By Shaylene Silva
Many remember Jack Black from “Orange County,” or his role in “Shallow Hal.” This time he has taken on the role of a private school teacher.
Black has done it again in a new movie entitled “School of Rock” where he was given the chance to utilize his rocking skills with a cast of up-and-coming child actors.
In this movie, Black plays Dewey Finn, a washed up band member who gets thrown out of his group and is in desperate need of money. Penniless and bandless, Dewey winds up substituting at a prestigious prep school, where he is expected to teach academics to extremely intelligent children. Although Dewey does not have a degree, he has an in-depth understanding of music. Playing up their existing musical talents, Dewey teaches the young students how to jam.
While Dewey is supposed to be teaching lessons based on the school curriculum, he is educating them in a more interesting subject; music. His main motivation is winning “The Battle of The Bands,” which would solve all his financial problems. Dewey enters his students, one of the youngest bands in history, into the contest.
In real life, when Black is not up on the big screen he is a member of the rock band “Tenacious D.” Because of his knowledge in the Rock n’ Roll genre, Black was allowed the opportunity to write some of the songs in the movie.
“I wrote the songs that are in the classroom, I didn’t write the songs at the very beginning of the movie or the end, but all those nuggets in-between, those are mine, all the stinky ones, I slaved over those stink nuggets,” Black said.
Black’s existing love for rock combined with his natural comical nature stacked the bricks for the movie’s foundation. Black said the movie was written for him by screen writer Mike White.
White approached Black with the idea for the movie and when he agreed, White tenaciously typed the story. Although the movie was written with the comedian in mind, Black faced several challenges when making the movie.
Richard Linklater, the director, has been known to direct movies of a different nature than what Black was used to. However, Black said he enjoyed working with Linklater because of the differences in their character. Black explains Linklater usually directs “real” movies rather than the in your face humor that he is used to.
“I wanted to party with the role, I wanted the freedom to just rip the lid off it and do some physical shenanigans that I had never seen in Rick’s movies before,” Black said. “I think it came out to be a kind of delicious flave of styles.”
Another new experience that Black encountered was working with children. Many of the child actors who came together to make up the band were new to Hollywood. Most of them had been hired during casting calls searching for children with musical talents.
Black enjoyed having the opportunity to work with children.
“They were great, in fact about 10,000 times better than working with some professional child actor. There is nothing more annoying than a super career-minded, attitudinal, big chip on their shoulder, 10-year-old,” Jack said.
With a cast of all ages and a blend of comedy and rock, the movie “School of Rock” can be enjoyed by all.
