Be
Kind Rewind is the name of a friendly, rundown, local video store in
New Jersey – owned by Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) and his hard-working
assistant Mike, (Mos Def). But the store is in trouble, facing fierce
competition from DVD rental establishments in the area and its future
is in jeopardy – despite apparently being the former home of Jazz
great Fats Waller.
Mike’s best pal Jerry (Jack Black) lives in a trailer next to
a power plant, which he claims is melting his brain. He decides to sabotage
the plant, but the plot goes disastrously wrong and he is caught in
an electromagnetic field, which magnetizes his brain! The next day,
visiting his friend – he inadvertently erases every video in the
shop.
Mr.
Fletcher is out of town and the two friends (plus a handful of neighbours),
hatch a plan to remake the popular movies the locals want to rent. (They
call it ‘sweding’ for no clear reason other than a dubious
excuse to customers that the films are being imported from Sweden!)
Starting with Ghostbusters, they go on to make bizarre, amateur
home movie versions of films such as 2001 A Space Odyssey, Driving
Miss Daisy, Robocop and Rush Hour 2.
To
their astonishment –the ‘sweded’ films are big hits
with the locals – especially Miss Falewicz (played by Mia Farrow).
But inevitably their adventures have dramatic repercussions.
Written
and directed by French filmmaker, Michel Gondry, (Eternal Sunshine
Of The Spotless Mind), Be Kind Rewind combines great comedy
and music with formidable acting and strong characters. It tells the
story of an impoverished yet spirited community, taking their destiny
into their own hands, with energy and imagination.
Jack
Black’s films include Shallow Hal, Orange County,
High Fidelity, School Of Rock, King Kong,
Nacho Libre and The Holiday. His next film is Ben
Stiller’s Tropic Thunder and he is currently filming
Year One. He is the lead singer of the rock band, Tenacious
D and starred in the 2006 film Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny.
Black, 38, is married to musician Tanya Haden. They have a 19 month-old
son, Samuel and Haden is expecting their second child later this year.
Dressed
in jeans and a sweatshirt, his hair cropped with bleached blonde highlights
and dark roots, the actor sat down in Beverly Hills for the following
interview.
What
was it about the script and the film that you found so appealing?
"I had taken a meeting or two with Michel Gondry before he talked
about Be Kind Rewind, because I wanted to tell him how big
a fan I was and that I really wanted to work with him on something.
Then he called me and said he had an idea for a movie. I went over to
his hotel and he had made a homemade comic book with crayon drawings
of the characters and the video store and he had written a few lines
of dialogue and the basic story. It looked like really good fun. So
I did not have a script - I just said yes to his comic book. No one
had ever presented a movie to me like that before, it was very original.
But he could've presented me with a turd on a stick and I would have
said 'let's make that into a movie', because I am such an admirer of
his work."
When
did you become a fan of his work?
"I got turned onto him through Bjork’s music video and then
I got his collection of music videos on DVD and then of course Eternal
Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind was the film that really blew my
mind. It was one of the best movies I had ever seen, I guess because
it resonated on a different level. It gave me the kind of feeling 'all
we are is dust in the wind... Life is so fragile and always slipping
away, the hourglass of time'. No one had captured that idea so beautifully
before."
What
is the movie all about - is there a theme? Is it saying that smaller
community movies can often be as entertaining as big-budget films?
"For me, this is just a celebration of creativity. If it is saying
something about the industry, it's that anyone can make a movie. Even
though movies seem brilliant often when you watch them, it's not impossible
to make them yourself. You think: 'it's too late for me to make movies,
or I can't do that I don't have the money'. But you can make films for
almost no budget, and anyone can do it anywhere in the world. Anyone,
anywhere, anytime."
What
was it like working with Mos Def?
"Mos Def was great to work with. We shared a sense of humour and
a passion for music; He is a fellow musician and works at his own pace.
No one is going to rush him into a characterization; he lets the character
breathe and is very real. I learned a lot from him. He is a very 'method
actor', he wants it all to be grounded and that was good for me since
I am so crazy with explosive energy and I think we complimented each
other nicely. I am kind of surprised we never wrote any songs together
or anything, that's the only regret, we didn't have more time to jam,
that would have been cool if we had started a band."
What
about Mia Farrow?
"Well she's legendary. She told us so many great stories and she
was so free talking about her life. I never felt weird or strange asking
questions, because she was happy to talk. She had great stories about
Frank Sinatra and Salvador Dali; what a crazy life she has had. I kept
thinking 'are you lying? Are you fibbing?' But I don't think she was."
As
a kid did you make homemade movies or anything equally crazy and creative?
"I never had a video camera growing up, but I made lots of short
films. In my mind I was pretending to be the 'bionic man', or various
monsters. If there had been a camera rolling I would have made some
very funny short films I think. I wasn't thinking about shots or angles
or anything, but my characters were really entertaining - for me at
least - entertaining monsters."
So
you had a vivid imagination?
"I sweded The Million Dollar Man endlessly, I was bionic
all the time. I put wires up my sleeve and I wanted the wires just to
peek out a little bit so that if any kids noticed my wires I would say:
'it's nothing, it's nothing'. They would think I was bionic, because
my logic was that I was trying to hide my bionics from them. All kids
love to pretend to be different characters and recreate scenes from
comic books and movies and TV so that's a natural thing. The only thing
was, I didn't have a camera, so I didn't videotape myself doing anything."
What
was it like recreating those legendary films that you 'swede' in the
movie?
"It was really good fun recreating them because Michel asked us
not to re-watch any of the old films. I had not seen some of them at
all. I said 'I have to watch Driving Miss Daisy once so I can
recreate it.' He said 'no [French accent] no you have seen zee commercials,
you know basically what eet eez'. That is not a very good imitation
of him. But he was right, I kinda knew that Jessica Tandy was a grumpy
bitch and that Morgan Freeman was teaching her some lessons somehow,
so we just winged it and he (Michel) liked that, because then your foggy
memories of the film you are repeating make something 'now' something
fresh - which is a lot more interesting than recreating a movie, shot
for shot. The characters didn't have time to go back and research so
why would we? That was also the logic. It was scripted, but we didn't
get the dialogue from the movie, Michel himself kept it loose, and we
were free to improvise from his foggy recollections."
What
is Michel like as a director?
"He's pretty loose. It seemed like some of the time he was the
only one who knew what he wanted to do that day, he would come in with
new ideas and it was kind of like a playground in a lot of ways, and
he was the ringleader. Just in terms of dialogue, he was open to improv,
but not in regard to which films we were making, or the structure of
the story or anything like that. Michel would get really passionate
and a little hot under the collar if people didn't understand what he
was saying, but his accent is very thick, so sometimes it's hard to
understand what the hell he's talking about. 'You're ruining my moooveee'
he would say... but it's hard to take him seriously when he's screaming
at you, because he's like a little kid."
What
makes him unique do you think?
"He's the most childish director in a way and definitely the most
inventive. I think if he wasn't a film director he would be inventing
gadgets and cool little working pieces of art."
How
challenging was it tearing around town doing all the 'sweding'?
"It was a lot of activity just because we were working on a tighter
schedule than on most movies, we did it in eight or nine weeks at the
most, and usually it takes three or four months to make a movie. It
wasn't hard in that Michel is so creative with all his shots so we weren't
doing the traditional 'over the shoulder, over the other guy's shoulder,
close up, master'. He would get some cool shots and then we were done
and we would go on to the next one, so we didn't have the tediousness
or boredom factor. It was exciting moving on to another film."
What
was your favoourite sweded film?
"I loved doing Robocop. That was a dream come true for
me; I love that genre, sci-fi/action, that's what I loved as a kid.
I loved Terminator... the naked Schwarzenegger standing up slowly."
Did
you think about 'sweding' your own movies?
"We did do a version of the old King Kong, but that doesn't
really count. No, that would have been strange to do my movies. It would
have been a joke within a joke. It would have taken people out of the
movie and been distracting. That's why we didn't do Lethal Weapon
(Danny Glover's movie)."
Were
there any funny moments you can recall?
"No I can't remember anything, I'm a living in the moment kinda
guy. Well I remember Mos playing piano in between takes and I would
go 'wow that's a groovy jam, I wish I could think of some lyrics for
it'. We could've been a really good band."
Did
you have any childhood fantasies like being magnetized?
"I guess so. I got swept up in the fear of the end of the world.
It is still going on, it never seems to end. When did this fear of the
end of the world start? [creepy deep voice] It's always been there right?
But it's never going to happen."
Were
you a Fats Waller fan - the film focuses on him and his music?
"I did see him on a DVD about jazz. I had watched the film because
I was studying to impress my father in law who is a jazz musician (Charlie
Haden). I wanted to impress him with my knowledge of jazz and Fats Waller
was on the DVD, so I know a little bit about him through that."
Who was your inspiration as an actor?
"I loved Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, my favourite movie as a
kid was Silver Streak and I really liked Peter Sellers. I loved
Murder By Death."
Are
you a VHS or a DVD man?
" I like DVD because I like to skip around, I like to skip to my
favourite scenes, and unlike vinyl records which look cool, I don't
think VHS tapes look better than DVDs. Also I am a real snob I will
only watch hi-definition."
Are
you planning more albums and tours with your band, Tenacious D?
"We're going to do more, we have been trying to write, but the
songs are so stupid. We're not ready; we need a couple more years I
think. I'm thinking that 2012 will be the year when we release of our
next album. We've got one good song, that's it... and I'm not gonna
tell you what it's about - because I'm afraid someone's gonna steal
it."
Have
your movie choices and roles changed since becoming a parent?
"I was gonna make 'Babykiller 5000', it's a futuristic robot holocaust
film! No, seriously, nothing has changed. Not at all. If I were a tough
action dude like Steven Seagal, then it would be a dilemma, if I was
working on a movie where I had to break someone's arm... backwards.
If that's what I did for a living then maybe I would have to rethink
my career. But luckily I don't."
Is
fatherhood fun?
"Yeah it has been really fun, my son gets up so early though, he
wakes up at five in the morning. Right now my wife is mad because I
got up at 5am today and I handed her our son and said [sleepy voice]
'I gotta work today, you take your son and I'll make it up to you tomorrow'
and then I went back to sleep. And that doesn't go over well, I have
to do better, and the problem is, I love to play video games late at
night and I stay up too late. I've been playing this game Mass Effect
Sex and I'm going to start a new movie next week (The Year
One) and then there will be no more movies because I've got to
wake up at 5am to go to work. So I am cramming in my video games now.
Anyway my boy is very, very cute. And it's not just because he's my
son that I'm saying it."
Are
you interested in anything else other than video games? Any hobbies?
"No.But I've got a ukulele. I like to play the ukulele and I like
dancing - but not real dancing - dancing with my son. He loves to dance.
I like watching cartoons with my son too. We watch old 'Disney Rarities'
a DVD collection of old cartoons. There's one called Toot Whistle
Plunk and Boom, which is all about the history of music. It starts
off with cavemen and it breaks down all musical instruments: a toot
is like a horn, a whistle is like a flute, plunk is any string, a boom
is a drum and my son loves it."
Do
you watch a lot of movies?
"I don't rent them because I never return them and end up owing
lots of money, so if I want something I just buy it and I do buy a lot,
I like movies. I love 2001: A Space Odyssey - that is one of
the greatest."
What
are your goals and dreams?
"I know I've done it already, but I want to do something with a
character who is really dumb but thinks he is great but he's really
just dumb. I can't elaborate."
Would
you do a 'sweded' cover album with Tenacious D?
"That would be interesting, a cover album, but without going back
and checking the lyrics to the chords, yeah that is a good but strange
idea, I am trying to digest it and not sure how it would work. Maybe
that's all I've ever done - sweded versions of other people's work."
Do
you think of yourself as a character actor or as a lead actor?
"I've been getting mostly lead offers recently, but I feel like
a character actor. I just finished a military film with Ben Stiller
where I am a character in an ensemble cast, it was fun to go back to
that."
You
have interesting spiky blonde highlights - is that for a movie or simply
a fashion statement?
"Yes it looks like I am fresh from the salon, doesn't it? But I
was a blond in my last movie, and it's growing out slowly. I should
dye it back to my natural brown. But I don't want to look salon fresh,
like i just came back from the hair salon."
How
much work and perseverance did it take to get to where you are now -
with great roles in interesting films, was it a struggle?
"I've worked in film since 1991. I did Bob Roberts with
Tim Robbins; I had a lot of small parts that tided me over until the
year 2000 when I did High Fidelity. Before that, there were
9 years when I was just treading water, and going back and living at
my mom's house rather than getting a real job. Just hoping, waiting,
trying. But once I got High Fidelity things were pretty good.
I don't live at my mom's anymore. I'm sure she appreciates that. She
still keeps my room ready, just in case! So if Be Kind Rewind
is a total flop, I can go back to her house."
Be
Kind Rewind
Review
Jack
Black
Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny interviews
