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Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic
Despite his perfect smile — and very charming demeanor — Ray Nicholson, the actor son of Jack Nicholson, is adding "creepy bad guy" to the list of characters he's recently played.
"It was so much fun," he tells PEOPLE of starring in Novocaine, the new action-packed thriller that also stars Jack Quaid as a guy who can't feel pain — and will do whatever it takes to save the girl, including getting tortured.
In the film, Nicholson, 33, plays a bank robber whose heist goes wrong, leaving a trail of death and destruction behind.
"We filmed in South Africa," Nicholson says, adding that Cape Town stood in for San Diego. "And Jack is just a stud. He's so talented and so nice. Weirdly enough, we'd never met, even though we're the same age, and he went to school with a bunch of my friends."
Nicholson says he loved playing the antagonist in the film. While he's clearly the bad guy, he's also funny and a little cheeky.
"I think that's always more interesting," he says of playing multi-faceted characters. "There aren't only good sides and evil sides. The world isn't that way. Also, I like to find that likeability in my characters because I think it makes for better entertainment, to be honest — when you don't know who to root for."
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Paramount Pictures
As for why he's embracing an acting career now in his early 30s, he says it's just how it was meant to be. "I think things happen when they're supposed to happen," he says. "If I'd tried to do this earlier, when I was younger, who knows ... I could be dead."
He also notes that after growing up with a famous father, he simply wasn't that interested in being famous.
"To be honest with you, I don't know if this sounds strange or whatever, but I just wanted to be normal," he shares.
"I hated the feeling, and I really felt this more when I was in college, of being a zoo animal," Nicholson reflects. "When I went to elementary school, it was just like, 'Oh, that's just Ray.' It didn't matter who my parents were. But when social media was introduced, I think it changed things for me. I couldn't really make a first impression because people thought they knew me. But I'm very fortunate that I feel that I've found myself now. I know that I'm incomplete, but I like what I've got going on."
The star candidly shares that when he's not working, "I'm a homebody. I'm a dork. I'm a grandpa. I go to bed at nine. I never want to go out. I like watching movies. I like reading."
And while he says his parents are proud of his growing career, he maintains they're even prouder of who he is as a son.
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Mirek Towski/FilmMagic
"Career success is less important than how you're living day to day," he says of his dad and mom, actress Rebecca Broussard. "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."
He knows it wasn't easy raising kids in the spotlight: "As I get older and understand this life and business more, I look back and actually marvel at what a good job both of them did."
Novocaine is playing in theaters March 14.