Back in Black

Jack Black channels the king of pre-teen terror…

How did you get involved in Goosebumps? Were you a fan of the books?

I had never read a Goosebumps story until I heard about this project. I read the script and I thought it was really funny and cool. So then I started to read some of the books. I was a little late to the party. R.L. Stine didn’t start writing the Goosebumps books until I was well out of high school.

Did you meet Stine? Did you pick up anything from him that informed your performance?

I did meet Bob, as I’m allowed to call him. [ laughs] We just talked about the project and I got his blessing. He’s a really nice, sweet guy. I’m not really doing an impersonation of him at all. I’m just sort of doing what I think is best for the piece. Obviously this isn’t autobiographical. None of this happened to him in reality. None of his creatures actually came to life. Not yet. That we know of!

Who did you want your R.L. Stine to be?

He couldn’t be a sweet nice guy for the way it’s been written. He’s a much darker, creepier, foreboding presence. So I brought a little extra gravitas to the character. But he goes through some changes throughout the story. R.L. grows as a human being. [ laughs] At the heart of it there’s a story of coming out of one’s shell. My R.L. Stine has sort of cut himself off from the real world, because he had a tough childhood with a lot of bullies. So he creates this world of monsters and demons. Then he imagines them terrorising the town for revenge due to all the kids that didn’t play with him.

Your Stine, like the real one, wears black… Oh yeah! That’s what I took from him – his colour palette! JMc