TOTAL FILM INTERVIEW
IT FEELS LIKE MAYBE I WAS A CLOWN IN A FORMER LIFE. THAT’S THE INSTINCT. I’M A LITTLE LARGER THAN LIFE. AND INHERENTLY CHILDISH
Jack Black opens up about rocking out. Just not at Trump’s inauguration.
Comedy god, rock god… audiences have been worshipping at the temple of Jack Black for more than two decades. With a new Tenacious D album and fantasy film The House With A Clock In Its Walls both imminent, Total Film finds out what makes him tick.
Who makes your shirt?” Jack Black has just clocked TF’s short-sleeved red-and-white check number and seems impressed. “It looks cool.” If he’s trying to win over his interviewer in a charm blitz, it’s working. He’s currently sporting jeans, a baseball cap with a ‘Los Feliz’ logo and a pink shirt with tigers printed on it. “I don’t know who made this,” he says, before pausing. “I have a person that picks shirts for me.”
He is joking, of course – something the 48-year-old Black does rather well. From his hilarious hysterical teen ‘girl’ in the recent Jumanji reboot via his Golden Globe-nominated turn in School Of Rock to the comedic songs belonging to his longrunning band Tenacious D, formed with Kyle Gass, his cohort from The Actors’ Gang theatre company, Black has been making fans chuckle for as long as they can remember.
Yet Black – who was born in LA and raised by his parents, two satellite engineers who divorced when their son was 10 – is just as adept in drama. Think of the groom-to-be in Noah Baumbach’s Margot At The Wedding or the filmmaker Carl Denham in Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong or the murdering funeral director in Bernie, a role that garnered him a second Globe nod.
A father of two boys, Samuel and Thomas, with his musician wife Tanya Haden, Black is also particularly adept at kids’ movies. Take his latest, The House With A Clock In Its Walls, co-starring Cate Blanchett. Adapted from the 1973 novel by John Ballairs, it’s being directed by Eli Roth (yes, he of the Hostel torture-porn movies). Black plays Jonathan Barnavelt, a saxophone-playing, fez-wearing warlock who lives in a house with – you guessed it – a clock in its walls.
It’s what brings TF to the Universal Studios lot, specifically the HQ of Amblin Entertainment, the company behind Clocks. No question, Roth’s film is drawing from the same well as some of the classics – Goonies, Gremlins – created by the outfit co-founded by Steven Spielberg. Hell, it’s even set in 1955 – the same year that Marty McFly time travels to in Back To The Future.
If Black is ideally suited to the role of an eccentric mage, typical of his big-screen persona, in the flesh he’s all laid-back Californian, pondering over his answers with quiet consideration. With Tenacious D back on tour to promote a forthcoming (as yet untitled) new album this winter, he’s saving his energy for the stage. “It’s a big fiery sweaty ball of goo when you’re out there performing live in front of an audience,” he explains.
While he’s moved into producing too – films like Mexican wrestler comedy Nacho Libre, Tenacious D effort The Pick Of Destiny and the underrated The D Train (renamed Bad Bromance) – he’s almost got the perfect gig. Like Simon Pegg, he’s the nerdy kid who wound up playing with his heroes – in his case, the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, who frequently drums on the D’s records. “It’s been a great journey,” he smiles. And it’s not over yet…
Eli Roth making a children’s fantasy like is a wild idea, don’t you think?
The House With A Clock In Its Walls It is, but if he was going to do it, it would be something like this. Lean towards the scary side of kids’ cinema. It’s a stretch, but it also makes sense in a way.
Was it Roth’s involvement that made you want to do the film?
Definitely. There were three reasons. Obviously Cate Blanchett was a huge thing for me. I just think she’s one of the greatest actors of all time. Eli Roth – master of horror. I thought it would be fun to work with him. And the script. The script was great.
The book is part of a whole series. Did you know them?
I didn’t know the books. But I quickly read this book when I got the part. I was a big fan of [the book’s illustrator] Edward Gorey’s, so it was cool to see a collaboration between him and another writer. And, yeah, I really dug it. And I really dug what the screenwriter did in the adaptation. He added some things, a couple of elements, about the way my character is revealed. The kid doesn’t quite trust him at first.
Are there comparisons to be made with the films?
Harry Potter
Yeah, for obvious reasons… there’s wizardry and witchcraft. And that world – a kid learning how to harness the powers of magic.
If we, ahem, turn the clock back, what were you like as a kid?
I think I was pretty annoying. I was the class clown. I wish that I had started playing music early. I didn’t start playing guitar until I was 23. I played a little piano when I was [young], but then I stopped when I got to ‘The Pink Panther’! I felt I had done all I needed to do! But I was lazy. Then again, everything was meant to be.
Were you a big dreamer?
Well, I had an active fantasy life. My big one, though, was being bionic – like the Six
Million Dollar Man. I also loved the Bruce Lee films and I took karate classes. I wanted to be a kung fu master!
What about in your adolescent years? Were you a teenage rebel?
Like all kids, I wanted my parents to walk 20 feet ahead of me because I was ashamed and embarrassed being near them. The idea of being around a parent meant you weren’t cool enough to walk alone. I had some problems when I was a kid – I did some drugs and hung out with some rough kids. I had a phase, for sure.
Did you have that heavy metal look going on?
I tried – and failed. In retrospect. But then again, the heavy metal look was pretty ridiculous, so maybe I succeeded.
Early in your career, you worked with Tim Robbins on Bob Roberts, Dead Man
Walking and Cradle Will Rock. How did that happen?
I met him in LA. The truth is, when he graduated from college, he directed a play and I was only 13 and I was in it. I wanted to be an actor. My stepfather drove me around to some auditions, and I auditioned for Tim, and he put me in his play. I was in it for three weeks of a six-week run. I quit halfway through because I got bored. When I was in college, I knew about The Actors’ Gang theatre company, and I was a groupie… I didn’t have sex with any of the actors, but I would come to the shows eight or nine times in a row, and hang around afterwards, going, “Hey, you guys are genius! How do I get in?” Eventually, I got a small part in one of their shows and it went to Edinburgh – then Tim cast me in his first movie [1992’s Bob Roberts]. But I owe a lot of people: him, John Cusack, for casting me in High Fidelity, Mike White… no writer had ever written me something before.
That was School Of Rock, of course. You lived next door to Mike White, right?
Yeah, we were neighbours. He called me before he wrote it and told me the basic idea, and I thought it was great. A substitute teacher who was a failed musician, and a frustrated artist, secretly teaches his kids his favourite music – I thought that was a great premise. He knows what I can do, and he crammed it full of softballs for me to hit as hard as I wanted. It was right in my wheelhouse. I like to get closer and closer to what I really am [and that was one of the closest]. Orange County, the earlier film he wrote that I was in, was more based on his own family experience, and growing up as a writer in that area.
i had an active fantasy life. my big one was being bionic
Like Clocks and Eli Roth, it’s a weird combination for a family film, with you, director Richard Linklater and Mike White…
It’s weird. My comedy is definitely broader than Mike’s, or anything that Rick has had in his movies. But that’s what was good about it. We knew that he wasn’t going to let it turn into a cheese-fest. He was going to keep it grounded because he’s got a lot of integrity, and he doesn’t want to crank out a cheesy piece of shit, even if it is supposed to be a crowd-pleaser. There’s a horrible stigma with kids’ movies where people automatically think they’re crap – but that wasn’t always the case. In the ’70s, you had The Bad News Bears,
Willy Wonka – I don’t even think of those as kids’ movies, they’re just great movies. So we wanted to do something like that.
Even now, you must get kids talking to you about your School Of Rock character Dewey Finn, right?
Yeah, I still do. A whole new generation. They weren’t even born when we made School Of Rock. But it’s cool to have a movie that keeps on regenerating younger [audiences].
And now it’s on stage…
Yeah, that’s right. One step removed from me, but still, some of my influence [is there]. A couple of songs in there. It’s not all Andrew Lloyd Webber! All songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber… almost!
You reunited with Linklater for Bernie. How did that come about?
We were trying to work out a School Of Rock Part II. We were having trouble coming to terms with the script, and finding what it should be and what it could be. We didn’t want to do it, just for the sake of doing another movie that makes money. We wanted to do it only if it’s as good or better than the first one. He’s very thought out and methodical with his process. So we were having trouble with that and then he said, “I do have a script that I wrote that I’d love to do now.” So I read it and said, “Yeah, let’s do this instead.”
What was it like working with Shirley MacLaine on that film?
With a legend? It was great. She’s got great stories of the Hollywood of old. She was an honorary Rat Packer, so she knows that Frank Sinatra era of Hollywood. And she’s very unimpressed with the Hollywood of today. She’s like, “This is nothing – you wanna know Hollywood, it was back in the day, when they were really giants. When they stepped into a club, it changed the room.” They were magicians, like gods. Much more so than now.
Could you learn something from her?
dustin hoffman loves it… relishes it. that’s what makes him great
Yeah. She got where she is for a reason. She’s got a fire in her eyes. And you can’t learn that. You can’t go, “I’ll look at her fire and then I’ll have the same fire.” It doesn’t work that way. But you can benefit from being in something with someone like that, by virtue of being in the scene with them. You really listen to her and look in her eyes when she’s talking to you in a scene, and try to react honestly. And suddenly you’re riding the same wave as her. And that’s what I tried to do. She’s got an incredible energy and I tried to match it and tried to be there, be present with her.
Talking of legends, you co-starred with Dustin Hoffman in the Kung Fu Panda trilogy. Actors don’t often record together on animations, but did you get to spend much time with him?
We did spend some time together. There was a trick with one of our scenes that just wasn’t working so they needed to get us [to record it] together. I was very intimidated for that scene, because he’s been a hero of mine for so long. I didn’t even want to do it. I didn’t want to meet him, didn’t want to do the scene with him! I preferred doing it separate because there’s a terror involved in meeting your heroes. But once we did, it was very informative and very helpful. He just came over and whispered to me: “You should whisper that line!” I said, “OK, I’ll try that,” and he was right. He’s got incredible instincts.
Not to mention a bit of experience…
It’s not how long you do it, as much as how much you love to do it. He really loves to do it. He relishes it. And that’s what makes him great.
Can you see yourself still performing when you’re his age?
Yeah. Because I have a passion for entertaining. I love to put on a show. As long as I love putting on a show, I think I could continue doing it.
All through your career, you’ve worked
on kids’ movies: Ice Age, Shark Tale, Kung Fu Panda, Goosebumps and now The House With A Clock In Its Walls. Do you love doing kids’ movies? I do. It seems like it’s in my wheelhouse. It definitely is one of my strong suits. It feels like maybe I was a clown in a former life. That’s the instinct. I’m a little larger than life. I come from a theatrical background, with The Actors’ Gang theatre company.
Kids also have a weird sense of humour, laughing at things adults don’t find funny. Are you still plugged into that?
I think that there is an inherently childish, aggressively stupid attack to a lot of my
characters. Yeah. Even with Tenacious D, my band, when we play live, it’s all adults in the audience, but we’re playing to an adolescent mindset in the context of rock ’n’ roll. It’s just something inherently funny. It’s the music I grew up on when I was a teenager, so there’s always still a little bit of a teenager attitude to it.
As Tenacious D, you’ve opened for some pretty cool bands…
We opened for Pearl Jam, Weezer. We also opened for Tool, which was a huge mistake that we repeated over and over. We did it three times before we realised it would never work. They were too hardcore and the audience was very angry at us for being us. You don’t go to Tool to laugh. You go to be angry and vent. We got pelted. We tried to play our hardest rocking songs, but it never mixed.
You even had a song featured on the videogame Guitar Hero III. How did that feel seeing that?
It’s an honour! I have played Guitar Hero – one of them. I don’t remember if it was 1, 2 or 3. I’m OK. I’m not as good as the kids today! I remember I was working with Michael Cera on Year One. I was always very proud of my prowess on the videogame circuit, but he beat me walking away on Guitar Hero! It was a real eye-opener!
Do you love the buzz of a live performance more than going in front of a camera?
Oh, yeah! Going in front of a camera is just scary. It can be fun. It can be gratifying, but getting up in front of a crowd and performing a song – as long as it’s not one you’ve played a hundred thousand times and are totally sick of – there’s nothing close to that buzz in film. The roar of the crowd, the adrenaline… it’s so intense. That’s the main difference – the immediacy of the exchange with the audience. It’s a lot more satisfying to go out and rock a crowd than it is to rock some emotions onto a camera lens!
Your wife Tanya is also a musician. You were at school with her and then got together years later. Did you see her in the interim?
I stalked her in the interim! She and her sister – she’s a triplet – would perform concerts around town. They would sing these beautiful old Carter Family bluegrass songs. And I would go see them play and sing their beautiful harmonies and play the cellos and violins and stuff. And I would talk to her a little bit, once every year or two.
You guys have two boys. How have you found fatherhood?
It’s very satisfying, but it’s also work. The boys are a handful. Getting them to school can be a challenge. But the joys of watching them grow and learn are very satisfying. They make me laugh more than I make them laugh. I try to make them laugh, but they just kill me!
Even in the early part of your career, you worked with the likes of Tim Burton on Mars Attacks! and Ben Stiller on The
Cable Guy. Did you ever have a period where you were worried that it would all fall apart?
I’ve never had a problem where I felt like, “Oh, now it’s all over.” You just follow the muse. Follow what’s going to be fun. If there’s nothing interesting happening in the TV or film world, there’s music to be made. There are other projects that I like to get involved in.
You’ve done a lot of guest spots, from playing yourself in The Muppets to Paul McCartney in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox
Is that something you like doing?
Story.
That’s just to keep it bubbling, keep it fresh. I think a trap you can fall into when you get a certain amount of success is, “Now I’ll just sit and wait for the perfect thing to come along.” And you can sit around waiting for something perfect for years and then it’s passed you by. I think it’s important to keep working, keep the joints oiled.
What about working with Peter Jackson on What drew you to that?
King Kong.
Peter Jackson was an artist that I wanted to hang out with. You want to spend time with people that you really respect; it’s not just making the movie, but like you’re spending a year of your life with that person, you want it to be someone that you enjoy their company.
With films such as Margot At The Wedding and Be Kind Rewind, you’ve also never been afraid to switch back to the world of indie movies…
Yeah. I like to go and get that indie spirit when I can. I like to mix it up. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to do some music and some big studio films and also some fun little indies.
A case in point… you’ve just co-starred in Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry, He Won’t
Get Far On Foot, opposite Joaquin Phoenix who plays cartoonist John Callahan…
Oh, man. Well, I was just thrilled to be there because I love Gus so much and
Joaquin and watching them. I love To Die For so much. I realised, “Holy shit, these guys haven’t made a movie together since To Die For. I’m in the reunion!” I was honoured to be there.
You play Dexter, the guy who causes the motor accident that leaves Callahan needing to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. How did you get your head around that?
That character was a real desperate ‘searching for a connection’ partier, who had a hole and emptiness in his soul that needed to be filled with booze and someone else to drag with him on an adventure. That was probably his life every weekend or every other night. [After the car crash] he definitely did have more. He had a life of guilt and torment. Certainly survivor’s guilt, having walked away unscathed. It’s a pretty heavy trip but you get to go and live through that.
You’ve also just come off the back of the huge hit that was Jumanji: Welcome
To The Jungle. Were you amazed by how well it did?
Yes. I mean, going into it, that was definitely on my mind: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Kevin Hart… this old story franchise is going to be an opportunity. There’s a potential there for a big hit. But you don’t know. The script was really funny, and I really liked Jake [Kasdan, director]. I was like, “I want to do something a little different. I want to be this girl. Are you cool with it if I’m basically a girl the whole time?” He was into it. I was like, “OK!” But while you’re making it, you don’t know if anyone’s going to like it at all! It’s always a mystery.
Are you’re attached to the sequel?
I’ve not signed on because I haven’t read it. You can’t sign until you read it! Usually, they make you agree to the terms of a sequel. Not that you have to do a sequel no matter what! No, they can’t do that. They can’t say, “Oh you’re going to be playing a nude Nazi – you signed it!” No! Come on! Let’s read it… I’m hoping I won’t be a nude Nazi [in the next one]. You know, maybe in these times… maybe it’s time for a nude Nazi. Satire!
Talking of satire, is it true that Tenacious D played your ‘The Government Totally Sucks’ song, that you wrote with Kyle Gass, during the Donald Trump inauguration?
I can’t believe… that scared me. I was like, “Wait? Did I play a Trump inauguration?” No! I certainly don’t recollect that.
During the inauguration, not at it!
Oh, God. No… wait, where were we on the day of his inauguration? It was a sick day. I remember the election. We were shooting Jumanji at the time. It was so nauseating. When I see the movie, I remember, “Ugh, that was the day.” When we were in the car, at the beginning of the movie, and there’s the cut scene and there’s the guy [Rhys Darby] from Flight Of The Conchords talking to us, and we’re in the back of the car. Oh yeah… that sinking feeling.
peter jackson was an artist i wanted to hang out with
You’re back with a new album soon and have been together as a band for over 20 years now. How do you make it work?
We have to take a break in between albums. Just for a year or two to recharge the batteries and get some other experiences under our belt to build up material, I think. And then we have to go through a period of, “I don’t even know if we can do another album. I think we might be done.” Then you realise, slowly, “No – this is inevitable! We are Tenacious D. We cannot escape our destiny!”
THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS OPENS ON 21 SEPTEMBER.