COMIC GENIUS
In Be Kind Rewind, Black
and Mos Def recreate
Driving Miss Daisy…
because I was lazy – it was because
I was instructed.
Has it given you a taste for directing
films yourself?
Nooo… well, maybe a little. I’ve played
directors – maybe I should actually be one.
Now I’ve just got to put some actual film in
the camera… but that’s a lot of work.
But you’re constantly making films
and touring with Tenacious D, you can’t
be afraid of work?
That’s true, but it’s a different part of the
brain that’s being exercised – acting and
directing are very different jobs. In a way,
directing is scarier because there’s nowhere
to hide. It’s really you. Whereas, as an actor,
you’re putting yourself out there for people
to see, but really they’re just seeing you
as a puppet telling someone else’s story.
So you have that shield.
You’ve worked with some great directors.
Do you ever think, “I could do that
better than you”?
Yeah, on the day it’s always like, “God, this
is easy. All they’re doing is sitting there and
saying things that pop into their dumb
heads.” But when you look at the job as a
whole over a period of time – the patience it
takes, and the confidence… I lose that. My
steadfastness comes and goes. That’s the
thing that directors need most: the ability
to stay focused on a project for a full six
months or longer and not to second-guess
themselves too much like I do. It takes a
certain temperament that I don’t think I have.
I have a bit of an attention-span problem.
And, of course, Tenacious D keeps you
busy as well…
I don’t think of Tenacious D as a side thing that
I do to keep me from wandering. I just love
doing it, and when we write songs and perform
live, that’s the closest I get to directing. I’m the
puppet master in those scenarios.
So when’s your big dramatic lead coming?
You mean when am I going to do my Capote?
[laughs] No time soon. It’s not on the cards.
There’s just no one out there I’m dying to play.
What about Benjamin Franklin?
Well, apart from him. I mean, I love action
films, and it would be fun to do one, but no
one’s going to buy me as the action hero.
Nobody wants to see me rising out of the
28 / www.ShortList.com
smoke naked like Arnold Schwarzenegger in
The Terminator… or do they? No, you’ve got
to know what you are, what people see you
as, what your strengths are and what you can
pull off. I think an important part of being an
actor is having a sense of self-awareness. You
see it a lot where people think they’re this or
that and they’re just awful. Maybe that’s too
careful on my part.
But your career feels like you’ve been
building up to taking that chance…
Hmm, not yet. I mean, I’m not really moving
in any direction. There’s no plan, there’s just
“I always think that directing looks like
it’s easy. They just sit there and say
things that pop into their dumb heads”
interesting directors and their styles. I want
to go on those kind of rides. But I’m not
adverse to doing some more stupid
comedies, don’t worry. Like, my biggest step
outside myself so far was actually Nacho
Libre, because I played a Mexican dude.
I thought Mexicans were going to be mad
at me. It didn’t turn out that way because
I wasn’t disrespectful, but in this day and age,
political correctness is such that you can’t
sneeze wrong otherwise you’ll end up with
a picket line around your house.
Two bin-liners plus big
shorts equals When
We Were Kings
…King Kong…
Have your movie choices changed since
you became a father?
No. If I was a tough action dude like Steven
Seagal, it would probably be a dilemma.
Working on a movie where I had to break
someone’s arm… backwards. If that’s what
I did for a living then maybe I would have to
rethink. But luckily I don’t.
Have you made plans beyond acting?
I’d like to continue producing. I have a little
production company called [in elaborate
Jack Black voice] Electric Dynamite. I do the
financing, the seeking out of the good stuff,
the hiring. I guess I’m hedging my bets and
saying, “Yeah, if this acting thing cools off,
I’d like to stay in the game, because I like the
game.” I love the industry. Telling stories and
entertaining people is what I love to do, but it’s
so volatile. You always feel like, “This is going
to be my last movie. If this flops, this is it.”
You’ve been in over 70 films, is there
anyone left you haven’t worked with
who you’re dying to?
Yeah, but I’d be embarrassed to say who
because there’s probably a reason why they
haven’t let me be in any of their movies yet.
So then, in the future, when you go, “Oh, he
never did end up working with that person,”
it will be very embarrassing.
Oh, come on…
Well, since Boogie Nights I’ve always wanted
to be in a Paul Thomas Anderson film. He’s
great. And, of course, the Coen brothers…
That’s going to happen, surely?
Dude, I don’t think so. It’s getting late in the
day. Erm… Stanley Kubrick, I’m still holding
out for, ’cause I think he’s aliiive. He’s a very
clever guy – he’s just hiding. Him and Elvis
are going to make a movie together.
It’s going to happen.
[Laughs] Yeah, it’s gonna happen…
Be Kind Rewind is at cinemas nationwide
from 22 February
…and Ghostbusters
BLINK AND
YOU’LL
MISS HIM
Jack Black has made a big-screen
career from the briefest of cameos.
Here’s the best from his CV
Demolition Man (1993)
You know you’re signing up for the
smallest of bit parts when your
character doesn’t have a name. And
so it was for Black in this Stallone
vehicle, playing a anonymous thug.
Still, he did get to flinch when Sly
shoved a gun in his face.
Dead Man Walking (1995)
With a trimmer figure than we’re
used to, Black plays Craig, the
oldest brother of Sean Penn’s
redneck death-row inmate in this
early stab at seriousness. Craig’s
pouring of beer on his brother’s
coffin is pure Black comedy.
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Tim Burton’s B-movie send-up saw
an almost unrecognisably buzzcutted
Black as Billy Glenn Norris, a
pumped-up soldier (below) who can
load a rifle against the clock while
blindfolded. He ends up getting
melted by alien fire in battle.
“Did you just
hear a bang?”
Enemy Of The State (1998)
A rare bad-guy outing as a
rogue NSA technician sees
Black conspiring to murder
a congressman as Will Smith runs
around and director Tony ‘Man On
Fire’ Scott blows everything up.
Black, as ‘Fiedler’, is arrested – mild
compared to what happens to most
of his mates (ie blown up).
Anchorman (2004)
Obscured under a motorcycle
helmet, Black’s biker is knocked
off his ride by a misplaced burrito
from Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy on
the motorway, before we see how he
rolls (below). Cue one flying dog…
“I keep bleeding, I keep
keep bleeding love”
PHOTOGRAPHS: ERIN PATRICE O’BRIEN/CORBIS OUTLINE, WENN
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