Jack Nicholsons son Ray says if he had fame when younger he could be dead

For Ray Nicholson, it was too soon to love acting as a child.Despite being the son of Jack Nicholson and actress Rebecca Broussard, the 33-year-old had no interest in following in his parents’ footsteps until later in life.“I wanted to be an astronaut, and then maybe a sports agent,” he told People about his childhood dreams.“I later realized that, yeah, deep down I’d always wanted to do this,” the “Smile 2″ alum admitted.“I think things happen when they do for a reason,” continued Nicholson.“If I’d had fame when I was younger, who knows — I could be dead.

I feel so much for the people who had this at a young age, dealing with pictures of them coming out of bars.It’s just so hard.”He shared that for a while, he lacked self-esteem to jump headfirst into the industry due to being a “chubby little kid.”“I just don’t think I had the confidence,” Nicholson shared with the outlet.

“So I took baby steps.I’ve had the same manager since I was young, and while I had a foot in the door, I always wanted to be able to audition as just Ray.”When it came to his father’s career, Nicholson remembers thinking on his first day of acting class: “Was that good enough for seven Oscars?”“There was this crippling pressure I put on myself,” he confessed.Jack, 87, landed his first feature film role in the 1958 teen drama “The Cry Baby Killer” and 12 years later shot to stardom in “Five Easy Pieces” alongside Karen Black.

He went on to win three Academy awards, three BAFTAs, seven Golden Globes, one SAG award and one GRAMMY.But these days, Jack’s son is all grown up, and his acting career is in full swing.Nicholson’s latest role is in the new action/thriller “Novocaine,” opposite the son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, Jack Quaid, 32.The young celebrity plays Simon, a bank robber whose heist goes sideways thanks to Quaid’s character, Nathan.“We had a blast,” Nicholson reminisced about filming in Cape Town, So...