Jack Black Interview, Be Kind Rewind

MoviesOnline caught up with Jack Black at the Los Angeles press day for his new film “Be Kind Rewind.” From the fiercely imaginative mind of Academy Award-winning writer/director Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”), “Be Kind Rewind” is the tale of two childhood friends who inadvertently get caught up in a scheme to rewrite film history and, in turn, save their beloved video store from extinction. Black plays Jerry, the neighborhood mechanic, who lives in a trailer near the power plant which he swears is slowly killing him with its ‘microwaves.’ Across the street, his friend Mike (Mos Def) lives and works in the local video rental store, “Be Kind Rewind,” struggling to keep the ailing business owned by his boss, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) financially afloat and, physically, in one piece.

When Jerry attempts to sabotage the power plant he suspects of causing his headaches, he inadvertently causes his brain to become magnetized, leading to the unintentional destruction of all the movies in his friend's store. In order to keep the store's one loyal customer, an elderly lady (Mia Farrow) with a tenuous grasp on reality, the pair re-create – or ‘swede’ -- a long line of films including “The Lion King,” “Rush Hour,” “Ghostbusters,” “When We Were Kings,” “Back to the Future,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” and “Robocop,” putting themselves and their townspeople into it and becoming the biggest stars in their neighborhood.

Jack Black has appeared in many motion pictures, but it was his scene-stealing performance as John Cusack’s sarcastic music store employee in Stephen Frear’s acclaimed comedy “High Fidelity” that cemented his place in the hearts of audiences. In September 2003, Black proved his box office draw with a #1 opening for Paramount Pictures “School of Rock” from producer Scott Rudin, director Richard Linklater and writer Mike White. Black received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

In December 2005, Black was seen in director Peter Jackson’s cinematic blockbuster “King Kong,” joining a cast that included Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Andy Serkis and Colin Hanks. Black most recently was seen co-starring in Noah Baumbach’s “Margot at the Wedding” opposite Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh. He starred in and produced the box office smash “Nacho Libre,” directed by Jared Hess (“Napoleon Dynamite”); and in the ensemble comedy, “The Holiday,” directed by Nancy Meyers and also starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and Jude Law.

Black will next lend his voice to the title role of Dreamworks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda,” which will be released in theaters on June 6th, 2008. He recently completed shooting the Ben Stiller-directed feature “Tropic Thunder” for Dreamworks in Hawaii. In January he began filming “Year One” for director Harold Ramis and Sony.

As the lead singer of the rock-folk comedy group Tenacious D, which he created with friend Kyle Gass, Black starred in the 2006 feature film “Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny.” Their self-titled album was released in 2001 and quickly certified at gold-selling status.

Dressed casually and sporting spiky highlighted hair and a beard, here’s what the talented actor and musician had to tell us about his latest film:

MoviesOnline: OK, the tinting.

JACK BLACK: Yes, I’ve been tinted. Highlights.

MoviesOnline: For?

JACK BLACK: This was a full blonde hairdo and it’s just growing out. I haven’t dyed it back to the original darker brown because I’m lazy. I just don’t want to use any more chemicals if I don’t have to. And it looks stylish, right? It looks like I went to Vidal Sassoon. 

MoviesOnline: Do you have any project you have to get back to normal for?

JACK BLACK: I do have a project, but I’m going to be wearing a wig. A biblical period comedy.

MoviesOnline: Are you playing Moses?

JACK BLACK: No, I am not playing anyone famous from the bible. I’m just playing a guy who is wandering through. [Laughter]

MoviesOnline: I remember a few years ago you said playing King Kong would be the coolest role in “King Kong.” Did it live up to your expectations?

JACK BLACK: Um. Sorry, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, this was a quite a bit shorter shoot. Thirty minutes to shoot this version of ‘King Kong’ versus six months to shoot the other one. But, yeah, it was fun to be the monster for a minute especially with the ingenious toy truck on my face.

MoviesOnline:   Was that your favorite movie to Swede because of your connection to it?

JACK BLACK: That one was so short. That was just part of a montage. That was kind of cool that it was a montage without any edits in it. Did you notice that? It’s kind of brilliant. I don’t think it’s been done. A montage where you don’t edit? Leave it to Michel, the cutting edge of creativity. [Laughter] But, yeah, I think my favorite. I really liked doing ‘Robocop’ because that’s my cup of tea. I love Sci-Fi, action. I’ve always wanted to be the Robocop.

MoviesOnline: Some people would say “Miss Daisy” was unique.

JACK BLACK: Well, that was a stretch for me. [Laughs] That was me trying to grow. Got on the dress with the worker boots. It was a really good look. Disguised the voice nicely. I’ve not heard from the Tandy estate. No one has called to say ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ yet.

MoviesOnline: Did you suggest any of the films to be Sweded because you had a great idea on how to do them?

JACK BLACK: No. Yeah, I wanted to do ‘Road Warrior’ and he said ‘No’ and that was fine. 

MoviesOnline: Which movie did you wish they could have Sweded in this film that they didn’t?

JACK BLACK: I love the old Jack Nicholson movies like ‘The Shining.’ ‘Five Easy Pieces’? No. ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ would have been cool.

MoviesOnline: If they had Sweded one of your films, which one would you have wanted to see them do?

JACK BLACK: I’d like to see them do, ‘Nacho.’ I would like to see someone else in the stretchy pants. 

MoviesOnline: When you were a little kid, did you ever run around with a camera doing your own stuff?

JACK BLACK: Um, I didn’t have a camera, no. I was always pretending to be characters from television or films, but always just sort of like a kid horsing around. No one was filming, but I had a tape recorder. I did a lot of, yeah.

MoviesOnline: I love the idea of a world where a man in your position would not know the lyrics to the song from “Ghostbusters.” How did you come up with your version of that song?

JACK BLACK: We didn’t have the rights to the song at the time that we were shooting that scene and Michel asked if I would come up with a song that sounded like it, but was not it lyrically or rhythmically so that we couldn’t be [sued]…And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And I just cranked it out. But then we got the rights to the song, so it was a waste of time, except that it has still made it into the movie because it’s pretty funny. It’s funny to go from my really bad version of it to the real song.

MoviesOnline: So that was just the first thing you came up with?

JACK BLACK: [talk-sings] ‘When you’re walking down the street and you see a little ghost. What are you gonna do? Ghostbusters!’  See, because I know in the original it says, ‘Who are ya gonna call?’ That’s the thing, the hook. But when I said, ‘Whatcha gonna do?,’ Michel said, [French accent] ‘Non! It’s too close. Same rhythm. We will still get sued.’ [Laughs]  So I changed it, ‘What are you gonna do?’ That sounds horrible. Horrible!

MoviesOnline: Can you talk about working with Mos Def?

JACK BLACK: Mos Def is an amazing actor. You wouldn’t know, but he’s the real deal. But you probably did know. He’s a really good actor. He’s really into being – he’s like a method actor. All his motivations have to be real and he lets his characters really breathe and take their time in the reality of the scene which was good for me to have that there. He was my anchor. Kept me on planet earth. He was good.

MoviesOnline: Was there a lot of ad libbing in the film?

JACK BLACK: There was a lot of improvisation. More so than any movie I’ve ever done. Michel had all the beats down, but when he first pitched the movie, he was saying it was an improv movie. So, I was prepared for that. But he had a lot more written than what I think he was planning on, you know. It was just clearly written by a dude who didn’t speak English. [Laughter] ‘I think what you mean is blah, blah, blah.’ So that was what the improv was, more like translation improv.

MoviesOnline: How does Michel Gondry interest you as a filmmaker?

JACK BLACK: He interests me in his inventiveness. Like the shot that I was talking about earlier, where you are doing a whole montage, passage of time within one shot, where you’d normally have 15 shots and that would take a whole week to shoot? He’s doing that in one day without any edits. That’s something – he’s stretching the boundaries and leading the way in a lot of ways and I think other people are going to imitate him and it’s fun to be part of that, yeah, carving out some new territory.

MoviesOnline: How physically demanding was it to play your character?

JACK BLACK: It wasn’t too hard. When I was being magnetized? Yeah, I think I got a little cut on my finger actually, but no, it wasn’t physically demanding too much. The harder part was doing, what’s that movie, ‘Rush Hour 2.’ When I had to fall into the garbage, it was a little bit of a stunt, because there were no pads underneath the garbage. I was like, ‘Michel, can’t we put some pads underneath that garbage that I’m about to dive into?’  And he says, [French accent] ‘Non! You’ll see them. There’s no time!’ And I did it and sure enough, I hurt my elbow a little bit. I got a scratch on my elbow. And he said, [French accent] ‘Don’t be such a babee! You’ve got to keep going.’ [Laughter]

MoviesOnline: How quickly did you shoot this movie? It sounds like you did it in a month.

JACK BLACK: We did it very fast. It wasn’t a month. I think we took two months. Maybe just under two months. It was really fun.

MoviesOnline: What about the props for this? Did you think about something off the street and add it or was it all Michel?

JACK BLACK: It was all Michel’s stuff. All of that, the costumes and stuff. I mean, he had help constructing, but they were all his sketches and his ideas, of course.

MoviesOnline: What’s up with your music? Are you thinking of something else to do on stage?

JACK BLACK: Ah, yeah, we’re writing songs. We’ll see. We need a little more time. I’m thinking it’s going to be some time in the ‘tens [means 2010].

MoviesOnline: Didn’t Tenacious D rock the WGA recently at the Reality Writer’s Rally?

JACK BLACK: Yeah. I think they tried to get Rage Against The Machine and they said ‘No.’ And then they called Bruce Springsteen and he said ‘No.’ And then they called ten other people and then they called Tenacious D and we said ‘Yes.’ I think that’s how it happened. Because we never back down from a challenge and it’s hard to say no when it’s a good cause. We like writers and we believe they should be compensated fairly. We like to save the day. We like to ride in and save the day and get all the credit for being good guys. [Laughs]

MoviesOnline: How much fun did you have being a cartoon panda?

JACK BLACK: Cartoon panda was fun. I mean, it’s an easy gig in terms of not having to wake up at the crack [of dawn]. Not having to get into costumes or make up. You just go straight to the recording session at noon. Have some Koo Koo Roo chicken. Do a few hours of vocal work and then ‘see you in a month.’ And I’ll come back for another day. So you work like once a month for a few years.

MoviesOnline: Did you act out any of the Kung Fu?

JACK BLACK: Yeah, I get really physical because they have cameras there, but they just use it as reference, not as motion capture. 

MoviesOnline: So how do you think you look?

JACK BLACK: As a panda? Strong. Solid. Well built. [Laughter]

MoviesOnline: How much of it have you seen?

JACK BLACK: I’ve seen like, I’d say 60% of it is done. The animation is still being tweaked. I’m going to do a little more vocal work tomorrow actually. If you want to come down, you can watch. 

MoviesOnline: Have you heard the reaction from people seeing the bumpers telling moviegoers not to talk during the movie at AMC theaters? 

JACK BLACK: Oh, yeah.

MoviesOnline: I was in a theater over the holidays and they totally reacted to it…

JACK BLACK: In a good way, like ‘Oh god! I’m not going to that movie.’ [Laughter] That’s a reaction as well.

MoviesOnline: They laughed. They thought it was really funny.

JACK BLACK: That’s good. I have not heard any trickle down from that. But I remember at the time when they were like, ‘Will you do this?’ I was like, ‘I don’t like the idea, I don’t think it’s going to be good, but alright let’s do it.’ And then I did it and was like, ‘That was good. That was funny.’ I’m glad that you’ve heard people like it.

MoviesOnline: Does your character have an accent?

JACK BLACK: No. I did do an accent in the last cartoon I did, but in this one, no.

MoviesOnline: Who do you play in ‘Tropic Thunder’?

JACK BLACK: We are all playing actors going out to make a war movie, but then we get into weird trouble when we go out to Vietnam. We accidentally stumble into a different part of Asia. We go off the map and we trespass into a drug cartel’s territory and they are shooting at us for real, but we think it’s part of the movie, so we just keep on acting and shooting blanks. [Laughs.] I play kind of a Chris Farleyesque comedian who is trying to go for a stretch. For a real actiony and uh, yeah.

MoviesOnline: Did you get the full safety pads for that movie?

JACK BLACK: Yes. It was much more, but that was like a real stunt movie with real stunts going on.

MoviesOnline: Did you have your own stunt double?

JACK BLACK: Yes, I did. I did have a stunt double. He was great.

MoviesOnline: You were so great in ‘Margot at the Wedding.’ Do you get offers for dramatic roles at all?

JACK BLACK: Thank you. I do get mostly comedy offers. And that’s fine with me.

MoviesOnline: Do you want to do more dramatic parts at all?

JACK BLACK: No, not really.

MoviesOnline: How do you pick your projects?

JACK BLACK: I like directors, you know? If there is a director with a vision and I like their work, that’s how I’ve been doing it. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to work with great people. Let’s see if that continues.

MoviesOnline: So Harold Ramis was one of those also?

JACK BLACK: Yep. Yeah. He’s great. ‘Groundhog Day.’

MoviesOnline: How do you choose a script? Does it have to be funny on the page? Is it something that appears as though it could be funny under the right circumstances?

JACK BLACK: I can’t be sure [Yawns loudly.] I’m sorry. It’s not your question. [Laughs.] You can never tell from just a script unless you respond to it. That’s the only thing you can do. And I respond to things, not just because they are funny, but because they move me in a way like this idea was interesting to me because it was saying, ‘Hey! These two guys, these two friends in this kind of rundown neighborhood get creative and find a way to escape their own dull existence’ and I responded to that neighborhood good vibes, honest kind of, I don’t like to say ‘feel good,’ because that sounds like studio executives saying ‘It really had heart.’ [Laughs] But I responded to it in an emotional way that I liked.

MoviesOnline: This month is the Super Bowl. Do you get into it and have a big party?

JACK BLACK: I don’t throw a lot of parties. I would though, because I have a really good TV now. I did have people over. I had a small gathering for the big boxing match that happened. That was pretty fun. I am rooting for that team to go undefeated. New England. Did you watch that last game of the season? New England Patriots vs. – it was one of the greatest games of all time. I think it might have been the best football game of all time. It was like an orgasm that game, if you like football.

MoviesOnline: You don’t want to see an upset then at the Super Bowl?

JACK BLACK: Ah, no. I root for the Michael Jordans. I want to be alive during the historical times. Listen, I know it’s gonna be great. If someone upsets them, it’s gonna make their career. It’s gonna make their whole thing come true and it’s sad that that’s how you have to get famous by spoiling a beautiful history.

MoviesOnline: You recently became a father. I’m curious how it’s going?

JACK BLACK: So far, no screw-ups. So far, so good. He’s super cute. He’s a dance machine. He does scream when he doesn’t get what he wants. I think that’s normal, but I’ve learned some new techniques. Someone told me that you have to explain to them why they are not getting what they want. Even if he doesn’t speak language yet, he can tell that I’m trying to communicate and he respects me. He still cries, but he cries with less urgency and less protest.

MoviesOnline: They say that you can tell them what’s happening and that helps.

JACK BLACK: I’m gonna try that. [Laughs] It was like this morning he was going through all those things in the drawer in the bathroom while I was getting ready brushing my teeth and he was trying to get the shaving cream, which I haven’t been using obviously, and I said, ‘No, no, no, close the drawer.’ And he went ‘Ahhhhhhh!’ And I said, ‘Sammy, I know you want to get the shaving cream and you’re upset because you can’t because you’re gonna make a mess and…’ and he’s going, ‘Ahhhhhhhh!’ Anyway.

MoviesOnline: Are you going to raise him Jewish?

JACK BLACK: I don’t think we’re going to be real religious, but there is still time. I might change my mind at the last minute.  And go, ‘You’re Jewish!’ [Laughs]

MoviesOnline: What has surprised you the most about fatherhood?

JACK BLACK: I am going to say the size of my – I didn’t know that I could feel so much for someone. I was surprised by my own awesome heart.

MoviesOnline: Do you want him to follow in your footsteps?

JACK BLACK: I think he’s going to be in the arts. I do hope that he’s an artist of some kind. He doesn’t have to be an actor. I hope he does more than just act, because that’s a little easy. [Laughter]

MoviesOnline: Do you do anything for Valentine’s Day?

JACK BLACK: Is that coming up? Yeah, only because I have to. [Laughs] It’s a pretty dumb thing. You should always be showing people that you love them. 

“Be Kind Rewind” opens in theaters on February 22nd.