The Changing Faces of Jack Black

01 July 2008

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Jack Black has become one of Hollywood's most recognised faces since he broke through in 2000 with High Fidelity.

Since then the actor and musician has enjoyed major success at the box office, as well as some failures, and returns this week with Dreamworks' animation picture Kung Fu Panda.

Despite small parts in movies such as Dead Man's Walking, Waterworld and Enemy of the State it was the role of record shop worker Barry in High Fidelity, an adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel that got him recognised.

Next up for the actor was the role of Hal Larson in Shallow Hal, alongside actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

The romantic comedy follows Hal who is superficial and shallow and attracted to woman because of their appearance.

After meeting a famous life coach he's hypnotised into seeing people's inner beauty and he falls for Rosemary who, to Hal, is slender and beautiful but is actually very obese.

He had to wait until 2003 and School of Rock to cement himself as a comic leading man.

The role of Dewey Finn, a wannabe rockstar who pretends to be a school teacher and puts together a band of fifth graders, landed Black a Best Actor - Comedy or Musical nomination at the Golden Globes.

Animation was next as he lent his voice to the character of Lenny, a great white shark, in A Shark's Tale from Dreamworks Animations.

In 2005 he stepped into the blockbuster movie for the first time when he was cast as troubled filmmaker Carl Denham in Peter Jackson's King Kong. The film grossed over $550 million at the global box office and is one of Black's most successful movie.

Next he was a masked luchador in comedy Nacho Libre. Ignacio is a friar who became a masked wrestler to help support the orphanage that he directs.

Unfortunately the film received only mixed reviews. Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, a film based on Black's band, was next and that also performed poorly at the box office.

A change of pace was next as Black teamed up with Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh in black comedy Margot at the Wedding.

This year has already been a busy year for Black as he starred alongside Mos Def in Be Kind Rewind, where two friends and remake some of movies most classic movies before returning to animation with Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda.

Black's character Po the Panda's defining characteristic appears to be that he is the laziest of all the animals in ancient China.

That's a problem because powerful enemies are at the gates, and all hopes have been pinned on a prophesy naming Po as the "Chosen One" to save the day.

The film has already topped the American box office, ending Sex and the City's reign at the top and has already grossed over $200 million.

He returns later this year with comedy war film Tropic Thunder alongside Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr as a group of actors making a movie about Vietnam when they find themselves in the middle of a real war.

Be Kind Rewind is out on DVD now and Kung Fu Panda is released 4th July.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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