Be Kind Rewind - Jack Black interview
Interview by Rob Carnevale
JACK Black talks about working with Michel Gondry on Be Kind Rewind, recreating classic movies and the films they weren’t allowed to remake (or Swede)…
Q. Is this the first time you’ve worked with Michel Gondry?
Jack Black: It is the first time we’ve worked together. I met him years ago after I saw a music video or something. I’m not really sure why we met. I think he called me because he liked School of Rock and wanted to do something, although he didn’t know what as yet. So, we had one of those Hollywood meetings where I was admiring of his work. But then I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I really got desperate to work with him. I was like: “Holy crap, a masterpiece!” I guarded our relationship, our friendship, like a golden pearl – if one existed.
Q. And how did you get on with Mos Def? You have a great chemistry…
Jack Black: I had seen his work and was a fan of his. I’d say that right off the bat there was a chemistry, a chemical reaction in the room. It was like: “What just happened?” In rehearsal, we gelled pretty well.
Q. Did you get to choose which films you remade?
Jack Black: I wanted to do Road Warrior but he said [mimics French accent]: “No, no…” He wanted to do the movies that struck a chord with him – except for Driving Miss Daisy, which I think he did because of his friendship with Dave Chappelle. I guess Dave Chappelle hates Driving Miss Daisy because he thinks it’s racist, so Michel was giving him a little shout there. But I think the rest of the movies were films that really inspired him, so Road Warrior didn’t make the list [laughs].
Q. Did you have to get clearance for all the movies that you “remade” or ‘Sweded’? And were there any that you weren’t able to get?
Jack Black: We did have to get clearances for all the movies that we ‘Sweded’. We were unable to get Back To The Future. I don’t know if it was Robert Zemeckis or who… but they said: “No.” And I think it was because they were planning on doing a musical version of the movie on Broadway? Or something like that… for some ridiculous reason anyway – like our take-off version of it would have hurt their Broadway run! Is that true? I can’t remember if it was that or they were talking about doing a Back To The Future TV series. But it was too bad because it was pretty darn good in rehearsal. It would have been fun.
Q. Did the thought ever occur that you might be limiting your future work prospects by taking the pee out of other people?
Jack Black: [Laughs] Oh no, I was never worried about that. I mean, every movie I do I’m always worried that it’s going to be my last movie because I’m going to suck so bad! But there was no special worry on this one that Spielberg would be pissed off.
Q. Do you think any of the films you made turned out to be better than the originals you were copying?
Jack Black: Well, the truth is I never saw Rush Hour 2, or 1 for that matter, so I don’t know if ours was better than that one. But I told Michel that I had to watch Rush Hour 2 to prepare for that scene and he said [in French accent]: “No, don’t do it!” So, I said: “But I don’t know what I’m recreating…” And he replied [again, in French accent]: “It does not matter – it’s better this way. Do it from what you think it would be from the commercials you have seen.” So, that’s how we did it. We didn’t re-watch any of the films.
Q. Did you ever pick up a video camera on anything as a kid and make your own movies?
Jack Black: I didn’t. I was more of a tape recorder kid and I did dummy voices and things like that on my tape recorder. I liked to take all the cushions from the chairs and couches in the house and build a maze and force my dog to run through the maze [laughs]. And I would take a sleeping bag and slide down the stairs that were carpeted. Those were some of the experiments I remember. I also put cocoa puffs in my butt [laughs].
Q. Why?
Jack Black: For comedy and for experimentation [laughs]. I was a scientist.
Q. Is the film a celebration of independent ideas against big corporate filmmaking?
Jack Black: Again, Michel will probably disagree with anything I’m about to say but the feeling I got from it was that even in the most depressed, rundown parts of the world and parts of town, where you wouldn’t expect beautiful, creative things to happen, those are the places where they most likely will happen because people are relying on their imaginations.
Q. What do you look for primarily in roles?
Jack Black: I look for good directors mainly because if you do enough of movies where there’s not a real creative vision behind it, you start to turn into a robot and you want to jump off a bridge. So, I’m always looking for a fresh perspective because it’s fun to tell stories that are original and new in some way.
Read our review of Be Kind Rewind