Ray Nicholson "can't talk about" much with his father, screen legend Jack Nicholson, and was "scared" to tell him he wanted to be an actor.

The 34-year-old actor has always bonded with the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest star - who has stepped away from the public eye in recent years - over their mutual love of sport, and it is the one topic he can always spend hours talking to his 89-year-old dad about.

Ray made the revelation as he discussed giving up on his sporting dreams after an injury.

Speaking to his sister Lorraine for Interview magazine, he said: "I thought that I was going to go to Boston College and play football. I thought I was going to be Jerry Maguire.

"I love sports so much. It's also the language of love that me and dad share. We can't talk about a lot, but we can talk about the f****** Lakers until kingdom come.

"But anyway, we have this very Friday Night Lights moment, 4th and 1, and we lose the game. I sat in a locker room for 45 minutes, just devastated that this high school football thing was over.

"I go home with mom, and by the time I get home, I can't move my arm. I go to mom, I'm like, 'I think I broke my elbow.' We went to the hospital right away and they sent us out because I had a staph infection that got so bad it turned into MRSA, and I had to have 24-hour nurses. They put a mark on my arm that was like, 'If it gets past here, we're cutting your arm.' "

The Mosquito Bowl actor had a sudden realisation that his path was elsewhere.

He continued: "And it was this voice-of-god moment that was like, 'You don't want to do this. You want to be an actor.'

"I was really scared to tell dad. But I went to USC and learned to love everything about filmmaking."

Ray's studies gave him an appreciation for the wider filmmaking industry and helped him realise his dad's opinion wasn't the only one that mattered.

He added: "My education really taught me that dad isn't god. He's not the only thing in this film industry. He's a beautiful part of it, but a very small part. Yes, of course, making dad proud is high on my list, but this is really a way of finding who I am. And I feel that I'm on the right path to that."

Growing up, the Smile 2 star viewed his basketball coaches as "surrogate fathers" because of the way they encouraged and pushed him.

He said: "I was fully a fat kid. I probably weighed the same as I do now when I was nine years old, and I am now 5'11" and I was then 4'11".

"I just had this sense of shame growing up. At my first basketball practice, we were running around the court as a warm-up lap, and I was so exhausted, and these kids were effortlessly running ahead of me.

"I literally tripped over the half court, and I was so ashamed I had to sit out crying the rest of the practice. But these guys picked me up, and so much of sports is about family, brotherhood, and lifting someone up.

"I was a total stranger, and these were all inner city kids, and I had never experienced anything like that."

Lorraine noted: "Especially those coaches. Obviously, we have a father, but they became father figures to you.

Ray agreed: "Totally. Every coach that you have becomes a surrogate father and somebody that's really pushing you.

"I really respond to that. I'm very adverse to love. I'm very in your face yelling at you, 'Do better.' "