Getting down and dirrrty with JB
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If you have’t seen Year One yet - be prepared for a lot of farting, some poo and some peeing, up side down.
I met with Jack Black (JB) and Michael Cera (MC) at the Ritz Carlton in NYC this weekend. We talked about his babies, his relationship with God - and of course his new, toned body.
Q: Do you have a cold Jack?
JB: Yeah, I have a little bit of a cold
Q: If you have that too often, you’ll be on the toilet
JB: Coldeez? (lozengers)
Q: Yeah
JB: The zinc? I heard the same thing about the “Golden Seal” that it’s a laxative.
Q: Have some Echinacea
JB: I had some Echinacea but it didn’t have “Golden Seal” in it, because apparently someone told the person who is going to get it, that “you don’t want to a Golden Seal, it’s a laxative” I was like “Maybe I want a laxative!”
MC: I want a relaxative!
Q: Do you think there’s a message in the movie? We just had a big argument with David Cross (actor)
MC: A big argument?
Q: I guess more of a discussion
MC: (laughs)
Q: Because we were asking if it was possible that this movie could upset the super right wing people that don’t believe in Darwin. They kill doctors who perform abortions – so anything is possible.
JB: Yeah, I don’t know, I was reading a little, a little, what’s his name? Vas Speg Zadustra?
MC: Yeah, Neitzsche?
JB: Yeah, on the plane on the way over, okay not reading, listening to the book on tape, the biography of Nietzsche, and he was saying that the Bible was really the product of slave morality. It was a document written by slaves and that it reflects, and that it’s not entirely healthy ground for morality. He’s saying that there’s two kinds of morality, the slave morality and the master morality, and the master morality also is not entirely healthy and that there needs to be a new morality created by the Superman, so that’s what I’m gonna do, look at me I’m a superman!
Q: All people were slaves because they believe in God, if you believed in someone to conduct you, it meant you are a slave
JB: Yeah, right, heavy man. I was wrong about this room. It’s really heavy
Q: You were saying that the Tenacious D movie didn’t work well, so why do you think that is? Was it the marketing? Was it the movie?
JB: No the movie was, I think, I’m very proud of the movie, I stand by it, it might have been my due to my hair in the movie. It was bad
Q: Cause in this one it looked better
JB: My hair was long, but short on here and I think it was distracting, and I subconsciously turned people off to the movie, also, me and Kyle are heavy actors and I think we might have been just a little too heavy, we should have done a little exercise because I think people subconsciously don’t like fat people
Q: Really? So that’s why it didn’t do well
JB: We were victims of fatism
Q: Have you lost weight since?
JB: Oh yeah, I haven’t lost weight, but I’ve gained muscle, so if I step on a scale it’s gonna say the same thing, but if I take off my clothes, you will see a tremendous difference in my physique, it’s almost all muscle. It’s all about the inches, not about the weight, not about the numbers, I’m one big muscle
Q: So are you wearing your skinny jeans?
JB: No, but they’re falling off, I need to go and get a belt
Q: People like to watch fat people because they feel bad about themselves
JB: Yeah, its true…
Q: Michael, You’ve hit your love interest in this movie, what’s your flirting style in real life?
MC: I don’t really have a flirting style, I just. I just stay away from danger and trouble
Q: You don’t like dangerous women then?
MC: No, no, I just don’t like danger in general, unless I think I can handle it
Q: So what kinds of things can you handle, what kind of danger, you mean with guns?
MC: Oh my gosh, well, yeah, I mean, danger in general, danger in general is something I try to avoid, and you know, sometimes flirting can lead to danger
Q: Why did you choose to do this movie?
MC: I really liked Jack and I really liked Harold and Judd and the script, and I wanted to talk to all of you guys.
Q: Did you watch any Monty Python films while you preparing for this?
MC: Not preparing for this, but when I was younger I did
Q: Did you?
JB: Yeah, I love Life of Brian. It would have been cool I thought, if we also, in an homage to that film, did like an alien abduction scene, where a spaceship came down, it was my favorite part of Life of Brian, when the spaceship came down for no reason, a total non-sequitor, took Brian around into space and brought him back down and pooped him out, but the whole movie is kind of an homage to that movie, so we didn’t need to do a homage within an homage.
Q: So you have 2 kids know?
JB: Yes, 2 baby boys,
Q: How’s that going?
JB: Very well
Q: Are you getting any sleep
JB: Samuel is very funny, I miss him a lot, I’ve only been gone for two days and I find that I don’t like to be gone even for day, when I miss him, if I don’t see him in the morning or in the night for more than two days, I get very anxious, get back, get back to the nest
Q: So you only miss one of them?
JB: No Tommy, I also miss, but Sammy’s old enough to be conscious of my not being there, Tommy, Tommy loves to see his “dada” but I don’t feel like he needs it as much at this point, he just turned 1.
Q: Do you live in Los Angeles?
JB: I live in Los Angeles, but now we’re in London, We’re in London working on a movie, so yeah, they’re all there,
Q: What are you doing there?
JB: Gulliver’s Travels. But to answer a previous question, I think also, the Tenacious D film was a flop because our trailer was shit, and it’s very important, let me tell you something, let me tell you something about the trailer. The trailer is more important to the success of a film, than the quality of the film itself, it’s more important than the poster. It’s more important than any, all the interviews put together, it’s all about the trailerrrrrrrr, for emphasis, rrrrrrrrr
Q: So they should put all the money in the trailer and not care about the movie?
JB: I don’t want to give away like a powerful secret, but I’m gonna, because it’s not about holding shit in, you want to fucking make a movie? you want to get in this? Go shoot a fucking trailer, go shoot a kickass trailer!
MC: That’s what the Coen brothers did
JB: shoot, you shoot a kickass trailer, you take that to the studio, when you pitch a movie, you say, “Oh, can we just watch this trailer?” Boom. That’s the movie,
MC: Don’t you want to watch that movie?
JB: They will give you the money
MC: That’s true, that’s what the Cohen brothers did with Blood Simple
JB: Boom, they were thinking, they’re smart
Q: You still make the movie? You don’t just make the trailer?
JB: (laughs) No, you do actually have to make the movie. You go to the theater “It’s a two minute movie” (laughs)
Q: It would be an improvement on a lot of films if we just saw the trailer
JB: Yeah, no kidding
Q: So can you tell us a bit about Gulliver’s Travels
JB: Kyle Gass, my partner in Tenacious D, came out to the set of Gulliver’s Travels and he pitched me on a song that he thinks should be in it, and I can’t get it out of my head, it goes something like this: (sings) Gulliver traveled, but he didn’t arrive, and the something something, something, yeah, yeah! Can’t remember the lyrics but it was very funny. It’s going great, we’ve got a great cast of British actors and Jason Siegel and myself, and everyone’s really funny and it’s a retelling, it’s a modern retelling of the classic old tale. So, I’m not 18th century British dude who is on a boat trip and goes. It’s modern day, I’m working at a New York newspaper in a mail room delivering mail and I get an opportunity to get a promotion and write an article for the travel section of this newspaper. They send me out to Bermuda to do a story on Bermuda and I get sucked into the legendary Bermuda triangle. There’s like a rip in the space time, kind of a sci fi twist to the story, and I wake up in another dimension, in this like island of Lillipluth, and I’m tied down, and from there it kind of stays more true to the original Gulliver’s Travels story. It’s great.
Q: You’re making a movie with Michel Gondry?
JB: Michel Gondry. We made a film together I loved it and I’d love to work with him again, but there’s no solid plans, this space and time movie, it’s just sitting there. I think he’s got a lot of other things going on, I’m waiting, I’m waiting for him to come back and say let’s make another movie
Q: What’s your next Michael?
MC: Well I guess the next thing, that I will be in that’s gonna be released is Youth In Revolt and come out at the end of the year directed by Miguel Artetta
Q: What’s it about?
MC: It’s based on a book by C.D. Paine, that’s a really great novel. Yeah, it’s about a character named Nick Twist that I play and him kind of dealing with the people around him.
Q: Have you seen that guy that everyone is comparing you to now from The Hangover?
JB: Oh yeah, Zach Galifianakis.
Q: What do you think of him?
JB: He’s great. I’ve always been a fan of his, I’ve been watching his stand up comedy for years, you know, we live in the same town, he does a lot of, it’s almost like performance art stand up with his piano, at largo, and, I’m glad to see him
Q: Are you worried about people saying “the next Jack Black”
JB: No, I’ve had a good run, time to pass the torch, take it from here Zach
MC: Enjoy being Jack Black
Q: Do you worry that your movie is similar to Life as Brian? Why do another of the same thing?
JB: I don’t think it’s that similar deal with different tales, and that was so long ago, I think it’s time, it’s time for another biblical retelling, it’s been over 20 years since someone really made fun of it
Q: So do you believe in the Old Testament?
JB: Do I believe in it? Do I believe it happened?
Q: Yeah
JB: No,
Q: And you?
MC: How do you mean? Genesis?
Q: Yeah
MC: I guess I never thought about whether it happened or not
JB: Do you believe that God came down and went “I got to make the Earth”
MC: Yes
JB: And then God said, “I’m going to invent night time and day time”
MC: I don’t think he said it like that
JB: And then I invented nighttime. And I saw it was good. It’s clearly written by someone that even that the Earth is round, it’s someone that doesn’t understand that the sun…. you don’t invent daytime and nighttime, it’s just the Earth is turning. It was written by someone who is kind of an idiot. He didn’t know basic stuff, I don’t believe that God, there may be a God, I’m not saying there’s no God, I don’t believe that God spoke to someone and whispered in their ear, “This is what I want you to write, this is my message to the people, the humans of Earth” I don’t believe that. As a document it definitely reads like, “this is written by somebody, this is somebody writing some stuff”
MC: It’s just taking somebody’s word for it I guess
Q: What do you think movies don’t make fun often enough of religion or serious issues?
JB: Does it go far enough you mean? Did we ?
MC: I think it’s good to make fun because people could still believe what they want to believe, but we should at least all be able to laugh about it or else we’re all just gonna start hating each other
Q; I thought we do hate each other?
MC: (laughs) Right, well even more so
Q: Is there going to be a Superbad 2 cause you said in your twitter account?
MC: That’s so funny. I don’t have a twitter account
Q: That’s not you?
MC: No, but people have mentioned it to me, so I guess there’s one pretending to be me.
Q: So it’s not happening?
MC: You’ll have to ask him, I don’t know about it. The first time I ever heard about it was just being interviewed here the other day, someone said, “is there going to be a superbad 2?”
Q: Are you twittering?
JB: No, doesn’t seem like you should be allowed to Twitter under someone else’s name
MC: Who can prove it though? You can kind of do whatever you want on there, it’s on the internet. I wouldn’t believe, I mean anyone who believes anything on the internet I think is being naïve, but yeah, twitter yeah, I don’t want a twitter account, I think, it would just make me feel like the world revolves around me even more so, than I already feel that way
JB: I don’t even understand it
MC: It’s just like you just tell people what you’re doing
JB: You sign up and you want to get twittered, whenever certain people just post
MC: Well maybe I think it’s more about you twittering and just people reading it. You just are meant to feel like people care about you going to buy a taco or something
Q: But then it slows you down…
JB: You’re busy cause I was going to get a taco
Q: No, you’re not getting a taco you’re too busy twittering
MC: That’s true.
JB: And now I don’t have time to get a taco, I ran out of time for my taco
MC: It took me a half hour to write this thing about my taco, and now I have lost time
Q:How are you dealing with the perils of fame?
MC: It’s been good. I have just kind of been dealing with things as they come and not thinking of about things too much, cause you can kind of freak yourself out but everything’s been fine and have been enjoying being able to work, there’s a lot of actors that are not working who would like to be working.
Q: Any dark side?
MC: Yeah there are. Sometimes you have to be exposed to people that aren’t that nice.
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