JACK BLACK DOESN’T GET ‘GOOSEBUMPS’ EASILY
Jack Black may not appear to be the coolest customer around, but during a celebrity-filled flight from hell out of Cancun this summer, he might as well have been James Bond.
Black wasn’t stirred when a tropical storm buffeted the plane upon which he was flying with his wife, Tanya Haden —along with Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber and Seth Rogen, who also were leaving the island after a promotional event.
“It was like a (Category 1) hurricane blowing through,” Black says. “We white-knuckled it. We took off and it was intense turbulence. No one screamed. But you could hear some screams on the inside.”
Black insists that he gallantly held his wife’s hand until the rocking stopped, adding, “There’s something romantic about those dangerous situations.”
Right. So what scares the actor, who has taken on the role of youth-friendly horror author R.L. Stine in Goosebumps?
“He actually doesn’t scare easily,” acknowledges Rob Letterman, his director and longtime collaborator.
We ran through the scariest things imaginable.
THAT ‘ALIEN’
Black regrets choosing Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic Alien as his first horror movie at age 10.
“It’s the most terrifying movie ever made. I was not ready for it at 10. I couldn’t sleep for a month,” he says. “My eyes just remained open. I wanted to unsee that.”
ZOMBIES
Black and his wife were fans of AMC’s zombie-tastic The Walking Dead in its first season. But the show slid downhill, in his opi- nion. “It’s gotten pretty schlocky,” he says.
But the couple still watches religiously. “We cannot help it, the momentum has carried us. We have to know what has hap- pened to our favorite soap opera. It’s Days of Our Lives with zombies,” Black says.
Black just isn’t afraid of shambling monsters. “You put them all in the same category: zombies, Frankenstein, mummies — slowmoving ghouls. Only dangerous if you fall asleep on them.”
DRACULA
It’s a different story with the swift-moving fanged undead, especially Gary Oldman’s performance in 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. That got Black’s pulse going. “One vampire could destroy an army of Frankensteins,” he says.
THE EVER-EXPANDING UNIVERSE
Black insists his biggest fear is literally the cosmos and his puny role in it.
“Sometimes I’ll just think about the size and scope of the universe and the bottom of my belly gives way in a way that’s kind of goosebumps or spine tingles,” Black says.
We cut him off before he could go too far with this.
‘GOOSEBUMPS’ MONSTERS
Black considers his nemesis, Slappy the Dummy, the scariest creature in Goosebumps. It doesn’t hurt that Slappy features Black’s voice. “But it’s that disturbing leer. He’s diabolical,” Black says. Seeing werewolves, zombies and the Abominable Snowman run down a school hallway in the movie’s dramatic monster scene also was exciting. But being behind the scenes took the goosebumps out for Black. The actors playing Snake Lady and Bog Monster were a real-life couple, for example.
“You come out of the trailer, and there’s a 7-foot-tall mummy,” Black says. “You’re taken aback by the creepiness. And then the mummy is like, ‘Hey, man, I’m such a big fan.’ ”