletcher holds the Oscar for "Best Actress" which she won for her performance in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Fletcher says she's no longer able to watch the movie ?One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? because the character she won an Oscar for, Nurse Ratched, is so cruel. Fletcher will be in Salem, Ore., on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012 for the opening of a museum of mental health at the rebuilt Oregon State Hospital, where the 1975 movie was filmed. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In a in Nov. 1975 file photo provided by United Artists, actor Jack Nicholson is shown in a scene from the movie "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". Louise Fletcher says she's no longer able to watch the movie ?One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? because the character she won an Oscar for, Nurse Ratched, is so cruel. Fletcher will be in Salem, Ore., on Saturday, Oct. 2012 for the opening of a museum of mental health at the rebuilt Oregon State Hospital, where the 1975 movie was filmed. (AP Photo/United Artists, File)

FILE - In this March 10, 2005 file photo, a section of one of the abandoned wings of the Oregon State Hospital, used in the 1975 film, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is shown in Salem, Ore. Louise Fletcher says she's no longer able to watch the movie ?One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? because the character she won an Oscar for, Nurse Ratched, is so cruel. Fletcher will be in Salem, Ore., on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012 for the opening of a museum of mental health at the rebuilt Oregon State Hospital, where the 1975 movie was filmed. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens, file)

(AP) ? Louise Fletcher says she can't bear to watch "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" because the Nurse Ratched character she won an Oscar for is so cruel.

"I find it too painful," said Fletcher, 78. "It comes with age. I can't watch movies that are inhumane."

Fletcher is returning this weekend to the institution where the movie was made in 1975, the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, the Statesman Journal reported (http://stjr.nl/WjMOTJ ).

The hospital, long under fire for inadequate programs and crumbling facilities, has been rebuilt in recent years. Fletcher is attending the opening of its Museum of Mental Health.

The movie is based on the novel by Oregon writer Ken Kesey. It centers on the struggle between the steely Nurse Ratched and Jack Nicholson's scheming character, Randall McMurphy, who eventually gets a lobotomy for leading a rebellion among the prisoners on his ward.

"I was really shocked in those scenes where I was actually so cruel," Fletcher said.

In 1975, Dr. Dean Brooks, then the superintendent, opened the campus to the cast and crew. Fletcher said she was in the city 11 weeks, filming six days a week. He and Fletcher have stayed in touch ? they talk by phone each July 22, their common birthday.

Brooks recalls the actress as being nothing like the character: "I have found her to be angelic."

Fletcher, whose parents are deaf, took time out from filming to visit students at the Oregon School for the Deaf, he said. He said he's admired how she doted on her parents and cared for them as they aged, and how she dropped everything to spend time with a dying friend in London.

Fletcher said better known actresses turned down the role, and it wasn't until she saw the film for the first time with an audience, in Chicago, that she was convinced she pulled it off.

In scene where McMurphy throws Nurse Ratched against the wall and chokes her in a fit of rage, she said, "they all stood up and cheered in the theater and were stomping their feet. That got to me. I realized, 'Hey, I created a real villain here.'"

___

Information from: Statesman Journal, http://www.statesmanjournal.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-10-03-People-Nurse%20Ratched/id-4e4ab3a08abd48a19aa1a2c575a0da64

autism adrienne rich cesar chavez day raspberry ketone ron burgundy millennial media nit championship

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.