Interview: Jack Black - Nacho Libre

By M&C News Jun 17, 2006, 9:09 GMT

In this true life inspired story, Black will play a Mexican priest who moonlights as a masked Lucha Libre wrestler in order to save an orphanage destined for closure. All the while, the priest must keep his identity hidden from the wrestling community and the church. ...more

Following is the press interview Jack Black conducted for 'Nacho Libre' which opens June 16th wide across the USA:

Press: Do you speak Spanish?

JB:  Un poco, si. Si. Mi espanol es mejor que mi ingles. Y usted?

Press:  Were you familiar with (director) Jared’s (Hess) work? What was your reaction when they said “Hey he has something for you”?

JB:  Yes, I loved 'Napoleon Dynamite.' That’s why I reached out to him, as we say in the Hollywood insiders’ community.  I said Jared, I’m a fan of your work, I assume you’re a fan of mine. Let’s work together.
  
Press:  How familiar were you with this luchador and lucha libre world?

JB:  I was not really aware of that world. I mean I knew about it a little bit, like when I was a kid I knew that Mexican wrestlers wore cool lookin’ superhero masks but I’d never seen a wrestling match or any of the old films, until Jared asked me if I wanted to play a luchador. I did some research, watched some of the old films, went to a few matches, and uh, yeah, it opened my eyes to a whole new world.

Press:  What’s your spandex size?

JB:  Does spandex come in a size?  Well, I’m probably an XL, but I went with a medium to really suction cup it all together. 

Press:  When you were growing up, were you a fan of WWF or American wrestling at all? Did you expect certain American elements when you were learning about this world, and were you surprised or not surprised about difference?

JB:  When I was a kid, I watched some WWF. I liked Rowdy Roddy Piper. He was my favorite, just cause he’s crazy, I’m always drawn to the psycho nuts. He seemed legitimately kind of cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

Press:  What about WCW?

JB:  Uh, not really. I’m not really sure. I can’t remember, what’s WCW?

Press:  You know, like Ric Flair and Sting.

JB:  Ric Flair and Steam?

Press:  Sting.

JB:  Sting, right, yeah. He looks like, uh, what was that movie? 'The Crow'? That’s where he got his whole look, right? Yeah, that was effective. I always liked that, that Kiss makeup thing, the white face with the black lines. Like the guys from the baseball gang in 'The Warriors.' It always works good.

Press:  You talked about Roddy Piper being cuckoo for cocoa puffs and you liking him, is he kind of iconic for your generation?

JB:  Kind of, I thought he was kind of a deep cut though, I don’t think he was like everybody’s favorite wrestler. He was my favorite. I think everybody back then really liked Hulk [Hogan], and some other dudes. And Andre. Remember Andre the Giant? He goes way way back, even before those guys.
 
Press:  Kids love you, and you’re one of those rare comedians that can really appeal to the kids and they love to see you on the screen. But do you worry about losing that edge that would appeal to other audiences as well?

JB:  No I don’t really worry about who’s gonna think what about me when it comes to different audience demographics, I can’t control it so I’m just like eh, whatever, just work on cool things. And this was something that I wanted to do because I really liked Jared’s work, regardless of whether it was a rated R movie or PG, I don’t really think in terms of that. I think in terms of you know, if it makes me laugh. Like I’m doing the TD movie, we finished shooting that. That is, like, practically rated Z, it’s so profane.

Press:  But the kids are watching this and who love seeing you in this and in School of Rock are going to want go see that…

JB:  Yeah, they can’t go see that. But they will, someday. They’ll get the DVD as soon as they’re… what’s the age? 18. When they’re 18

Press:  And why is Tenacious D rated “Z”?

JB:  Oh, just because of the profanity.

Press:  Bad words?

JB:  Yes. It’s profane.

Press:  But you’re going to be a dad, and your kid’s gonna have to wait until they’re 21 to see it?

JB:  No, no, they’ll see it when… I think, I don’t know if it’s been proven that bad words harm a child’s brain. But I’m not going to let my kid hear any TD until – well, we have a couple songs that are okay for kids. But probably 13. Once he’s 13 he’s allowed to hear some bad words.

Press:  What’s your feeling about podcasts... just part of the publicity machine? Or is it fun to do them?

JB:  It’s a useful tool to get interest generated in your movie. There’s gonna be more and more of that. I heard that comedian Dane Cook has like a million people on his my…space page. Is that what it’s called? Yeah, MySpace. Pretty soon we’ll be doing  a lot more of those.

Press:  Now that they’re building movies around you, do you find acting is the same job it was when you were just doing character parts and you were just a small part of the wheel?  Do you put more of yourself into it now, or is it the same?

JB:  It’s the same in terms of what I try to accomplish. When you’re just coming in for a little character part, though, there’s so much pressure to pack a huge wallop into the one day that you’re working, or something that, you know, it would be hard to sustain that kind of insane energy throughout a whole film. I don’t think I would want to, actually, because that would be an annoying performance.

Press:  About the balance between physical and verbal comedy, I know you’re working with Noah Baumbach who’s very verbal, and Michel Gondry…. do you lean toward one or the other or have to seek one out to balance the other?

JB:  No, I didn’t really do that I just, like I said, I wait for the people that interest me that do work that turns me on, whether it be comedy or drama or any of that, I’m just interested in working for interesting people. 

Baumbach was a cool experience. I loved 'Squid and the Whale.' So funny in a really dramatic way. That was a change of pace for me to do something more real and I like that too.

Press:  Being a producer on a film that you’re acting in, are you able to separate yourself on set and just focus on being an actor or do you carry it with you all the time?

JB:  I mean, even before I was producing movies I would be interested in some of those things and have opinions on some of those things but just not voice them, or sometimes I would voice them. But now it’s part of my job to voice them, and to be a part of hiring of the crew and the different positions and being in all the meetings about scheduling and promotions and all the different aspects of it. I liked it.

Press:  When you go out and do the talk show circuit, do you prepare a different act for each one?

JB:  I don’t prepare an act per se when I go out to do talk shows, I do an interview, a pre-interview with the people, like Leno or Letterman will have a producer who will call me usually the day of and say, ‘Hey what do you wanna talk about?’ and I’ll be like, “I don’t know, I don’t have anything, this is gonna suck!” And then we talk for about half an hour and then at the end they go, okay we’ve got a show here. And I’ll get there and they’ll show me a piece of paper and I’ll go ‘Oh, that was funny. That was funny when we had that conversation, I remember that. It’s gonna go something like that? Okay.’ Then you go and do it.

Press:  When we’re watching, where will you be the funniest?

JB:  Oh no, I don’t know. I haven’t done my pre-interview yet.

Press:  What about your biggest role of all: Jack Black and the adventures in daddy land? It’s coming up… how do you prepare for that role? What’s up in your world with that?

JB:  Yeah, I’m gonna be a daddy. And we’ve got all the furniture, and necessary things. We’ve got this special rocking chair that she can give the baby milk while she sits on it, we have a vibrating chair because apparently the baby likes to be in a swing that vibrates, go figure… and we’ve got all kinds of strange contraptions. Our house has been turned into a complex system of weights and pulleys, with all sorts of baby booby traps.

Press:  How does it feel to say “I’m gonna be a daddy”?

JB:  It feels good. I’m going to be the best daddy on the planet. I’m going to enter the best daddy competition, and I’m gonna win it! I don’t know.

Press:  How has preparing to become a parent changed you or given you new perspective?

JB:  Yeah, I’m already having headaches like “ugh, where is he gonna go to preschool? Am I gonna put cameras in every room of my house to spy on babysitters so they don’t shake the baby?” I watch TV shows that scare me a little bit, and then I start… like, I love video games, but then yesterday I was reading about how they can be addictive, and how kids shouldn’t play, and I’m thinking “Am I gonna be the parent that says no video games?” All I do is play video games.

Press:  Who were your favorite opponents in nacho libre?

JB:  I had a good experience with Duendes, the Satan’s Cavemen, the wrestlers who came up to my navel. They were really tremendous athletes. They kicked my ass but good, they flung me around like a ragdoll. They punctured my privates, but, you know, for the good of the film. Then at the end of the day, I gave them a low-five and said let’s rock it.

Press:  How do you get rid of the smell of man sweat?

JB:  Man sweat comes right off with soap and water

Press:  The comedy in Nacho Libre is very matter-of-fact, it’s not over-the-top… is that your favorite way to do things, or do you prefer a different way? How did you feel about the tone of the movie?

JB:  How did I feel about the tone of the movie? I don’t know… I didn’t really think about that. Sorry.

Press:  Before you said you’d rather be naked than wear tights. But you weren’t naked in the movie. So, what do you think about tights now?

JB:  I think that was wrong.  I was wrong when I said that before. I’ve called this press conference to print a retraction: I would definitely rather wear the tights than be naked, because they cover my penis.

Press:  That’s the only reason?

JB:  Yes. The end.

Press:  Are you wearing tights right now?

JB:  Tighty-whities? No.

Press:  I mean, like, girls have to wear pantyhose for a whole full day. So were you wearing the tights for 16 hours a day?

JB:  Yeah, I did wear them for a full day, yeah, if I was wearing them in the shot. I wouldn’t get out of them just because it was lunchtime.  I stayed in them. They made me feel a little “balletic.” Ballerific. They made me feel balltastic.