Jack Black stars as Jerry, an accident prone mechanic who gets caught in an electromagnetic field, in the New Line Cinema comedy Be Kind Rewind. Wandering the aisles of the video store where his best friend works, Jerry’s magnetized brain causes every single video tape in the small-time neighborhood store to erase itself. The store’s owner doesn’t believe in DVDs and so the loss of all the video tapes causes an immediate problem. Fortunately, Jerry and Mike (Mos Def) come up with a plan to keep the customers satisfied. They remake the erased films using homemade props and a lot of imagination.
Black responded to the Be Kind Rewind script because of the relationship between the two friends. “This idea was interesting to me because it was saying, ‘Hey! These two guys, these two friends in this kind of rundown neighborhood get creative and find a way to escape their own dull existence.’ I responded to that neighborhood good vibe, honest kind of [vibe]. I don’t like to say ‘feel good’ because that sounds like studio executives saying, ‘It really had heart.’ But I responded to it in an emotional way that I liked.”
Black and Mos Def have a tight relationship in the film and Black has nothing but praise for the rapper-turned-actor after having worked with him over the course of two months while shooting Be Kind Rewind. “Mos Def is an amazing actor. You wouldn’t know, but he’s the real deal - but you probably did know. He’s a really good actor. He’s like a method actor,” said Black. “He lets his characters really breathe and take their time in the reality of scenes, which was good for me to have that there. He was my anchor. [He] kept me on planet earth. He was good.”
Writer/director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) allowed both actors lots of freedom to play with the script. “There was a lot of improvisation, more so than any movie I’ve ever done,” revealed Black. “Michel had all the beats down, but when he first pitched the movie, he was saying it was an improv movie. So, I was prepared for that. But he had a lot more written than I think he was planning on, you know? It was just clearly written by a dude who didn’t speak English. ‘I think what you mean is blah, blah, blah.’ So that was what the improv was more like, translation improv.”
Black really admired Gondry’s style of filmmaking. “He interests me in his inventiveness,” said Black. “He’s stretching the boundaries and leading the way in many ways and I think a lot of people are going to imitate him and be part of that, yeah, carving out new territory.”
Gondry works fast and Black didn’t mind that, even though he did wind up with a few cuts and scrapes from some of the more physical scenes. “It wasn’t too hard. When I was being magnetized I think I got a little cut on my finger actually. But no, it wasn’t physically demanding too much. The harder part was doing… What’s that movie? Rush Hour 2. When I had to fall into the garbage it was a little bit of a stunt, because there was no pads underneath the garbage. I was like, ‘Michel, can’t we put some pads underneath that garbage that I’m about to dive into?’ And he says, ‘Non! You’ll see them. There’s no time!’ And I did it and sure enough, I hurt my elbow a little bit. I got a scratch on my elbow. ‘Don’t be such a babee!’”
As far as the films Gondry chose to have his characters remake in Be Kind Rewind, Black’s personal favorite to do might surprise his fans. “I think my favorite I really liked doing Robocop, because that’s my cup of tea. I love sci-fi, action. I always wanted to be the Robocop.”
Black also had fun tackling the role of Miss Daisy, as in Driving Miss Daisy. “That was a stretch for me,” laughed Black. “That was me trying to grow. No, I got on the dress with the worker boots, a really good look. Disguised the voice nicely. [Jessica] Tandy – have not heard from the Tandy estate. No one has called to say ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ yet.”
The film also includes a new version of Ghostbusters, the 1984 comedy which featured an irritatingly catchy tune. “Who ya gonna call?” has to be one of the most quoted lines of any movie theme song in history, but in Be Kind Rewind Black’s character really screws up the words. According to the actor, that was something he was forced to do for legal reasons. “We didn’t have the rights to the song at the time that we were shooting that scene and Michel asked if I would come up with a song that sounded like it, but was not it lyrically or rhythmically,” explained Black. “I was like, ‘Yeah, sure,’ and I just cranked it out. But then we got the rights to the song, so it was a waste of time, except that it has still made it into the movie because it’s pretty funny. It’s funny to go from my really bad version of it to the real song.”
“‘When you’re walking down the street and you see a little ghost, what are you gonna do? Ghost busters!’ See, because I know in the original it says, ‘Who are ya gonna call?’ That’s the thing, the hook. But when I said, ‘Whatcha gonna do?’ He said, ‘Non! Too close. Same rhythm. We will get sued.’ So I changed it, ‘What are you gonna do?’ ‘That’s horrible. That’s horrible!’”
