\n\tHow did you come to acting? Was it always assumed you\u2019d go into film, given your family background?<\/p>\n
\n\tI don\u2019t necessarily think so. It wasn\u2019t assumed. My interest in film was definitely there, but I didn\u2019t really think about it as a career path until I was probably 15 or 16. Then again, I didn\u2019t really think about anything as a career path, so I guess it was just the first avenue I wanted to go down. Initially, I wanted to direct \u2014 that was my first thing. Then, in film class in high school, people asked me to act in their projects. I did that and was like, \u201cOK, I like this too.\u201d I acted in a couple of music videos, short films, stuff like that, and then got a manager and started auditioning.<\/p>\n
\n\tSo how did this project come to you? What appealed to you about the script and the character?<\/p>\n
\n\tThe director, Matt Sukkar, was actually my old roommate. We met at Sundance \u2014 I was there supporting a friend\u2019s film, and he was there supporting a buddy\u2019s movie. He said he was moving to L.A., and I said I was looking for a place, too. He\u2019s a bit older than me, but we stayed in touch, had similar interests, and eventually decided to live together. We lived together for about two years in this little house shaped like a boat \u2014 we called it the Boat House. We did a few projects together \u2014 I acted in a short film he directed, and he produced a short I directed. Over the years, we\u2019d read a few scripts, thinking maybe we\u2019d find something bigger to do together. Then he got sent this script and immediately called me, saying, \u201cThis is going to be my first film, and your first starring role.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat appealed to me was the grittiness of it \u2014 the kind of Western elements, the way it reminded me of Scorsese\u2019s After Hours, which was my favorite movie growing up. It\u2019s got this chaotic, one-night-in-the-city feel with all these eccentric characters. It was just the ideal character I wanted to play \u2014 the kind of opportunity that doesn\u2019t come around that often if you\u2019re not already a movie star.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou must get tired of being asked about your grandfather, but did he give you any advice about taking on your first starring role?<\/p>\n
\n\tI don\u2019t know if he gave me specific advice for this project, but one thing he\u2019s always emphasized is the importance of developing your own material \u2014 writing, creating projects with friends, being part of the process. He\u2019s always been more than an actor; he\u2019s a writer and director, too. That advice has been inspiring to me. I never want to just rely on self-tapes to feel creatively fulfilled.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Getty Images<\/p>\n
\n\tDo you look to his work for inspiration?<\/p>\n
\n\tDefinitely. I\u2019ve seen almost all his films. I mean, he\u2019s incredible. The one that resonates with me most is The Passenger, the [Michelangelo] Antonioni film. His performance and the filmmaking in that are just amazing. The first movie I ever saw him in, though, was Anger Management with Adam Sandler \u2014 still arguably the greatest movie he\u2019s ever made. (Laughs.) But yeah, I go up and visit him a lot, and we\u2019re pretty close. You know, he\u2019s just the best.<\/p>\n
\n\tHow did you approach your character in The Deputy?<\/p>\n
\n\tHe\u2019s this part-time deputy who gets called in one night to watch a body after someone\u2019s been shot in town. He leaves to cheat on his wife, and when he comes back, the body\u2019s missing. That kicks off this one-night saga where he\u2019s trying to track it down, and it turns out to be part of something much bigger. It\u2019s one of those stories where someone who\u2019s not equipped for a situation gets thrown into it, and you watch them grow and figure things out. He\u2019s a part-time cop who doesn\u2019t look or act like a cop \u2014 it\u2019s his graduation to the big leagues, in a sense. It\u2019s even a kind of coming-of-age story, though not in the usual way. It\u2019s got some shades of the Coen brothers\u2019 Blood Simple.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat are you working on now?<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019m mostly focused on writing my own stuff. I\u2019m almost done with a script I want to direct myself. I\u2019m still auditioning, too, but trying to direct is where most of my focus is right now. Eventually, the dream would be to act in the films I direct. John Cassavetes is my biggest hero.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou also famously appeared on the cover of Lana Del Rey\u2019s album Norman Fucking Rockwell! You\u2019re named after the famous surfer Duke Kahanamoku. Do you surf? Is modeling something you\u2019re also actively doing? How do you like to spend your time?<\/p>\n
\n\tYeah, I\u2019m named after Duke. He was an amazing guy \u2014 the one who brought surfing to the world. I occasionally surf, but not too much. And I\u2019ve done some modeling, but I don\u2019t exactly love it. I get asked about that album cover all the time, but there\u2019s no big story behind it. Lana\u2019s sister is a photographer and one of my close friends \u2014 she shoots all of Lana\u2019s album covers. They just asked me to do it; it was a super spur-of-the-moment thing. I spend most of my time watching movies, going to theaters around L.A. like the New Beverly or the Aero. I try to see old movies three or four nights a week. I write, I watch a lot of sports, I spend time with my girlfriend, I watch movies obsessively \u2014 and that\u2019s pretty much it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For nearly 10 years, Duke Nicholson \u2014 the 26-year-old grandson of Hollywood icon Jack Nicholson \u2014 has hovered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[67876,430,156,1019,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-132118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-afm","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-international","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}