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John Salangsang/Shutterstock; Tom Wargacki/WireImage
He’s got a megawatt smile like his actor dad Jack Nicholson, but Ray Nicholson says most people think he looks like other stars instead.
“Mostly people are like, you look like Leo,” he tells PEOPLE, referring to Leonardo DiCaprio. “Or, ‘You look like Sebastian Stan. I thought you were Sebastian Stan!’ “
He adds, “Which is weird because my dad and I do look so much alike. But, yeah, I either get Leo or Sebastian.”
Nicholson, 33, is currently starring in Novocaine, the action-packed thriller that also stars Jack Quaid. In the movie, Nicholson plays a bank robber whose heist goes terribly wrong, leaving a trail of death and destruction behind.
Ray Nicholson attends the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 02, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California; Sebastian Stan attends the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 02, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. Cindy Ord/VF25/Getty; Jamie McCarthy/WireImage
“It was so fun,” he says of making the movie. He adds that he loved playing the bad guy but chose to make him funny. “I like that likability in the characters because I think it makes for better entertainment, to be honest, when you don’t know who to root for.”
As for why he’s embracing an acting career now in his early 30s, Nicholson, who is also in the new movie Borderline, says it’s just how it was meant to be. “I think things happen when they’re supposed to happen,” he says.
He also notes that after growing up with a famous father, he simply wasn’t that interested in being famous himself.
Ray Nicholson at the “Smile 2” US Premiere held at the Paramount Theatre on October 14, 2024 in Los Angeles, California; Leonardo DiCaprio attends the 3rd Annual Academy Museum Gala at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on December 03, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty; JC Olivera/FilmMagic
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“To be honest with you, I don’t know if this sounds strange or whatever, but I just wanted to be normal. I hated the feeling, and I really felt this more when I was in college, of being a zoo animal.”
He admits he felt some pressure to live up to his dad’s incredible career, but that’s in the past. Both his dad Jack and his mom Rebecca Broussard are happy he’s happy and thriving.
“My dad and I don’t talk that much about acting,” he told CBS Mornings in 2024. “I think I’d probably hang on to his word too much. You know, I think it’s important for me to find my way. And with the smile, funny enough, my mom says, ‘You know Ray, you were such a beautiful boy, and then you started to look like your father!”
Nicholson tells PEOPLE, “Career success is less important to them than how I’m living day to day,” he says. “My challenges were different than others, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have them. So I think they’re just happy with where I’m at in life as a man, rather than with my profession.”
Novocaine is in theaters March 14.
For more on Ray Nicholson, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.
