If you had the opportunity to work with Jack Nicholson, I’m sure you’d have some great things to relate. Matt Damon, who is now on the road promoting his new picture Stillwater, recalls his personal encounter with the actor while filming Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. In the picture, Nicholson portrays Costello, a crucial character in an Irish-American organized criminal syndicate, and he offered certain rewrites to illustrate how brutal Costello is, but the recommendations went a little too far.

During an interview on comedian Marc Maron’s WTF show, Jack Nicholson said how his considerable success as an actor originates from his confidence that he is “a fucking great writer.” Nicholson contacted Damon to discuss his horrific rewrites after examining a scenario in which Nicholson’s character commits a seashore execution that was originally barely an eighth of a page long.

“The scene was one-eighth of a page. It said, ‘Costello executes a man kneeling in the marsh.’ That’s all it said,” Damon said (via Uproxx). “Jack was so excited and said [to me], ‘Wait until you hear what I did.’ He goes, ‘Well, it was an eighth of a page,’ and he goes, ‘I’ve seen that before, so what I did is I made it a woman… and I put Ray [Winstone] in the scene with me.’”

Damon continued, “[Nicholson] goes, ‘We’re gonna keep in this same shot, I’m not gonna add any time or money to the schedule. But I shoot her in the back of the head, and she falls over. Now, you could end the scene there, but if you keep the camera rolling, I turn to Ray and I say, “Geez, she fell funny.” Now, that’s a very sinister line. It suggests that I’ve done this before. There’s a way that people fall. Now you could end the scene there, but if you keep the camera rolling, Ray reveals an axe that he’s holding behind his back. He’s gonna chop her up. So Ray starts to step forward… Now you could end the scene there, but if you leave the camera rolling, I say, “Wait, I think I wanna fuck her again.” Now that’s a very sinister line.’”

“I’m like, ‘Jesus,'” Damon said at the time. Nicholson went on to say:

“You could end the scene there, but if you keep the camera rolling, Ray gives me a look and after a long pause, I go, ‘Ahhhhh!’ Like I’ve got him. Now, you could keep the camera rolling, Ray says to me, ‘Francis, you really ought to see somebody.’”

Scorsese did eventually embrace at least a tiny portion of Nicholson’s proposals, as disturbing as they may seem. Rather of merely executing a guy, the final version of the film depicts Nicholson’s character killing a lady (Nicholson’s suggestion), attended by Winstone, and delivering the “She fell funny” line. Winstone is also shown clutching the hatchet indicated by Nicholson, and he says, “Francis, you really should see somebody.”

The Departed is based on the real-life Boston Winter Hill Gang and is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs. Collin Sullivan (Damon) is modeled by corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, while Frank Costello (Nicholson) is modeled after Irish-American mobster Whitey Bulger. In this film set in Boston, Irish mob leader Frank Costello infiltrates the Massachusetts State Police by planting Colin Sullivan as a mole, while the police deploy undercover state trooper Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) to infiltrate Costello’s squad. When both sides know what’s going on, Sullivan and Costigan try to figure out who the other is before they’re found out.