Jack Black Q&A

22 January 2009

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2008 was a great year for funny man Jack Black with the summer smash Kung Fu Panda before joinging ben Stiller and Robery Downey Jr on war comedy Tropic Thunder.

You’re supposedly the most natural at soldiering in this cast, though Robert reckons he can still have you what do you think?

'What does it mean, ‘he can have me?’.

It could mean several things, but he has claiming to be the better soldier.

'Oh well, he’s definitely the more experienced and trained fighters, according to him. I’ve never actually seen him train. But he says, and claims, that he’s a ju-jitsu master basically. I don’t think they wear belts, but I think he would be a black belt. According to him.'

You had the biggest gun though, didn’t you?

'I did. Try to ju-jitsu on that, motherf****r!'

Did it surprise you how you took to the soldiering?

'He said he could have me, huh? He said that. We’ll see him on the red carpet, see if he has me then.'

Did you work closely with military adviser Dale Dye?

'He was there, and he did give some consultation. We had some weapons training. I was strapped with the biggest gun, the heaviest one. They call it ‘the Pig’, an M60.'

You got to fight against a 12 year old in the film. Did you have to go easy on him?

'It was stage fighting, I never actually connected. And of course I’m very careful with the kids. I was in School of Rock, and we might do a sequel some day and that would really ruin it, if there were reports of me beating a child. But we had a good scene, I think it came out really funny.'

Was he impressed to be fighting against the man who was the voice of Kung Fu Panda?

'You know there was no talk of Kung Fu Panda when we were making this film, because it hadn’t been released yet. But yeah, that kid was great wasn’t he? I predict he’ll be making more movies.'

The success of this and Kung Fu Panda shows what a good year it’s been for you, doesn’t it?

'Not too bad, right? Robert Downey’s not the only one with a hit this summer. He was really lording it over us with his Iron Man, Iron Man this, Iron Man that. No-one suspected that Kung Fu Panda was coming down the pike, to leave it in the dust.'

Like to take on dramatic roles, to mix it up?

'That’s the classic comedian’s thing, they wish they were getting the respect of the dramatic actors. I don’t really have that in me, where I’m longing to be seen as a dramatic genius, that’s not my thing. I’m content to be a clown, that’s what I like to do.'

In terms of sending up the film business, do you have to tread carefully for fear of not working again?

'We pulled no punches while we were making the film. Of course I won’t tell you about the prima donna behaviour that I’ve witnessed, because we actors have a code of never revealing the spoiled brat behaviour of each other. It’s an unwritten rule.'

Like the Mafia?

'Exactly.'

You were stuck on a water buffalo in this film too, it seemed like every tricky task fell to you, didn’t it?

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