JACK BLACK GOES DARK IN ‘GOOSEBUMPS’
LOS ANGELES Jack Black has perennially been the goofy guy at the movies — the metal-head teacher in School of Rock and the affable panda Po in the animated Kung Fu Panda franchise.
But prepare for a taste of dark Black.
The 46-year-old actor poured on the creepy sauce for his latest role as youth horror author R.L. Stine in
Goosebumps (in theaters Friday). “I’ve always been snuggly, the lovable loser,” Black says. “But this is the first time I’ve gone full-creep.”
So creepy that Black cannot stop pulling serious faces. “Everyone has a creepy side, everyone has a dark side and a light side,” says Black, one eyebrow dramatically arching. “I’ve just focused on the dark one here.”
It makes sense playing Stine, whose Goosebumps series (a whopping 400 million books in print) brings fright to his devoted legions of young readers.
Just one clarification: Stine is an affable guy who used to write for a comedy magazine. Think Stephen King ’s goofier brother. No matter. When Black jetted into New York City for a face-to- face with the 72-year-old author before filming, he was already looking to go dark.
“We hit it off right away,” Stine says. “But (he) said to me, ‘I’m going to be a much more sinister version of you.’ And he did it.’ ”
Goosebumps portrays an overthe-top Stine, living in a foreboding house where he keeps his literary monster creations magically locked away — until baddies like zombies and evil Slappy the Dummy are accidentally released. Onscreen, Black shows off wide eyes, thick glasses and a highand-tight plastered hairstyle (“I think they used gorilla snot to hold it”). He topped it with a rich Orson Welles voice.
“He wasn’t available,” Black says. “So I did my best Orson Welles.”
Black has talked about some true dark times in his own life, telling Parade last week about his troubles with cocaine at age 14 and losing his older brother to AIDS. But the actor says he’s in a good place.
He says he’s a regular dad who enjoys joining his two boys, Sammy, 9, and Tommy, 7, in Minecraft.
“I’m pretty normal at home, actually,” Black says. “I spend so much time being funny outside that when I get home, I don’t want to be a clown.”
With Kung Fu Panda 3 out Jan. 29, a second season of his HBO comedy The Brink set to shoot and new Fox comedy Belles &
Whistles in development with Dwight Yoakam, Black will turn to full-funny quickly. And as far as his overly dramatic interview answers go, they’ll lighten up, too. He has a logical explanation only Jack Black could give.
“I’ve been holding in bodily fluids super-hard — that might have given an urgency to my answers,” Black says. “But there might be more dark from me. It’s what turns you on at the time. You’ve got to do what’s interesting.”