Jack Nicholson’s estranged daughter Tessa Gourin says she grew up without a father

Jack Nicholson’s estranged daughter Tessa Gourin reflects on her fatherless youth.

The 28-year-old spoke candidly in a recent interview with The Daily Beast about her passion for acting, the wasted potential of her so-called “nephews,” and how she feels about not being publicly recognized by Nicholson as her daughter.

“From a young age, my mother told me not to tell anyone that I have this famous father,” Gourin told the media. “I knew he was as powerful and rich as Warbucks father, so I equated my life to being like orphan Annie.”

Gourin said her single mother raised her and her younger half-brother in a two-bedroom apartment. She told the publication that Nicholson had agreed to fund her private education in New York, but that her absence caused tantrums as a child and expulsions from school.

“A few years ago, I was casually dating this guy who was also an actor, and I opened up to him … about how hard it was for me to grow up,” Gourin added. “His response was to start doing a monologue from ‘The Departed,’ accent and all.”

“I was made to say, ‘There’s Johnny,’ and of course I hadn’t even seen ‘The Shining’ when I was 8,” Gourin said of her childhood summer camp counselors.

Gourin first came to national attention earlier this month after Newsweek published her essay, “I’m Jack Nicholson’s Daughter – I Wish People Could Call Me a Nepo Baby,” as part of the recent culture of talk about children advantages of famous people.

“Growing up without my father, I sat on the sidelines and watched in frustration as other famous children perfectly secured their roles,” he wrote. “…I have become even more frustrated with what I believe is a missed opportunity for these so-called ‘nepo-babes.’

Gourin urged her more fortunate colleagues to “take ownership of your position and embrace it instead of complaining about it,” and told The Daily Beast that she “can understand the frustration” — but that the main “driving force” of an actor it should be that to prove themselves, regardless of labels.

Some actors like Allison Williams forcefully acknowledged their family advantage. Others, such as Lily-Rose Depp – Johnny Depp’s daughter – have publicly condemned the label. Ultimately, Depp’s pushback against the title, Gourin said, inspired the piece.

Gourin wanted to act all her life, but said her mother forbade her to pursue her passion as a child. Gourin later hesitated to follow in her father’s footsteps, but was reassessed after “excruciating” therapy and is now an aging actress in New York.

Asked why her famous father decided not to be involved in her life, Gourin said no one ever gave her “a concrete answer.” She said Nicholson was “a complicated person” and that her mother was “struggling with her own demons as well.”

Nicholson has not acted in a major film since 2010’s How You Know, which was largely panned by critics and audiences, and has since retreated from the limelight. He reportedly has at least five other children with four different women.

Some of them followed Nicholson into show business, while Gourin had to go it alone.

“I’ve been given a random shitty book, but I’m not going to let it destroy me,” she said. “Actually, I’ll use it to power up. I feel like any really good actor…what are their ultimate struggles and conflicts…that’s what motivates them and it happens to be mine as well.”